From Marlon Brando To Barbara Stanwyck: Scorsese’s Dream List Of Actors He Wanted To Work With
So, get this: during a tribute at the Montclair Film Festival, the legendary Martin Scorsese spilled the beans about the Hollywood icons he wishes he’d teamed up with.
Scorsese once talked about his dream list of actors (Photo Credit – Wikimedia)
Advertisement
Imagine Scorsese, a cinema god with 14 Oscar nods, casually chatting with Stephen Colbert about dream collabs with stars like Barbara Stanwyck, Marlon Brando, and Spencer Tracy. Talk about some star power!
Scorsese rolled into the New Jersey Performing Arts Center on October 27 for the annual “An Evening With Stephen Colbert” fundraiser, and let’s just say, it was a night to remember. He kicked things off by sharing how Robert De Niro pushed him to make Raging Bull, which snagged him that sweet Academy Award nomination. But wait, there’s more—De Niro also had a hand in getting Scorsese to work with Leonardo DiCaprio after This Boy’s Life hit the screens in 1993.
Colbert couldn’t resist teasing De Niro’s legendary silence. “He just doesn’t say anything,” Scorsese joked, reminiscing about that infamous interview where De Niro sat in silence for what felt like a millennium. “A minute of silence on a late show is an eternity,” Colbert quipped back, and honestly, who wouldn’t love to see that awkwardness unfold?
As they delved into his dream cast, Scorsese didn’t hold back. He pitched in names like Spencer Tracy, Barbra Streisand, Stanwyck, and, of course, Brando. Scorsese gushed about Stanwyck’s phenomenal range and revealed a tantalizing tidbit: he and Brando had some talks about doing a flick together, but it never got off the ground. “Did you hang? Did he talk?” Colbert probed. Scorsese responded, “Oh yeah, he talked. He knew everything. He was a genius.” Genius indeed, and can you even imagine the brilliance that could have come from that collaboration?
Then it was time to talk shop about Scorsese’s latest flick, Killers of the Flower Moon, which made waves and raking in the bucks—$23 million in its opening weekend! The film dives into the sinister “Reign of Terror” in the 1920s, exploring the eerie murders that shook the Osage nation after oil was discovered on their land. De Niro and DiCaprio led the charge. When Colbert teased that it’s a Western, Scorsese finally caved and said, “Yeah, it’s a Western.” I mean, c’mon, there are cowboy hats involved!
But let’s not forget the chaos that came with GoodFellas. Scorsese shared a hilarious nightmare story from the preview screenings, where some folks stormed out, fuming over the film’s dark humor and wild violence. “It was a nightmare,” he recalled, shaking his head. Turns out, people were irked by the glamorous portrayal of evil. “That’s what it looks like to young people growing up,” Scorsese argued, insisting that while it’s flashy, it’s also a cautionary tale about the costs of that lifestyle.
As the chat wrapped up, Scorsese got deep on the themes of sin and forgiveness, saying, “Sin is easy. Forgiveness is hard.” And just when you thought he was done, he teased some future projects, including an adaptation of Marilynne Robinson’s Home and a new flick with DiCaprio based on David Grann’s The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny, and Murder.
In just 80 minutes, Scorsese laid down a masterclass in filmmaking and shared the real behind-the-scenes drama that keeps us all coming back for more. Keep your eyes peeled; the guy’s still got plenty of magic up his sleeve!
