Why did Robert De Niro want to make ‘Raging Bull’?
There’s not much more to say about Robert De Niro that hasn’t already been said. He is simply one of the most well-respected and admired actors of all time. From his method role as Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver to playing the young Vito Corleone in The Godfather Part II, De Niro has consistently delivered some of the best performances that the big screen has ever seen.
When asked what one of the most demanding roles he’s had to prepare for is, De Niro responded: “They’re all different; some are harder in more ways than others. Raging Bull [was one] because of the weight and all that.” Raging Bull famously saw De Niro play the iconic Italian-American professional boxer, Jake LaMotta.
The film was directed by Martin Scorsese and was adapted by Paul Schrader and Mardik Martin from LaMotta’s memoir Raging Bull: My Story. De Niro remembers reading the book and becoming interested in Scorsese’s project. “Raging Bull, I read the book; someone handed me the book, one of the authors,” he said. “I read it while I was doing 1900 with Bertolucci, and I called Marty, and I said, ‘The book’s not great literature, but it’s got a lot of heart’.”
The film focuses on LaMotta, a middleweight-class boxer whose penchant for self-destructive behaviour and his inert anger and jealousy fuelled his lamentable behaviour. It brought about the end of his relationship with his family whilst also being the reason for his downfall.
De Niro had a particular biographical reason for wanting to portray LaMotta. He said: “I kinda wanted to do a certain thing. I remember I used to see Jake LaMotta; he used to work in a kind of strip place right on 7th Avenue in the 1940s. He’d be standing right out there, and I’d be on the sidewalk, and he was overweight and this and that. I said, ‘Jesus, look what happened to him from then to now.'”
“And I thought just the graphic difference of being out of shape and being a young fighter, that was interesting to me,” De Niro added. “I thought, ‘I’d like to see if I could gain that weight and do it.’ That was my interest in it. Marty had his own reasons, and both of us just came together on the project.”
De Niro successfully gained the weight required to portray LaMotta in different phases of his life, which is why he claimed that the film was one of the hardest (yet most rewarding) that he had to prepare for. Amazingly, during the principal photography for Raging Bull, De Niro gained 27kg so that he could depict LaMotta’s later boxing career. Just another instance that shows how committed the legendary actor is to his craft.
