Apple Original Films’ Killers of the Flower Moon marks the 16th time Martin Scorsese has worked with either Robert De Niro or Leonardo DiCaprio in a feature-length film, yet it’s the first Scorsese film that includes both actors in starring roles. Scorsese and De Niro began their 50-year association with 1973’s Mean Streets. 1976’s Taxi Driver, 1977’s New York, New York, 1980’s Raging Bull, 1983’s The King of Comedy, 1990’s Goodfellas, 1991’s Cape Fear, and 1995’s Casino followed, cementing their relationship as one of the most successful actor-director teams.
After a nearly 25-year break, Scorsese and De Niro reunited for 2019’s The Irishman, and now they’re back together again for 2023’s Killers of the Flower Moon.
During the two-decade break in the Scorsese / De Niro films, the Oscar-winning director cast Leonardo DiCaprio in 2002’s Gangs of New York, 2004’s The Aviator, 2006’s The Departed, 2010’s Shutter Island, and 2013’s The Wolf of Wall Street. With his sixth Martin Scorsese movie, DiCaprio finally gets to star opposite Robert De Niro in a feature film.
Martin Scorsese spoke at great length (the iconic filmmaker never gives short answers) during an October 16, 2023 Killers of the Flower Moon press conference about his relationships with two-time Oscar winner Robert De Niro and Oscar winner Leonardo DiCaprio:
“In the case of Robert De Niro, we were teenagers together, and he’s the only one who really knows where I come from, the people I knew, and that sort of thing. Some of them are still alive. He knows them. I know his friends, his old friends, and we had a real testing ground in the ’70s, where we tried everything, and we found that, you know, we trusted each other. It’s all about trust and love. It’s what it is.
And that’s a big deal because very often, if an actor has a lot of power – and he had a lot of power at that time – an actor could take over your picture. The studio gets angry with you, the actor comes in and takes it over. With him, I never felt that. I never felt that.
There was a freedom. There was experimenting and also not afraid of anything. I wasn’t afraid to do something. I just did it. And years later, he told me he worked with this kid, Leo DiCaprio, a little boy, in This Boy’s Life, and he said, ’You should work with this kid some time.’
It was just casual but with him, something like that – a recommendation – at that time, I think in the early ’90s, is not casual. He says it casually, but he rarely said that, you know? […] He rarely gave recommendations. And so, years go by, and I’m presented with Leo, with Gangs of New York – and we worked together in Gangs. He made Gangs possible, actually.
He loved the pictures I’ve made, and he wanted to explore the same territory. And so, we developed more of a relationship when we did The Aviator. And towards the end of it, there was a kind of something happening, a maturity with him…I’m not quite sure, but we really clicked in certain scenes. And that led to The Departed, and then that became much closer. You know, that was a project where Bill Monahan and other people were writing all the time and recreating that character that he played of Billy.
And so during that time, we really found out that even though there’s 30 years difference, he has similar sensibilities. You know, he’ll come to me and he’ll say, ‘Listen to this record, and it’s Louis Jordan and Ella Fitzgerald. I grew up with it. He’s not bringing me anything new, but he likes it. That’s interesting. Why is he bringing it [to me]? He’ll call me and say, ‘You know, I had a cold and I was looking at Criterion films, and, you know, I wanted to catch up on some of these classics and I saw this incredible movie. It’s incredible. It’s a Japanese picture. It’s called Tokyo Story. Did you ever see it?’
This was last year. I said, ‘Yeah. I mean, it took me a few years to catch up.’ I couldn’t even understand the Ozu style, seeing it the first time in the early ’70s, ’cause we’re used to Orson [camera placement], you know? And this guy got it from watching it on a big-screen TV. And that’s very interesting to me, to be open that way to older parts of our culture, newer parts of our culture, of course. And the curiosity that he has about other people and other cultures.
And there’s a trust, there’s a trust. And even if we can’t get it right away, we know we’ll come up with something. You know, maybe other people have relationships where they come up with it faster. Well, we don’t. We just work it through.
For example, the scene between Leo and Bob in the jail at the end. That scene ultimately was finally written, I think, a few days before we shot it, working with the two of them and working with Marianne [Bower] and everybody, because we had said so much and it could have gone so many different ways. But what does the picture really need? How much more is there for them to say to each other after all that’s happened, you know? And so we went that way.
It’s really, you know, it’s trust. Particularly during The Wolf of Wall Street, by the way. He came up with wonderful stuff that was outrageous, and so I pushed him. He pushed me, then I pushed him more, then he pushed me, and suddenly everything was wild, you know? [Laughing] And, yeah, it’s really quite something. And he had a good energy, too, on the set. That was also important, very important, because in the mornings, I’m not really good. I get on set and then I’d see him or Jonah Hill or him and Margot Robbie, or him and Lily [Gladstone], and suddenly they’re all like, ‘Hey.’ [Laughing] I’d say, Okay, let’s work.’”
The Plot, Courtesy of Apple Original Films:
At the turn of the 20th century, oil brought a fortune to the Osage Nation, who became some of the richest people in the world overnight. The wealth of these Native Americans immediately attracted white interlopers, who manipulated, extorted, and stole as much Osage money as they could before resorting to murder. Based on a true story and told through the improbable romance of Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Mollie Kyle (Lily Gladstone), Killers of the Flower Moon is an epic Western crime saga, where real love crosses paths with unspeakable betrayal.
Killers of the Flower Moon opens in theaters on October 20, 2023.
