Martin Scorsese is one of those spectacular filmmakers in Hollywood whose nearly every single movie is an epic superhit, constantly etched in its audience’s hearts. But with each passing day, the 80-year-old director feels a bit older than before and feels that he might not be able to pull as many more movies as he did ever since his inception in the entertainment industry back in 1967.
That being said, Scorsese has also spent enough time to critically review his exceptional on-screen projects along with reminiscing his overall not-so-pleasant experience of working in the industry. During this, he also realized how much he regrets making Shutter Island, his $294 million movie with Leonardo DiCaprio after winning an Oscar for The Departed which starred Matt Damon as well.
Matt Damon’s The Departed Won Martin Scorsese His Much Awaited Oscar
Throughout the more than five decades that Martin Scorsese has been in the film industry, he has had both good as well as bad experiences. The bad ones, however, seemingly started in the late 1990s, thanks to the big production companies and distributors who always had their way with his movies. That is why he wanted to stop making films by the early 2000s.
However, Scorsese’s enormous talent in the field of movie-making wasn’t something that could just be suppressed, which is why he got back in 2006 with The Departed, which starred Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio. But he found himself regretting his decision when production companies started to intervene once again. Recalling a test screening for the film where everyone walked out ecstatic except the studio guys, he told GQ:
“And then the studio guys walked out and they were very sad because they just didn’t want that movie. They wanted the franchise. Which means: I can’t work here anymore.”
Despite that, the legendary filmmaker managed to bag his first-ever Oscar
“I always liked being nominated at the Academy, even though knowing when I didn’t get the Oscar, I understood that that wasn’t my lot in life. But I always said this: just be quiet and make the movies. You can’t make a movie for an award. Sure, I would’ve liked it, but like, so what? I mean, I had to go on and make pictures.”
Regardless, Martin Scorsese never felt that the Academy particularly understood him and his desire for filmmaking, and always thought of himself as anything but a part of the industry because he just couldn’t bring himself to think like them.
Why Martin Scorsese Regrets Making Leonardo DiCaprio’s Shutter Island (2010)
Nonetheless, despite feeling he wasn’t truly acknowledged by the Academy, Martin Scorsese continued to make films, with his next film being Leonardo DiCaprio’s 2010 blockbuster, Shutter Island. But it wasn’t late before he regretted his decision to make the $294 million movie. Continuing to tell GQ, he said:
“[Still, winning an Oscar] encouraged me to make another picture with Shutter Island. It turned out I should have gone on probably to do Silence.”
Silence was another one of his passion projects and although he managed to make it years later by 2016, he still regretted Shutter Island being “the last studio film” he made. This was because he had developed the mindset that, as he gets older, he should focus more on projects that are more essential rather than wasting his time on ones like the Leonardo DiCaprio starrer blockbuster.
“I’m looking forward to new ways,” he said. “It’s just, I got as far as this. And that’s what I do. That’s it. And if I could just muster up the energy, God willing, to make a couple more, one more maybe, and that’s it, OK? That’s as far as I got. You keep going until you can’t. But what I mean is that you gotta rip it out of your skull and your guts. To find out what the hell you really – what do you really feel should be said at this point in life by you? You gotta say something with a movie. Otherwise, what’s the point of making it? You’ve got to be saying something.”
Regardless, fans are still in for a surprise with his upcoming film Killers of the Flower Moon making its way to the theatres by the 20th of October, 2023.
Source: GQ
