Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro found it hard to not mock Leonardo DiCaprio on the set of Killers of the Flower Moon.
Killers of the Flower Moon marks the 10th feature collaboration between Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro and the sixth between the maestro and Leonardo DiCaprio. But it will be the first big screen teaming for all three and with that came a wave of excitement from cinephiles. But that doesn’t mean there weren’t some minor personality clashes on set, as Scorsese revealed that DiCaprio’s constant improvisations and looser style led to the director and De Niro rolling their eyes behind his back.
In a new piece in The Wall Street Journal, Scorsese said DiCaprio brought an “endless, endless, endless!” amount of ad-libbing, which prompted De Niro to further delve into his own trademark ways. “Then Bob didn’t want to talk. Every now and then, Bob and I would look at each other and roll our eyes a little bit. And we’d tell him, ‘You don’t need that dialogue.’” In other words, just stick to the script, Leo…
Prior to their pairing by Scorsese for Killers of the Flower Moon, De Niro and DiCaprio first teamed for 1993’s This Boy’s Life, a movie that thankfully put the latter on the director’s radar, although he waited until 2002’s Gangs of New York to cast him. And outside of Hugo and Silence, DiCaprio has been in every Scorsese movie since. As for Scorsese and his original muse (all due respect to Harvey Keitel), the two had a 24-year gap between Casino and The Irishman, having difficulty finding the perfect project – so no, Analyze This wasn’t going to be it. Despite this being the first real collaboration between the trio, they did work together on Scorsese’s 2015 short The Audition.
Killers of the Flower Moon is out today and if you’re still somehow unsure if you’ll be catching it in theaters or not, be sure to read our own Chris Bumbray’s 10/10 review, calling it “undoubtedly one of Scorsese’s genuinely great movies and an event for cinema lovers.”
Are you checking out Killers of the Flower Moon on opening weekend? Where do you expect it to rank in the Scorsese-De Niro / Scorsese-DiCaprio collabs? Let us know below!