There are some real interesting nuggets of information in today’s Deadline interview with Martin Scorsese.
For example, Scorsese asked Robert De Niro if he wanted a role in “The Departed,” but the actor was immediately shot down the offer:
“We talked to Bob about it, but he didn’t want to do it,” [I asked] “‘What about “The Departed”?’ ‘Nah, I don’t wanna do that.’ ‘OK.’
He added that De Niro also turned down “Gangs of New York” casting as well, “That was just a check-in. Literally, he said, ‘What are you doing?’ ‘I’m doing this. You interested?’ ‘Nah.’ In the late ‘70s Scorsese wanted De Niro to play Bill the Butcher, a role for which Daniel Day-Lewis eventually made iconic.
It was also the other way around. De Niro apparently wanted Scorsese to direct “Analyze This” in the late ‘90s:
He wanted me to do “Analyze This”, and I said, “We already did it. It was Goodfellas.”
I’m not sure why De Niro thought Scorsese would want to make “Analyze This.” Then again, maybe it would have been a very different and darker film with him at the helm of that Billy Crystal comedy.
Scorsese/De Niro is one of the those legendary director-actor duos and it’s quite interesting to think that, after 1995’s “Casino,” they didn’t make a movie together for the next 24 years, that is until “The Irishman.”
Scorsese and De Niro’s post-Casino careers couldn’t have been more different.
While Scorsese continued to push himself as an artist with the likes of “Kundun,” “Bringing Out the Dead,” “Gangs of New York” and more, De Niro took on more comedic roles and barely registered many great performances.