The 76-year-old director is enjoying the best reviews of his career thanks to his upcoming filmThe Irishman.
(Note: Some of the following quotes have appeared in previous EW coverage).
The picture was very difficult to get made the past 10 years, and for many different reasons.
But I really felt that De Niro and I had one more picture to make at least.
He gave it to me.
I saw he was connected with the character and we’ve been wanting to make something together sinceCasino.
I realized he really cares about the character, and that it’s something that could be moving.
So I figured we’d take the trip.
It took a while.
It’s very special that we got it made.
There’s been a lot of conversation about the de-aging technology.
Was there ever a point in which you were really worried if you could pull this off?No.
I saw the tests.
So from the time we did the tests until we started shooting it had already gotten easier.
What we’re talking about is makeup, really.
And they put makeup under the eyes and things.
But in a good case, we accept the illusion.
So for me, this is the next step for makeup.
This was something we really felt we could take a chance with.
The other thing, too, is that right now people are talking about [the de-aging].
If they’re with the film, they’ll accept the illusion.
“Hey is that guy younger?”
and they’ll move on.
Right now everybody is looking at it.
It’s being scrutinized, as maybe it should, as the next step in this process.
What’s your opinion about resurrecting actors digitally after they’ve passed on?
LikeStar Warsbrought back Peter Cushing.Well, when you’re talking aboutStar Wars, that’s another universe.
But if you took, I don’t know, Spencer Tracy and put him in something…
I don’t know about that.
Because what is the basis of the emotion of the actor if you’re creating it all by computer?
You may have aspects and data from the actor from other projects they did.
[But withThe Irishman], we have the actor.
I help with the performance when I select it in editing.
But then, who’s to say cinema is one thing?
It’s certainly many different things and right now we’re in a great period of evolution.
I read a report, probably inflated, that Joe Pesci was asked to play hisIrishmanrole 50 timesProbably more.
What’s that conversation even like the 43rd time you’re having it?
Bob and Joe have their own language.
Joe’s always pushing back and always Bob is coming back and working him, working him.
Joe keeps pushing back, Bob keeps working on him.
“Pushing back” means “for many different reasons.”
And he would have to explain it.
These are individual choices and sometimes people don’t want to do something for different reasons.
It could be, financial issues.
You could have that I’m not saying he did, right?
It could be family issues.
It could be health.
It could be boredom from doing a certain kind of film.
Playing a certain character.
Ultimately, if Bob asks enough and he pushes enough, does this make sense?
Prior to that, it was almost like putting on a show in the barn.
It’s not even about the money or about being compensated and appreciated for your value.
It’s about the physicality of [making a film] where nobody’s giving you anything.
At a certain age and physicality for the actors, it may not be worth it.
He’s wonderful to be around and respectful and appreciative.
It’s like, there are no problems there.
Bob will tell me, “Oh, Al is great, you’ll see.”
And I’ll say, “What do you mean?”
It’s really how Bob and Al play off each other.
And Al’s next line is, “Oh, don’t tell me that.”
How does Al get to “Don’t tell me that”?
He could throw two or three lines in.
He could take a long pause.
How important is it that what you have is what really happened?
And do you believe that what you have is what really happened?No.
I don’t really care about that.
What would happen if we knew exactly how the JFK assassination was worked out?
What does it do?
The point is, it’s not about the facts.
It’s the world [the characters are] in, the way they behave.
It’s about [a character] stuck in a certain situation.
You’re obligated to behave a certain way and you realize you may have made a mistake.
But you’ve got to go on, right?
What part of you did that, you know?
Is it still there?
They say every cell in your body is swapped out every seven years.
*Do we really change then?
I’ve always wondered…
If you’re literally not the same person…Yeah but, is yoursoulthe same?
That’s the thing!
Good question.Soul, mind, heart.
What happens in the soul and the heart?
That’s what I mean about being the same person.
[Sheeran] did things he doesn’t feel good about.
Whether he did or not, I don’t really know.
Charles Brandt is certainly very convincing and knew Frank very well.
I know other people who have different opinions.
How important was it to convey that and could that sequence have survived a traditional studio?No!
A film couldn’t even get made at a traditional studio!
But assuming everything else somehow worked outNo!
A man in a wheelchair at the end?
Not gonna happen.
I think it’s gone askew.
There’s very little room for this kind of picture.
They say, “Oh it’s possible for you to make independent films.”
That’s putting people in the margins.
Putting art in the margins.
It’s a different cinema form or a new art form entirely.
We’re hoping there are theaters that show the films that are not that.
I hope a picture like this can help change the reception an audience gives a movie.
That they have the time to watch it.
Everything now is so fast, so fast, so fast.
Everybody complains about soundbites.
I’m not saying people should take the medicine of [a piece of art] that’s laborious.
You talk about how a traditional studio impacts things.
WithGoodfellas, the film reportedly received the worst test screening reaction in Warner Bros history.
What was your honest reaction to that?It was an angry reaction.
It became very difficult.
You show it in front of a big audience to see what works or maybe what’s confusing.
Just see what [the audience] can tolerate or not.
And then he did it a third time and more people left.
And then I asked [editor Thelma Schoonmaker], “How many more we got left?”
And she says: “Seven.”
We didn’t need them leavingthissoon, okay?
We see the knife, we get it.
Another thing was the scene with my mother [in the kitchen chatting with Pesci and De Niro].
Then they read these [preview screening cards].
People hated the picture, but the thing everybody liked was the scene with my mother.
So we kept that!
That’s why I thank those screenings.
[A preview screening version] doesn’t mean it was “my cut.”
I’m in the process of making the film.
Test screenings, for a while, were very helpful.
I don’t know if it is anymore, at least for me.
The world has changed in that way too.
[The director] has made their decisions based on the process they were going through at the time.
All these things happen …
It’s an interesting thing.
Now [those scenes were] cut out from the director’s cut, not from the rough cut.
There’s a big difference.
Then MGM released their version and it was 90 minutes.
So I understand the idea of an audience wanting to be entertained for another 20 minutes in that world.
Was that intentional on some level?I think so.
But it deals with similar pop in thing.
If you go in all these directions, you’ve done it.
What else could you learn?
You may find that you’ve done it.
I hope to explore a little more, if I have time.
The Irishman is released in theaters Nov. 1 and comes to Netflix Nov. 27.
*This romantic bit of apocryphal science is not, unfortunately, true.
The original 2005 research suggesting ALL human cells turn over every seven yearshas since been debunked.
