Just like Bob & Marty (Robert De Niro & Martin Scorsese) strongly influenced many people’s perception of film throughout the 70’s & 80’s, Scorsese and his new muse Leonardo DiCaprio manage to leave their legendary footprints all over the modern film industry.
As a big fan of simply everything they have created together, I was extremely excited to hear about them joining forces yet again. In a project based on the book ‘The Devil in The White City’, DiCaprio will play serial killer H.H. Holmes while Scorsese will use his visionary style to direct the picture. In celebration of this great news, I will be looking at what makes the duo – responsible for masterpieces like The Wolf of Wall Street (2014) and The Aviator (2004) – so legendary.
1. Marty likes what he knows and knows what he likes
Scorsese is known for working together closely with only a select group of actors. From 1973 onwards, his go-to lead character was Robert De Niro, whom he said was the “only actor who could really surprise him on the screen”. The extremely passionate director only dared to take on a similar collaboration when De Niro himself recommended Dicaprio after he had worked with him on ‘This Boy’s Life’. Dicaprio was then cast for ‘Gangs of New York’ in 2002, at which point Scorsese knew he had found his new De Niro. For the young actor – then still early in his career – it was a chance to work with a director that massively shaped his taste in cinema and fed his creative desires.
2. They share the same practical joke of not winning Oscars
And they can laugh about it. Although Scorsese actually did win an Academy Award – by the time he did, he had already produced 43 films. It was for The Departed in 2002 (his first film came out in 1959) that he was finally ‘acknowledged’ by the Academy jury. In his acceptance speech, he referred to this by joking that people would now finally stop approaching him in supermarkets and elevators saying: ‘you should win an Oscar, you should win an Oscar!’. Same goes for Leo. Although he’s been nominated for an Oscar four times, he has never managed to convert these nominations into prizes. This has raised quite the debate amongst his fans. Just Google ‘why did Leonardo’ and the search engine will automatically finish it with ‘not win an Oscar’.
3. They understand each other
The reason they keep working together is because there is complete creative trust. The director and actor are both fascinated by character studies and take hours and hours to develop every single character in a film, which is why their films are focused on character building rather than the plot. In an interview, Scorsese said that, “they have similar sensibilities, tastes and interests”, which is the main reason they feel so comfortable working together. Actress Margot Robbie (The Wolf of Wall Street) even said she had to work her ass off on set in order to not feel left behind, as the two had developed a telepathic understanding with each other.
4. The interviews they give together are heart-melting
Even though DiCaprio was born 30 years after Scorsese, the two are good friends and aren’t afraid to show it. Every interview they give together is filled with admiration and laughter, clearly showing how much they have been through together. Jonah Hill rightly referred to their special partnership as ‘Man, I hope I will end up in a marriage like that one day’, which pretty much explains just how rare the special chemistry between the two is.
5. There is just something about everything they do
Whether it’s a drama about a legendary aviator suffering from OCD, a remake of a Hong Kong crime drama or a black comedy depicting the outrageous lifestyle of a wealthy stock-broker, thanks to their shared obsession for detail, DiCaprio and Scorsese always know how to surprise the audience. They step aside from the traditional and make films in-spite-of Hollywood. DiCaprio said that for the ‘Wolf of Wall Street’, it was unnecessary for them to talk about what kind of film they wanted it to be, as they both completely understood what the other person wanted. I can only hope this means the two won’t get tired of each other anytime soon, because I could do with at least another decade of Leo & Marty classics.
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