Martin Scorsese Calls Robert De Niro ‘The Greatest Actor of His Generation'

Martin Scorsese presented the Variety Creative Impact in Acting Award to his “Irishman” star Robert De Niro on Friday morning. In his introductory speech, Scorsese called De Niro “the greatest actor of his generation” whose “creative impact in acting will always be felt so long as there are actors to express their art.” Scorsese noted the nine films he made with De Niro, adding that “God willing, we’re on the tenth, with Leo [DiCaprio].”

“We met when we were 16 years old,” Scorsese said. “I think the first movie star I had worked with was Paul Newman in ‘The Color of Money.’ Before that…it was all just working with friends, almost like home movies…and that culminated in ‘The Irishman.’ It took us many years to figure out that was the picture we wanted to make.”

De Niro called working on ‘The Irishman’ a “homecoming for me.” Adding, “I was making a movie with my best friends,” he said, referring to co-stars like Joe Pesci. “When I think about it I can’t believe how f—ing old these guys are. You can’t de-age friendships. We spent 108 shooting days [on ‘The Irishman’]; I wish we could have shot for 108 more. Marty, can we do some reshoots?”

De Niro the greatest actor of his generation? Hard to dispute that, even though there is no doubt steep competition from the likes of Al Pacino, Jack Nicholson, Gene Hackman, and Dustin Hoffman.

De Niro’s filmography is astounding, even with all the duds he made in the aughts, when tackling just the classics alone you have “Taxi Driver,” “Mean Streets,” “The Godfather Part II,” “The Deer Hunter,” “Raging Bull,” “The King of Comedy,” “Once Upon A Time in America,” “Brazil,” “Goodfellas,” “Casino,” “Heat.” Then you have the ones that are somewhat lower-tier classics such as “The Untouchables,” “Midnight Run,” “Cape Fear,” “Jackie Brown” “Wag the Dog,” “A Bronx Tale,” “Ronin,” “Analyze This,” and “Meet the Parents.” Quite simply, a legendary career.