Robert De Niro names the best directors he ever worked with: “I’ve been lucky”
When you think of Robert De Niro and the directors he worked with, one name and one name only comes to mind first. Beginning with 1972’s Mean Streets, De Niro’s relationship with Martin Scorsese has yielded some of the greatest movies of all time. Raging Bull, Goodfellas, The King of Comedy, Casino, the two men always seem to be able to get the best out of each other. Even as recently as 2023, their collaborative effort, The Killers of the Flower Moon, earned rave reviews and awards nominations aplenty for both legendary figures.
The first film that most people would have seen these two in was 1976’s Taxi Driver. In many ways, it made both men, establishing them as boundary-breaking voices of a new generation. It’s still dissected and adored today, and De Niro took the opportunity to sing its praises in a 2025 interview with The Guardian. “We always liked that script,” he said. “We thought it was special. Marty and myself, and Paul Schrader, who wrote it.”
It wasn’t just his long-time creative partner who came in for kind words during this interview, as De Niro also revealed some of the other directors he’s enjoyed working with across his unparalleled career. “Roland Joffé’s The Mission. David O Russell, Barry Levinson. I’ve been lucky to work with these great directors,” he said. Not wanting to leave his bestie out, he also added “Everything I did with Marty Scorsese” to his list of favourites.
The Mission is arguably British director Joffé’s most well-known movie behind The Killing Fields. De Niro stars as a former slave trader recruited by a Jesuit priest (Jeremy Irons) to aid him in his quest to convert a Spanish colony. When the colony is transferred to Portugal, the two men must work together to make sure their efforts are not undone. Though far from De Niro’s best work, it’s easy to see why he was drawn to such a historically fascinating character and the opportunity to explore dense themes such as religion and its part in European colonisation around the world.
David O. Russell might end up giving Scorsese a run for his money as De Niro’s most frequent collaborator. The actor has appeared in four of the controversial filmmaker’s works: Silver Linings Playbook, Joy, Amsterdam, and American Hustle, in which he makes an uncredited cameo. For Silver Linings, De Niro was nominated for ‘Best Supporting Actor’ at the Oscars, his first nod from the Academy in over 20 years.
As for Barry Levinson, he gave the iconic star his 50th film credit with a starring role in the 1996 legal drama Sleepers. In the story of two former juvenile delinquents who seek revenge on a prison guard who abused them, De Niro plays the lead characters’ childhood priest, a key figure in establishing their morality. Levinson’s next film, Wag the Dog, also featured De Niro, and the two would reunite many decades later for 2025’s The Alto Knights, a film in which the actor plays a pair of mob bosses.
De Niro didn’t even mention his work with Francis Ford Coppola, Michael Mann, or Terry Gilliam. All this goes to prove that, for all his ups and downs over the years, nobody has had a career quite like ol’ Bobby Milk.
