The first actor Robert De Niro recommended to Martin Scorsese
There are some professional relationships in the movie industry that seem to have always been written in the stars, and one such consistent collaboration is between the legendary director Martin Scorsese and his equally iconic actor Robert De Niro, a cinematic partnership of which dreams are made.
The Hollywood duo have made ten films together so far, many of which are considered some of the greatest movies ever made. Amongst them are Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, Raging Bull and Goodfellas, each of which prove the genius talent of Scorsese and the beyond-believable acting of his most favoured actor.
While De Niro was certainly the favoured actor of Scorsese’s first three decades in the movie industry, eventually, the director found a new muse of sorts, Leonardo DiCaprio. DiCaprio, like De Niro, has also made some of his most significant appearances in Scorsese movies, including The Departed, Shutter Island and Wolf of Wall Street.
But interestingly, DiCaprio arguably has Di Niro to thank for his collaborative relationship with Scorsese. DiCaprio had watched De Niro star in Midnight Run when he was a child, and just a few years later, he starred alongside the iconic actor in This Boy’s Life, marking the beginning of his excellent career as an actor.
Eventually, DiCaprio would work with Scorsese for the first time in his 2002 historical drama Gangs of New York alongside Daniel Day-Lewis. By that point, DiCaprio had already made a name for himself with appearances in Titanic and Romeo + Juliet, but he was already on Scorsese’s radar anyway.
That was because De Niro had recommended his junior actors’ talents to the director. During an interview with Deadline, Scorsese told of De Niro’s recommendation, saying: “After Goodfellas, he [De Niro] did This Boy’s Life. We were talking on the phone, about what I’m not quite sure. He said, ‘I’m working with this young boy. You must work with him sometime.’ That was the first time I heard him recommend somebody to me. ‘The kid is really good.’ he said.”
The movies that De Niro made with Scorsese are some of the most critically admired works of cinema of all time, but they were never box office hits. When DiCaprio essentially replaced De Niro as the director’s muse/favourite star, he suddenly had films with more blockbuster potential.
Following Gangs of New York, DiCaprio and Scorsese never looked back, and the actor delivered time and time again in a professional relationship that looks unlikely to end anytime soon, replicating perhaps that initial special partnership the director once held with Di Niro, the man to whom DiCaprio perhaps owes it all.
