How Robert De Niro convinced Martin Scorsese to work with Leonardo DiCaprio
Leonardo DiCaprio and the legendary auteur Martin Scorsese have worked together on a string of classic movies. Starting with 2002’s historical epic Gangs of New York, their collaborative force has since given fans stellar titles such as The Departed and The Wolf of Wall Street, with their latest outing, Killers of the Flower Moon, set to hit theatres in 2023.
Despite all the brilliance the pair have achieved together, there was a time when they hadn’t collaborated, a period when DiCaprio was still a newcomer. However, this was all to change at the behest of Scorsese’s most trusted partner in crime, Robert De Niro. Interestingly, after De Niro had alerted Scorsese to the talents of DiCaprio, it has been reported that when the rising star was told he was to work with Scorsese, he was so nervous that he spilt his lunch.
Famously, DiCaprio’s first roles in the film industry came in the early 1990s flicks Critters 3 and Poison Ivy. However, 1993’s This Boy’s Life, in which he appeared alongside Robert De Niro, proved to be his breakthrough. Strangely, the movie is the only time the pair have worked together on-screen, but it had such an impact on De Niro that it would lead to him suggesting DiCaprio to Scorsese.
During a 2014 Q&A (per Digital Spy), Scorsese remembered the moment De Niro rang him and told him about this newcomer who looked set to be a star. He said: “Robert De Niro told me, ‘By the way, I’m working with this young kid. He’s really good. You should work with him sometime. His name is DiCaprio.’ And I said, ‘OK.’ The last collaboration I did with De Niro was ‘Casino,’ which was our eighth film. It’s been different since. We don’t see each other that often. So, for him to recommend somebody, out of the blue, that way to me, during a phone call, was very, very special.”
The world is thankful for De Niro’s call to his old friend. In many ways, DiCaprio has succeeded De Niro as Scorsese’s number one collaborator, with the phone call representing him passing the baton on.
Whilst De Niro and Scorsese’s efforts such as Taxi Driver, The King of Comedy and Casino are some of the finest of all time, the titles the director has made with DiCaprio are equally as significant, just for a different generation, and it is certain that without Scorsese, DiCaprio wouldn’t be the star that he is today.
