Martin Scorsese has two actors he collaborates with to yield great cinematic products: Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio. It turns out the latter owes his collaborations with Scorsese to De Niro, who usually did not come with recommendations to Martin Scorsese.
Robert De Niro starred in Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon along with Leonardo DiCaprio, a film that has become an Oscar contender for multiple categories already. DiCaprio and De Niro first worked together in This Boys Life, a 1993 drama film directed by Michael Caton Jones. After working on this film, De Niro decided to recommend the actor to Scorsese, who would go on to cast the young actor in Gangs of New York.
Leonardo Di Caprio is grateful to Robert De Niro
Leonardo DiCaprio has had a storied career in Hollywood, working with greats like Martin Scorsese, James Cameron, and Quentin Tarintino, DiCaprio’s career has gotten him not only great Oscar nominations but also elevated him to superstardom in an industry where such successes have become rare. With regards to his work with De Niro and Scorsese, the actor said this to The Digital Fix:
“My career was launched by doing This Boy’s Life, auditioning with Bob [De Niro] and then getting the role. Working with him, watching his professionalism and the way he created his character was one of the most influential experiences of my life and career. It got me to do all these films with Marty [Scorsese] and now, 30 years later, all of us getting to work together and collaborate, it’s such an incredible and special experience for me. Those are my cinematic heroes. It is so very special to me.”
The actor said that he owed a lot to Robert De Niro, who had the pleasure of observing him on the set of This Boy’s Love. It is safe to say, that at the young age of 18, DiCaprio had a wide range of exposure to some of the most brilliant actors, that no doubt shaped the artist into the acting juggernaut that we know today.
This Boy’s Love remains one of Robert De Niro’s most underrated film
This Boy’s Life is a 1993 film. It is a biographical, coming-of-age drama that adapts a book of the same name by author Tobias Wolff. Dicaprio played the role of Tobias, while Robert De Nero played the character of Tobias’s stepfather, Dwight Henson, who was abusive to young Tobias. The film also starred another one of DiCaprio’s frequent collaborators, Tobey Maguire, in the role of Chuck Bolger.
The film, despite having De Niro attached, remains one of the actor’s most under-watched and underrated films. While films like The Godfather II and The Irishman routinely show up on lists about the actor’s body of work, This Boy’s Life, despite its powerful and poignant subject matter, barely ever makes it into any lists about the work that the actor is known for.
