The X-rated ‘Raging Bull’ scene Robert De Niro refused to shoot
Martin Scorsese has collaborated with Robert De Niro on several glorious occasions, leading to some of the most intense on-screen acting performances of all time. While we often think of De Niro in Taxi Driver and Goodfellas, it’s important to remember his remarkable turn in Scorsese’s 1980 sports drama Raging Bull.
De Niro’s portrayal of the troubled and violent former middleweight boxing champion Jake LaMotta was nothing short of mesmerising. The film was based on LaMotta’s 1970 memoir of the same name, written by Scorsese’s frequent collaborator Paul Schrader, with the likes of Joe Pesci and Cathy Moriarty.
In the 1940s, LaMotta had been an acclaimed prize fighter who used his inner turmoil to achieve greatness in the ring. However, a consequence of this was that he was outrightly abusive to his family and eventually, he lost everything – shown in the film with burgeoning intensity by De Niro in one of his greatest-ever showings.
Much was expected of De Niro in portraying such a problematic man; not only did he have to act out moments of domestic abuse, but he put himself through the paces in the ring, too. However, there was one scene that the actor refused to get down with, a suggestion of Schrader that De Niro thought was opposed to LaMotta’s life and what he and Scorsese were hoping to present in the film.
A deleted scene from Raging Bull saw LaMotta masturbating in his jail cell. Schrader had once spoken of the scene in question and what he had hoped to achieve from it, noting, “I wrote a monologue about Jake at the bottom, in his cell, in solitary. He’s trying to masturbate, and in order to get himself aroused, he conjures up the memories of girlfriends and wives.” However, at the point at which LaMotta becomes aroused, he loses focus and begins to realise what an awful person he has been.
The boxer then moves on to the next memory, but, alas, the same thing happens again. Eventually, LaMotta takes out his anger and frustration on the walls of his cell with his fists – which are spoken of many times in the film for being too small. When the scene was put forth to De Niro and Scorsese, though, the acting and directing duo felt that it was unnecessary.
Schrader thought that a three-page monologue would be “an actor’s dream” for De Niro and urged the actor to try it out. However, De Niro himself was less than impressed by the writer’s idea and explained, “I don’t know where Paul got that, but that had nothing to do with anything that Marty or I remember about Jake or what we were trying to do.”
According to the writer, Schrader lost his temper with De Niro in a production meeting and threw the script at him. De Niro had a personal reason for wanting to make Raging Bull in the first place, having read LaMotta’s memoir, and the actor had also once seen LaMotta on the street in New York City and noticed that he was severely overweight.
The chance to give a physical performance for Scorsese as LaMotta ultimately drew De Niro to take on the role. However, with such a personal reason for giving his best effort and having a deep respect for LaMotta himself, De Niro was unprepared to give into Schrader’s demands for the X-rated scene.
