Summary
- Leonardo DiCaprio’s dialogue improvisations on the set of Killers of the Flower Moon left director Martin Scorsese and actor Robert De Niro baffled and rolling their eyes.
- Scorsese and DiCaprio’s desire for authenticity led to Paramount Pictures backing out of the film after the script was changed.
- Killers of the Flower Moon, based on a true story, received critical acclaim at the Cannes Film Festival.
With plenty of impressive credits, performances, and an Academy Award to his name, there’s no denying that Leonardo DiCaprio is one of the most talented actors working today. But apparently even he doesn’t always nail it. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, director Martin Scorsese playfully poked fun at the “endless, endless, endless” dialogue improvisations from DiCaprio during the filming of Killers of the Flower Moon. Improvisations that left both him and actor Robert De Niro rolling their eyes.
“Then Bob didn’t want to talk. Every now and then, Bob and I would look at each other and roll our eyes a little bit. And we’d tell [Leo], ‘You don’t need that dialogue.’”
Discussing how different the two hugely talented Oscar winning actors are, Scorsese conjures the brilliant image of himself and De Niro giving each other a look ala Jim in The Office while DiCaprio goes off script again.
Of course, Scorsese can’t mind DiCaprio’s improv too much, as the pair have collaborated several times over the years and will join forces once again following Killers of the Flower Moon with The Wager, a tale of shipwreck and betrayal.
Martin Scorsese Reveals Paramount Pictures Backed Out After the Script Was Changed
Paramount Pictures
Apple TV+
Also in the interview, Scorsese recalls how Paramount Pictures backed out of Killers of the Flower Moon after the script was changed and the focus shifted from FBI agent Tom White to Ernest Burkhart and his relationship with Mollie Burkhart, Ernest’s Native American wife.
“The studio said, ‘We backed the other version, we can’t back this one.’”
The reason for the change came from Scorsese and DiCaprio’s desire to be as authentic as possible, with the actor having previously explained why the first script was axed.
“It just didn’t feel like it got to the heart of it. We weren’t immersed in the Osage story. There was this tiny, small scene between Mollie and Ernest that provoked such emotion in us at the reading, and we just started to penetrate into what that relationship was, because it was so twisted and bizarre and unlike anything I’ve ever experienced before.”
Based on David Grann’s broadly lauded best-selling book, Killers of the Flower Moon is set in 1920s Oklahoma and depicts the serial murder of members of the oil-wealthy Osage Nation, a string of brutal crimes that came to be known as the Reign of Terror.
Directed and produced by Martin Scorsese, who co-wrote the screenplay with Eric Roth, and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, Lily Gladstone, Jesse Plemons, Tantoo Cardinal, John Lithgow, and Brendan Fraser, Killers of the Flower Moon premiered at the 76th Cannes Film Festival back in May and was met with widespread critical acclaim.
Killers of the Flower Moon is due to be released in theaters in the United States on October 20, 2023, by Apple TV+ under their Apple Original Films label alongside Paramount Pictures. The film is also set for release on Apple TV+, though a release date has not yet been revealed.
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