Robert De Niro has shared the backstory behind some of the unforgettable moments in Martin Scorsese’s 1976 masterpiece “Taxi Driver,” revealing that the enduring scene was partially improvised.
Throughout an look on “Live with Kelly and Mark” on Thursday, the 81-year-old actor recalled how among the greatest moments in movie come from spontaneous improvisation. “Some of the best stuff, not always, is when it’s improvised,” De Niro advised hosts Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos.
In “Taxi Driver,” De Niro’s portrayal of disturbed cabbie Travis Bickle birthed some of the memorable scenes in cinema historical past: standing in entrance of a mirror, Bickle talks to himself and factors a gun at his reflection as he imagines going through off with a foe.
“You talkin’ to me? You talkin’ to me? You talkin’ to me? Then who the hell else are you talkin’ to?” De Niro, as Bickle, famously calls for of his invisible adversary. “You talkin’ to me? Well, I’m the only one here. Who the f–k do you think you’re talking to?”
Throughout his chat with Ripa and Consuelos, De Niro stated that the scene wasn’t fully scripted. “The producer [of the film] … said on some show that Marty had said it was all improvised. We had something [on the page], I forget exactly but Marty remembers a lot better than I do,” the actor shared.
“It seemed right,” De Niro added, reflecting on the second. “It was done spontaneously. You don’t know what’s going to [happen]. That’s the fun of working, especially with someone like Marty Scorsese. It’s nice to be able to go here and there, go off, following the scene or the thrust of the story, but you can go here and there. You never know when that stuff is usable.”
De Niro’s efficiency in “Taxi Driver” earned him an Academy Award nomination for Greatest Actor. The trophy ended up going to the late Peter Finch for his position in “Network.”
In 2003, Bickle was ranked because the thirtieth biggest film villain in film historical past by the American Movie Institute of their “AFI 100 Years…100 Heroes & Villains” checklist.
Though plans for a “Taxi Driver” sequel have been mentioned within the early 2000s, with De Niro and Scorsese working with screenwriter Paul Schrader, the venture was finally deserted in 2013 when the well-known director grew dissatisfied with the script.
Practically 50 years since “Taxi Driver,” De Niro’s efficiency continues to affect movie and fashionable tradition. When the “Goodfellas” star made a cameo in a “Debbie Downer” sketch on Sunday’s “SNL 50: The Anniversary Special,” Debbie (Rachel Dratch) responded to De Niro’s request for a straw by asking, “You talking to me? You talking to me?”
