Page 87 - Sharp Winter 2024

This Boy’s Life. “It was just casual,” Scorsese recalls of the en- dorsement. “But, a recommendation at that time, I think in the early ‘90s, was not casual. He said it casually, but he rarely said that. He rarely gave recommendations.”
From Shutter Island to The Departed, the Scorsese-DiCaprio partnership has proved another perfect filmmaking fit. In the duo’s earlier days working together (DiCaprio was just 28 years old on Gangs of New York), the actor would recommend old records he thought Scorsese might like. “He’ll come to me and say, ‘listen to this record,’ and I grew up with it,” laughs Scorsese of DiCaprio’s advocacy for Louis Jordan, or Ella Fitzgerald. “He’s not bringing me anything new. But he likes it, and that’s very interesting to me — to be open to older parts of our culture in that way. The curiosity he has about other people and cultures.”
“Particularly doing The Wolf of Wall Street,” Scorsese adds. “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. It was really quite something.”
DiCaprio also improvised on Killers of the Flower Moon, although these efforts were curbed somewhat by Scorsese. Determined to avoid offensive or clichéd stereotypes and repre- sentations, the director had reached out to the Osage, learned about their culture, listened to their concerns, and stuck to a well-researched script. Before filming began, members of the Osage Nation, the cast, and crew gathered on a hilltop outside Bartlesville, Okla., for a land blessing — further proof, if needed, of Scorsese’s remarkable artistic leadership, and genuine interest in and empathy for his cinematic subjects.
“I’m fascinated by how do you really deal with that culture in a way that is respectful, and also is not hagiographic?” Scorsese asks. “How do you deal with it without it falling into the Rousseau ‘noble native’ thing? It should still have authenticity, respect, and dignity. It should deal with the truth honestly, as best we can.”
FEATURE
SHARPMAGAZINE.COM
WINTER 2024 87