The actor Martin Scorsese called one of the all-time greats: “His range, his versatility”
Martin Scorsese has earned the right to make sweeping statements and share controversial opinions about the film industry, with the director becoming equally well-known for expressing varying levels of support and disappointment about the goings on in Hollywood.
Whether it be his disapproval of theme-park cinema and the Marvel universe or his consistent love of Powell and Pressburger, Scorsese is quick to award praise when deserving and critique work that doesn’t align with his artistic values. With that being said, the director has shared his love for some of his past collaborators, describing an actor he once worked with as one of the greatest of all time.
Scorsese has worked with some of the most prolific performers of our time, with a long-lasting collaborative relationship with actors like Robert de Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio, also working with Daniel Day-Lewis, Jack Nicholson, Margot Robbie and Lily Gladstone. However, despite gushing about many of these stars, he has described the unique qualities of one specific person, who he worked with on his 2010 film Shutter Island.
Ben Kingsley has had a dynamic and indefinable career, working with legendary auteurs such as Jonathan Glazer, Wes Anderson, James Ivory and Terrence Malick. While he is perhaps a more understated person in Hollywood, this works to his credit, with a somewhat mysterious persona that allows him to fully blend into each character.
Because of this, Scorsese cast him in his psychological thriller Shutter Island, in which he plays Dr Cawley. The film follows an ex-veteran turned Marshall called Teddy Daniels, who investigates the disappearance of a patient from an institution for the criminally insane, becoming disturbed by strange visions as he ventures deeper into the mystery.
When describing his work with Kingsley, Scorsese said, “I’ve always wanted to work with Ben, and finally I got these two pictures, ‘Shutter Island’—we had a really good working relationship on that picture. He’s an extraordinary actor, really one of the greatest, which I don’t even need to say, just look at his body of work, from ‘Gandhi’ to ‘Sexy Beast.’ His range, his versatility. When we looked at the photos of the real Georges Méliès, there was no doubt in my mind that the look would be perfect for Ben”.
The director later cast him in the role of the great French director Georges Méliès (or ‘Papa Georges’) in his subsequent film Hugo in 2011, which follows a young orphaned boy working in a train station, also trying to protect a broken automaton left behind by his late father. He then embarks on a quest to solve the mystery of the automaton and find a new home.
The film stands out in his body of work as a film explicitly made for children, with a more optimistic tone that is usually not prevalent in his other films. His work with Kingsley is crucial in his creative canon, and given that he frequently works with people he has already worked with, perhaps there is a possibility that the pair will reunite on screen once more.
