De Niro and Scorsese made fun of DiCaprio for “endless” Killers Of The Flower Moon ad-libbing
“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.’”
Aux News Killers Of The Flower Moon
Martin Scorsese is obviously a pretty big fan of Leonardo DiCaprio, having now cast the actor as the lead in six of his films—including this fall’s Killers Of The Flower Moon. But that affection and appreciation clearly doesn’t preclude getting a little, well, irritated by his star, either, as revealed in a recent conversation Scorsese had with British news source The Telegraph, revealing that DiCaprio’s “endless” ad-libbing on this latest picture began to drive both him and co-star Robert De Niro up the wall.
Correction: “Endless, endless, endless” ad-libbing, which DiCaprio apparently deployed on a regular basis for the scenes between his own character, Ernest Burkhart, and his even-more malevolent uncle, William. (De Niro, by contrast, “Didn’t want to talk.”) Hilariously, it sounds like the two older men (no strangers to collaboration themselves, now on their 10th movie together) would occasionally gang up on the younger man a bit in their efforts to gently curtail the behavior: “Every now and then,” Scorsese told journalists, “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.’”
Scorsese is no stranger to improvisation, of course; he had De Niro improvise some of the biggest moments of Taxi Driver once upon a time, and his entire filmography is shot through with instances of actors bringing their own spins to dialogue and characters. Even so—and given the stature of all three guys—it’s hard not to be charmed by the kid brother energy of the DiCaprio anecdote, the younger star trying to fill the silence being requested by a guy who literally made a movie called Silence. It certainly hasn’t hurt the reception to Killers itself, which—while garnering measured, thoughtful criticisms from the Osage people it depicts—has been getting an almost uniformly warm response from critics.
59 Comments
Marty should cast whoever he likes to work with, but I don’t find Leo’s work anything more than adequate. If he acted like that in the company of a Hollywood legend I’d be tempted to slap him like the brat he seems to be. James Cameron once called him “a spoiled punk.” De Niro is an acknowledged power house. He makes a character his own and he’s smart. I’d listen to that guy talk about anything (except sports or cars or sportscars) and I’d bet he thows the best parties in town.
Not that I generally disagree about DiCaprio, but I wouldn’t take behavioral advice from James “Asshole When On Set” Cameron.
Lol, I kind of expected that. Not a fan either, but it is possible for one a-hole to call out another. Not sure if that would lead to a sort of mutual cancellation of both parties.
Clooney was on record about him too. I’ve only enjoyed like three or four Leo performances, but I’ll always appreciate him in Once Upon A Time In Hollywood
He pretty much played himself in Once Upon a Time…
Yup, I was going to say as much. Cameron is a bit of a turd, he makes block busters, but he’s still a turd.
“If I don’t half drown my actors and crew, how can I get their best work?”
THANK YOU. Can we finally be done with this fiction that he’s some sort of masterful, high-art thespian? I only see him as Leo DiCaprio. He doesn’t disappear into the roles, he doesn’t have range, it’s just “Oh, it’s Leo”. About the only roles I enjoyed him in are those low-effort popcorny roles, like The Beach. The most seriously I took him was in Blood Diamond, and then he was outshone by Djimon Honshou and, of course, everyone’s favourite evil Yarpie, Arnold Vosloo.
Agree. He’s frequently tagged as an actor who repeatedly just plays “Leo.” I’ll continue to remember his performance in The Revenant only because experiencing it was pure torture and his bad Southern accent made him a little less Leo. His Irish accent was bad too. I don’t much care for Tom Hardy either; it was interesting to see them as on screen enemies.
Yeah, he cannot do any kind of dialect to save his life. But he also can’t do blank verse, so yay?
I think Tom’s much better – he’s an actor, Leo’s merely a movie star. But I really cannot get over how people speak of Leo like he’s Anthony Hopkins or Daniel Day-Lewis. He’s a 90s teen heartthrob who’s…just sorta failing upward on that. Honestly, you’d be better off getting some no-name actor, because even if they can’t disappear into the role, at least we won’t be going “Oh, it’s Leo. Again.” Hell, you want 90s heartthrob who can act – from serious, Legends of the Fall drama, to effortless cool-for-cool’s-sake in Ocean’s 11 to Sam Bass (dude goes toe-to-toe with Fassbender) to…well…Pitt can actually play characters other than Brad Pitt.
I don’t think I’ve ever heard someone suggest Leo is Anthony Hopkins. He went from teen idol to movie-star-who-plays-himself, and they gave him a lifetime achievement Oscar for Revenant. None of this seems egregious.
Although, just off the top of my head, I didn’t feel like “oh there’s Leo” in either of his big Tarantino roles, especially Rick Dalton, which I thought was a very nice piece of acting.
He’s got it all over Leo.
You mean Pitt wasn’t actually beaten to death in a bar fight while his brother became an English professor? Nobody seems to remember “A River Runs Through It”, as popular as it was at the time.
A River Runs Through It. Very good movie. Loved the title and I could have sworn Redford was in it though he directed. Didn’t he provide the opening voice over, though?
Yes, and more importantly Redford directed it.
I was this close to using A River Runs Through It, but LOTF was more well-known, as you said. Both great rugged-natural-beauty-of-the-American-Midwest movies, but.
A brilliant character actor trapped in a leading man’s body
“Hey, Brad, wanna have a cameo as a tiny decapod who makes existential puns with Matt Damon in a forgettable sequel to a movie about dancing penguin-”“DO I?!”
Pitt has been surprising me these last few…well, decade, I guess. He seems to be aging with humor and self-respect. He’s certainly not my favorite actor, but every time he shows up in something now, I just smile a little and wait.
He’s an actor, who happens to be a movie star. Not just a movie star. Even in something like Fury he was shockingly good. He’s plays this close to just a generic hardass psychopath, but there’s enough humanity glinting through to let you know that he’s only that way because…that’s how he survived. But he’ll also do something crazy like play a krill with a sense of wonder and adventure and…free will.
I won’t deny that though I’m no fan of his. Can’t get past the Scientology and his treatment of wives. But it’s interesting that you mention him because I didn’t know that Scorcese made The Color of Money, so they have a relationship too. He does have more depth though.It’s kind of funny; I think that Christian Bale was meant to be a poor man’s Tom Cruise – the way maybe the way Richard Gere was a poor man’s John Travolta. But Bale has massive acting chops and has surpassed Cruise in terms of quality – not to mention the variety of roles and authenticity of performance. I don’t gush over actors but he was a pleasant surprise. Equilibrium was such a small, underviewed, movie but I love it.
Oh, I was referring to Tom Hardy, not Cruise. I think you might’ve meant to reply to someone else. Though I can imagine Scientology trying to recruit Hardy:*incoherent mumbling* “You can fuck off, myeah, can’t you now? An’ take all you little fucking space ships and volcanoes, nyeah, and stupid fucking science fiction aufor wiv you, nyeah?” *incoherent mumbling*
I realized my mistake and tried to delete the post, but there it is and, lol, I’m feeling weird now.I tried to replace it with something like this: I like Hardy’s work, especially the series Taboo. The incest part of the story was unexpected but oddly acceptable, given the situation. I’m reading that there will be a second season. I hope so.Someone mentioned Cruise and, for some reason, that guy triggers me. :O
I’m praying for more Taboo, too. It’s gloriously weird, decadent, dark, and depraved. I love how they really showcased the filth – not the metaphorical filth, the actual grime – of 19th Century London, rather than the usual Regency romance bullshit we’re subjected to. You’ve got these high-born ladies who’ve walked down the street for twenty yards and already them hems of their skirts are absolutely grotty. Plus Mark Gatiss dunking soldiers in a goddamn ostrich egg. Steven Knight has tentatively teed up the end of 2023 as the start of shooting, but dunno what sort of machinations the US strike has on its production. While they were heading towards America, I’d love for the next season to not quite get there yet, but maybe a diversion in Caribbean, or maybe Australia. Age of Sail, baby!
It’s rough watching but I prefer realism too. The past (and present) is so consistently washed of life’s unavoidable dirt.
That bit where he goes to check out some ship’s stores or a warehouse and there’s a few apples – and the apples actually look wrinkled and soft like it’s been kicking around a Regency-era warehouse for three weeks was a little thing I loved. Tom Hardy’s considering a time jump for the next season, so we’ll see how that goes. He’s mentioned he might even send it forward to 1960s Vietnam War-era America.I gotta admit, it’d be fascinating to see a Delaney go toe-to-toe with J. Edgar Hoover or LBJ, but it’d also feel a bit too familiar. I wish Franka Potente’s Helga hadn’t died. Her being a casually sexual brothel madam was something special.
I didn’t know it was on Hulu and now I’m sorry I cancelled it last month. It will take another season of Taboo to make me sign up for that again. So I have forgotten alot of the details.About a time leap. Personally I hope not. I’m invested and would like to see more of that world, but it might be a dazzler. I don’t see how the narrative would justify it, though. Will Delaney discover a time machine? Taboo is set in 1814 and The Time Machine was written in 1895 so that would be a stretch. But that’s the magic of Hollywood The BBC.
It’s still on Netflix AU, which is how I watched it (and The Expanse – although since I didn’t bother renewing Prime I’ve lost that). I think Netflix AU gets a lot of BBC stuff. Hardy said it may follow new generations of Delaneys – so he’ll play a descendent of James. Guess they got to America after all. (He wasn’t sure, so it’s not a guarantee.)But the sixties…well, the show’s called Taboo. The draw was Delaney cross the bounds of propriety of the times, and since the sixties was inherently (or at least portrayed in the popular mindset) as rather taboo-free and liberal and hedonistic, I’m not sure it’d fit thematically.
Lol oh wow
I couldn’t agree more. He’s not awful, but I’m vey rarely convinced. I think he’s great in “The Wolf of Wall Street” – he’s got a bit of a flair for comedy. But let’s be honest, that Oscar he won was for “Most Snot.”
The Academy secret rigging room, 2015:“We have to give it to DiCaprio this year, sir.”“What, for that bear picture? Yogi Goes Apeshit or whatever it was?” “Sir, his people have been quite insistent-”“Fuck ‘em.”“They sent over this.”
“What is it?”
“A script, sir. For his next movie. If he doesn’t win.”“‘The Pink Triangle, The Star Of David, And The Rod Of As- what?’ Ass-clap? Ass-clappus? What the shit?”“‘Asclepius’, sir. It’s the symbol doctors wear. They’re threatening to cast Leo as Dr. Herschel Goldberg, sir, a gay Jewish paediatrician with cerebral palsy in 1943 Warsaw, and said if he doesn’t get it this year you’ll have to give it to him next-”“OK! OK! Christ, all right, fuck, all right! Tell his people to back the fuck off. He’ll get it. Crazy fuckers.”
Sigh. So I guess Scorsese just casts him for the box office? We get it, you don’t like Leo. But trying to say he’s not a great actor is just you trying to justify your preferences. It’s like saying “Can we finally be done with green as an excellent color?”Obviously some of the most renown and talented directors/actors EVER feel differently. So get over it.Oh, and go ahead and explain to me how his performance in “The Revenant” is not incredible?
HA! The pseudo-pretentious leftbrainers have turned up! Let’s see, terrible similes, appeals to O B J E C T I V I T Y when it comes to discussing art (saying “you don’t like Leo” ain’t that big a revelation considering, y’know, I wrote that I don’t like that Leo – it’s up there in the post I wrote.). And, finally, an appeal to populism – all while completely and utterly failing to write one single thing in defence of the actor he’s supposedly defending – who is, of course, Leo. Dire nerds love him because he’s so repetitive and predictable, so they don’t have to engage or try to interpret anything new, but he’s also safe enough to mention in normal society.Bravo. Oh, and go ahead and explain to me how his performance in “The Revenant” is not incredible?Haven’t seen it. Didn’t see it. Because it’s a Leo movie and none of those are must-sees for me. And before you get all hot and bothered, that’s perfectly OK. You are allowed to judge whether or not something’s worth your time any money before you actually spend time and money on it.
I’m not saying DeCaprio is a terrible actor, but I’m surprised that Scorcese has tapped him for as many roles as he has. Hell, even Tarantino.
There must be something about him that appeals to both of directos. Scorcese seems to have a type and boosted De Niro, Pesci, Keitel (and others). Di Capreo and Matt Damon were already on the map. He must have felt that they were, idk, younger versions? I don’t see the similarity and I certainly don’t see the depth in either of them.
Gangs of New York has several amazing performances.Leo DiCaprio and Cameron Diaz are also in the film.
I’m one of the few people who didn’t like it. It just seemed all over the place – aimless. And the character were off-putting (to me at least) in a visceral way. Day-Lewis was downright repulsive, but I suppose that was the point.
Tastes vary, and I’m the last one to say everyone should like the things I do. Look at my username, after all.That being said, I’m not sure how sympathetic a gang leader named “Bill the Butcher” is supposed to be. I’m glad for your (and your neighbor’s) sake that he isn’t relatable, though.
Lol, yes. Bill the Butcher. Every film has its audience and that’s a good thing. I don’t suppose many people liked Promising Young Woman, but I did, even though its truth is horrifying. That’s just the first example I could think of.
I also hope you don’t relate to any of the characters Promising Young Woman
Sexual assault is very common and I’ve met some lawyers who would what that one did. You can’t throw a handful of pebbles into the air without hitting some entitled frat-boy (or otherwise) who has raped (or date-raped) someone.
I’d expect a good percentage of the film audience to identify with those characters.
James Cameron hates actors almost as much as Robert Zemekis hates actors.
Does he? If so, that’s disappointing. He brings a lot of warmth and depth of emotion in his work. Jodie Foster has always spoken well of him. Some genius types can be prickly!
James Cameron is an asshole who hates actors. Robert Zemeckis is a nice man who hates actors. Hate here in the sense that they’d much rather make movies without actors than with them.
Hitchcock hated them too. Maybe this is why so many ‘creatives’ would rather make video game ‘stories’. No humans.
Eh, I wonder about the being good to talk to/throwing good parties thing for De Niro. I’ve seen interviews with him where he seems almost brutally uncomfortable with attention and very taciturn. Obviously I don’t know the guy, but he strikes me as someone who doesn’t flourish in social situations.
That’s interesting. I’ve never seen an interview, but I believe you. It’s a strange feeling to suddenly realize maybe you’ve been so charmed by an on-screen performance or two that you start to assume you know how an actor behaves IRL. I just figured he’d be easy-going and personable. Well, I’ll never know, lol.But I wonder who does throw the best parties/makes everyone feel welcome. Folks might suggest that it’s Tom Hanks. I am Hank-phobic, though; gives me the willies.
Obviously still riding high on whatever Tarantino let him get away with…who can’t let his actors simply NOT be talking at all times about nothing in particular.
This is much better than endlessly making fun of DiCaprio because he’s DiCaprio.I kid, I very much liked Inception and have thought that his work in a couple of other films was quite enjoyable.
I bet DiCaprio just took it in stride. Was like, “Yeah, whatever”. But if I was trying to act in a scene and had people like Scorsese and De Niro rolling their eyes at me that would be brutal. I’d immediately quit acting and find a hole somewhere to crawl into and die.
Yeah, I’d be mortified – enough so that I wouldn’t do it to begin with.
Eh he’s worked with Scorsese on so many films it’s probably just gentle ribbing between colleagues.
I’m sure Leo was really upset. He probably sobbed himself to sleep between the thighs of a supermodel.
I worked on The Aviator, Leo is a nice guy, very personable, he bought us all Zanku chicken (one of his favorites) when we were working late one night. I live in the neighborhood he grew up in and he bought computers for our library. For the run of the show I know of no “star” behavior reports attributed to Leo.
Scorsese is an ill tempered asshole who spent 10 years trying to make the film then did everything he could to not film it in Hollywood. Have to say it was disappointing to see what a vile little troll Marty is.
Take that, Leo! You may be richer, more popular and more successful than I’ll ever be, but I bet I’m a better improviser.
It’s not even a matter of whether it’s “good,” intentional ad-libbing (particularly on film) is just disrespectful to everyone else involved.
Eh, I think that’s a somewhat absolutist take to have. Some sets encourage ad-libbing, others are all about what’s on the page, so it’s a matter of knowing which movie you’re in. But it’s through ad-libbing on ‘Blade Runner’ that Rutger Hauer gave us one of the greatest monologues in sci-fi movie history.
I like Leo.