Martin Scorsese gushes over close friendship with Robert De Niro

Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro spawned multiple critically-acclaimed projects. With the former revealed, the latter was protective about his career as their friendship deepened.

During an interview with the Hindustan Times, the Academy winner said, “He was very powerful at that time after he won the Academy Award for ‘The Godfather II.’ But even then, we always had the danger of the studio taking away the film from you.”

He continued, “No such thing as the final cut for me at that point of time. Inevitably, the actor would comply with the studio. This guy wouldn’t do that, he'[d] stay with you. And so I had that as a power. He was protective of me and the film.”

Elsewhere in the interview, the 80-year-old also revealed that he first came across the Oscar winner at just 16.

“With Bob De Niro, it’s a formative relationship. It goes back to when we were 16 years old,” adding, “But we’d lost track of each other. I didn’t know he wanted to act and he didn’t know I started directing.”

“When we did ‘Mean Streets,’ we were reintroduced to each other by Brian De Palma. By doing ‘Mean Streets’ and ‘Taxi Driver’ together, we found that we were drawn to the same subject matter, same psychological and emotion conflicts in people, in characters, and in ourselves. A certain trust was developed,” the filmmaker said.

In the latest, Martin and Robert have joined hands again for the upcoming AppleTV+ Killers of the Flower Moon.