Leonardo DiCaprio, Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro.Photo: Samir Hussein/WireImage
Leonardo DiCapriois showing respect for hisKillers of the Flower Mooncollaborators.
At a press conference forMartin Scorsese’s latest movie on Wednesday, DiCaprio, 49, spoke to his decades-long history of working with both Scorsese, 80, andRobert De Nirodating back to the earliest days of his acting career.
“Well, in a lot of ways these two men that we’re speaking to have been like cinematic father figures to me,” DiCaprio said, noting that he first costarred with De Niro, 80, in 1993’sThis Boy’s Life. “I got to do my first major starring role with Bob, and he and I worked together. He told Marty about me, and I’ve gotten to do six films with him now. And here we are 30 years later.”
DiCaprio and De Niro share the screen acrossKillers of the Flower Moon’s 206-minute runtime as real-life Oklahoma citizens Ernest Burkhart and William K. Hale, respectively. The film follows Burkhart as he travels to Osage County in 1920s Oklahoma and begins working for his uncle Hale. Ernest eventually participates in Hale’s plot to murder members of the Osage Nation — including Ernest’s wife Mollie Burkhart’s (Lily Gladstone) family — in an effort to inherit the tribe’s oil rights.
DiCaprio recalled moments fromKillers of the Flower Moon’s production in which he, Scorsese and De Niro worked out how to depict the complicated relationship between the two actors' characters on screen.
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“I just remember fondly those rehearsals that we had together because it was an amazing creative process to get to that moment,” he said. “And it could only happen with these two cinematic heroes of mine — they kept hammering home what is the truth of their dynamic over and over again. And we got to that moment.”
Robert De Niro and Martin Scorsese.Samir Hussein/WireImage
De Niro said during the conference that he has always found it “easy and gratifying” to work with Scorsese, with whom he has made 10 movies, dating back to 1973’sMean Streets.
“We found projects, we do ‘em. It’s always been great,” he said. “So I’ve been very lucky to have been able to do 10 movies with Marty, and hopefully we’ll be able to do a couple more.”
Killers of the Flower Moonis in theaters now.
source: people.com
