by Shawn Levy
28 “By temperament”: “Diahnne Abbott, Honeysuckle Rose,” Interview, October, 1977.
29 “Bob is very Italian”: “Robert De Niro—The Return of the Silent Film Star.”
30 “We shot the old stuff”: “De Niro,” Scott.
31 “The first few days were a nightmare”: “De Niro: A Star for the ’70s.”
32 “Bertolucci … would tell me”: “Dialogue on Film: Robert De Niro.”
33 “I can’t do it without”: “It’s Dilemma, It’s Delimit, It’s De Niro.”
34 “Bob will never be”: “Robert De Niro—Private, Professional, a Male Greta Garbo.”
Chapter 8
1 “Lots of people who win”: “Robert De Niro—Private, Professional, a Male Greta Garbo.”
2 “I like him”: “De Niro: A Star for the ’70s.”
3 “I’ve got to decide”: “Actor.”
4 “like some infant’s pacifier”: Biskind, Easy Riders, Raging Bulls, 287.
5 “I was … very suicidal”: “A Fallen Calvinist Pursues His Vision of True Heroism,” Samuel G. Freedman, New York Times, August 25, 1991.
6 “I wrote the script very quickly”: “Screen Writer: Taxi Driver’s Paul Schrader,” Richard Thompson, Film Comment, March–April 1976.
7 “I was so upset”: “Creating a Landscape of Characters in Turmoil,” Laura Winters, New York Times, January 3, 1999.
8 “It is me without any brains”: “Screen Writer: Taxi Driver’s Paul Schrader.”
9 “It was the strongest stuff”: “The Shadow King.”
10 “I almost felt I wrote it”: Paul Schrader, Taxi Driver [script] (London: Faber and Faber, 1990), xix.
11 “I had to make”: “Martin Scorsese’s Gamble,” Guy Flatley, New York Times, February 8, 1976.
12 “I don’t know about anyone else”: “Taxi Driver: A Bargain for Tinsel Town,” Nancy Collins, Women’s Wear Daily, July 16, 1975.
13 “when I couldn’t really distinguish”: “Screen Writer: Taxi Driver’s Paul Schrader.”
14 “It’s kind of an exorcism”: “Making a Movie Here Is a Movie in Itself,” Rex Reed, New York Daily News, August 3, 1975.
15 “There are a lot of Catholic”: “Taxi Driver Is a Hit for Martin Scorsese,” Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times, February 22, 1976.
16 “My character wandered”: “Screen Writer: Taxi Driver’s Paul Schrader.”
17 “I said to him, ‘Do you know’ ”: “Robert De Niro—Private, Professional, a Male Greta Garbo.”
18 “De Niro’s contribution”: “Screen Writer: Taxi Driver’s Paul Schrader.”
19 “Bobby was greatly pressured”: Ibid.
20 “It was an agreement”: “Taxi Driver: A Bargain for Tinsel Town.”
21 “De Niro told me”: “Screen Writer: Taxi Driver’s Paul Schrader.”
22 “We drove up and down”: Wilson, Scorsese on Scorsese, 51.
23 “He got a strange feeling”: “Taxi Driver Is a Hit for Martin Scorsese.”
24 “One day when it was pouring”: “Making a Movie Here Is a Movie in Itself.”
25 “Michael Phillips saw”: “Screen Writer: Taxi Driver’s Paul Schrader.”
26 “I got the idea”: “De Niro: A Star for the ’70s.”
27 “You know how a crab”: “Playboy Interview: Robert De Niro.”
28 “Is he a SAG member”: “Night Shooting in NYC with Martin Scorsese,” Patrick McGilligan, Boston Globe, August 17, 1975.
29 “I was feeling particularly blue”: “Screen Writer: Taxi Driver’s Paul Schrader.”
30 “I told Sue”: “Taxi Driver: A Bargain for Tinsel Town.”
31 “improvising all our scenes”: Times (London), April 23, 2011.
32 “He treated Cybill”: Biskind, Easy Riders, Raging Bulls, 300.
33 “We always said we were looking”: Ibid.
34 “When I first read the script”: “Jodie Foster’s Rise from Disney to Depravity,” Judy Klemesrud, New York Times, March 7, 1976.
35 “The memory I have”: “The Age of Scorsese,” Laura Brown, Harper’s Bazaar, November 2011.
36 “He kept picking me up”: “What I’ve Learned: Robert De Niro,” Esquire, January 2011.
37 “I was accused, in Mean Streets”: Kelly, Martin Scorsese, 96.
38 “a heat-seeking missile”: Phillips, You’ll Never Eat Lunch, 249.
39 “The second week”: Schrader, Taxi Driver [script], xiv.
40 “a cokey movie”: Phillips, You’ll Never Eat Lunch, 228.
41 “When the camera isn’t turning”: “Making a Movie Here Is a Movie in Itself.”
42 “He stayed in character”: Times (London), April 23, 2011.
43 “Harry didn’t recognize”: Kelly, Martin Scorsese, 93.
44 “No, don’t bother”: “Robert De Niro—The Return of the Silent Film Star.”
45 “He just got into”: “A Tribute to a Master of the Bravura Moment,” Janet Maslin, New York Times, May 4, 1998.
46 “To me, it’s the best”: “Screen Writer: Taxi Driver’s Paul Schrader.”
47 “I think the director’s”: Ibid.
48 “I didn’t trust anybody with it”: Kelly, Martin Scorsese, 95.
49 “The real stuff”: “Robert De Niro—The Return of the Silent Film Star.”
50 “Bobby hogs Marty”: Ibid.
51 “In Martin … Bobby has”: Ibid.
52 “We have a shorthand”: Rolling Stone, June 16, 1977.
53 “His whole thing is”: Ibid.
Chapter 9
1 “We’ve miscast it”: Simon, The Play Goes On, 110.
2 “It didn’t work, just didn’t”: “Playboy Interview: Robert De Niro.”
3 “He’s still out there”: Kellow, Pauline Kael, 236.
4 “If the Travis Bickle character”: HRC, Schrader.
5 “It was like going from the darkest”: “Playboy Interview: Robert De Niro.”
6 “I spent time just walking”: “It’s Dilemma, It’s Delimit, It’s De Niro.”
7 “Bobby has never played”: “Hollywood Takes on ‘The Last Tycoon,’ ” Stephen Farber, New York Times, March 21, 1976.
8 “He was an actor”: Rolling Stone, June 16, 1977.
9 “I sometimes see him”: “De Niro: The Phantom of the Cinema.”
10 “He’s very precise”: “Elia Kazan,” Charles Silver and Mary Corliss, Film Comment, January–February 1977.
11 “Sam pulled one”: “Playboy Interview: Robert De Niro.”
12 “Look at Irving”: “F. Scott Fitzgerald Gets a Second Act After All,” Steve Chagollan, New York Times, August 21, 2005.
13 “I was crazier”: Schrader, Taxi Driver [script], xxii.
14 “We had a hard time agreeing”: Cameron, Floor Sample, 58.
15 “She was insanely jealous”: Biskind, Easy Riders, Raging Bulls, 301.
16 “He would throw something”: “Liza, Liza, Where You Been?,” Cliff Jahr, Village Voice, June 27, 1977.
17 “That’s when everything sort of fell”: Kelly, Martin Scorsese, 106.
18 “We started to get cocky”: Ibid., 106.
19 “It was a nightmare”: Biskind, Easy Riders, Raging Bulls, 325.
20 “I started taking drugs”: Ibid.
21 “I wanted it to look like my horn”: “De Niro: The Phantom of the Cinema.”
22 “It’s incredible the way”: “The Director of Taxi Driver Shifts Gears,” Robert Lindsey, New York Times, August 8, 1976.
23 “He asked me ten million”: “It’s Dilemma, It’s Delimit, It’s De Niro.”
24 “I don’t mind being”: Village Voice, June 27, 1977.
25 “He didn’t say it”: Author interview.
26 “I thought it would be funny”: “Playboy Interview: Robert De Niro.”
27 “a $10 million home movie”: Cameron, Floor Sample, 59.
28 “I really worked on it”: “Dialogue on Film: Robert De Niro.”
29 “Everybody there was somebody”:
“What’s Robert De Niro Hiding?”
30 “We would go to parties”: “Amo, Amas, Abbott.”
31 “loaded”: “Diahnne Abbott, Honeysuckle Rose.”
32 “I was standing”: Ibid.
Chapter 10
1 “I ran to San Francisco”: “Same Name, Different Worlds.”
2 “I don’t really like”: “Robert De Niro the Painter.”
3 “It creates a certain”: “Same Name, Different Worlds.”
4 “At first I was very excited”: “EYEVIEW: The De Niro ‘Passione,’ ” Christopher Sharp, Women’s Wear Daily, June 23, 1980.
5 “Do you think there’s going to be”: Village Voice, June 27, 1977.
6 “For a time after New York, New York”: Kelly, Martin Scorsese, 112.
7 “soaking up the environment”: The Deer Hunter, production notes.
8 “Everybody who was going”: “Playboy Interview: Robert De Niro.”
9 “It’s very hard to sustain”: “Dialogue on Film: Robert De Niro.”
10 “When somebody belts you”: “Movies ‘Discover’ Christopher Walken,” Janet Maslin, New York Times, December 26, 1978.
11 “The circumstances were genuine”: Ibid.
12 “spoke very bad English”: “The Men Who Work as Directors’ Eyes,” Shaun Considine, New York Times, April 8, 1979.
13 “Without knowing it … the pilot”: “Playboy Interview: Robert De Niro.”
14 “We had every right to cut”: “Movie Angling for an Accolade,” Aljean Harmetz, New York Times, November 23, 1978.
15 “I’m sure he cares”: “In the Year the War Came Home, Beatty, De Niro, Voight, Olivier and Busey Are Gunning for Oscar,” People, April 2, 1979.
16 “I hope it doesn’t win”: Wiley and Bona, Inside Oscar, 560.
Chapter 11
1 “I had an idea”: “De Niro Talks!”
2 “Mr. Savage had involved”: HRC, Schrader.
3 “We could do a really great job”: Thompson and Christie, eds., Scorsese on Scorsese, 76.
4 “brutally depressing”: Bach, Final Cut, 163.
5 “this picture as written”: Ibid., 164.
6 “more qualified to be a psychiatrist”: “De Niro: A Star for the ’70s.”
7 “I just kept reapeating”: “Playboy Interview: Robert De Niro.”
8 “I admired the fact”: Kelly, Martin Scorsese, 126.
9 “I tried to ask him”: “Playboy Interview: Robert De Niro.”
10 “You can only go so far”: “Method and the Man,” Steve Grant, Time Out, May 22, 1991.
11 “De Niro saw this movement”: Biskind, Easy Riders, Raging Bulls, 385.
12 “Don’t leap and lunge”: HRC.
13 “The way I talk”: HRC.
14 “I know I’m a fighter”: HRC.
15 “It was really funny”: Kelly, Martin Scorsese, 133.
16 “When we did the acting stuff”: “Dialogue on Film: Robert De Niro.”
17 “How they found me”: “The Delicate Art of Creating a Brutal Film Hero,” Fred Ferretti, New York Times, November 23, 1980.
18 “I would abuse the audience”: “Frank Vincent’s Two-Limo Night,” Edward Lewine, New York Times, February 18, 1996.
19 “He wanted a picture of me”: Kelly, Martin Scorsese, 131.
20 “She had a feeling”: “De Niro in Moscow.”
21 “some of the scenes with Bobby”: Kelly, Martin Scorsese, 139.
22 “I just can’t fake”: “De Niro’s Method of Getting a Fat Part,” New York Daily News, October 28, 1980.
23 “I needed to feel Jake’s shame”: “Untouchable World of De Niro the Godfather,” Jean Rook, Daily Express (London), 1991.
24 “At first it was fun”: “Playboy Interview: Robert De Niro.”
25 “I began to realize”: “The Delicate Art of Creating a Brutal Film Hero.”
26 “Bobby’s weight was so extreme”: Kelly, Martin Scorsese, 143.
27 “He was 30 pounds”: “The Delicate Art of Creating a Brutal Film Hero.”
28 “Scorsese … had been right”: Bach, Final Cut, 347.
29 “I said, ‘People are going to look’ ”: Kelly, Martin Scorsese, 149.
30 “Look … there’s no way to do it”: “What’s Black and White and Red All Over? Martin Scorsese,” Hildy Johnson, In Cinema, December 1980.
31 “That’s the idea”: HRC.
32 “Dear Robert”: HRC.
Chapter 12
1 “Bobby De Niro’s a perfectionist”: “Sutherland: No More Goofy Roles,” Jordan Young, New York Times, September 23, 1979.
2 “De Niro once figured”: “ ‘This Movie Is the Easiest Thing I’ve Ever Done’: Ryan O’Neal,” Robin Brantley, New York Times, May 21, 1978.
3 “A Dr. Jekyll”: Rolling Stone, June 16, 1977.
4 “We spent wonderful”: “The Shadow King.”
5 “I’ve heard they have hookers”: “Playboy Interview: Robert De Niro.”
6 “a cooling-off period”: “In the Year the War Came Home.”
7 “This guy is cutting me off”: “My Ugly Life with De Niro: Ex-Lover,” Cindy Adams, New York Post, October 26, 1992.
8 “The chief of police”: “Playboy Interview: Robert De Niro.”
9 “Where’s John?”: Woodward, Wired, 405.
10 “Don’t talk to anybody”: Ibid., 412.
11 “De Niro is a perfectionist”: True Confessions production notes.
12 “NOTE OF CAUTION”: HRC.
13 “I talked to tons”: “De Niro Talks!” (emphasis added).
14 “Technique is concrete”: “De Niro: A Star for the ’70s.”
15 “attached itself to me”: “Once Upon a Time in America,” Peter Hamill, American Film, June 1984.
16 “He was a big guy”: Ibid.
17 “Sergio told me”: “Playboy Interview: Robert De Niro.”
18 “Bobby made it clear”: “Once Upon a Time in America,” Hamill.
19 “Italian directors”: “Playboy Interview: Robert De Niro.”
20 “I can’t do the movie”: Doron and Gelmis, Confidential, 155.
21 “For better or worse”: “Once Upon a Time in America,” Hamill.
Chapter 13
1 “I was struck”: Kelly, Martin Scorsese, 152.
2 “He understood the bravery”: Ibid., 153.
3 “Bobby developed a technique”: Wilson, Scorsese on Scorsese, n.p.
4 “it was more Bob’s”: Kelly, Martin Scorsese, 153.
5 “With its combination”: Thompson and Christie, eds., Scorsese on Scorsese, 90.
6 “I could see”: Levy, King of Comedy, 419.
7 “What we went through”: Ibid.
8 “Bobby has to know”: “God’s Biggest Goof,” Michael Angeli, Esquire, February 1991.
9 “It’s harder to imagine”: HRC.
10 “Jer—I need you to know”: “God’s Biggest Goof.”
11 “They don’t know celebrity”: Levy, King of Comedy, 419.
12 “I asked Meryl”: “Maximum Expression.”
13 “She looked stunned”: “Queen for a Day: Sandra Bernhard Looks Back on The King of Comedy,” Dave Itzkoff, New York Times, April 17, 2013.
14 “the most intimidating”: Levy, King of Comedy, 423.
15 “There was one of these”: “De Niro,” Scott.
16 “I HAVE NOTHING LEFT”: HRC.
17 “very determined”: HRC.
18 “coughing on the floor”: Thompson and Christie, eds., Scorsese on Scorsese, 87.
19 “It was like making a film”: Ibid.
20 “When I saw Take 29”: “After Open-Heart Surgery, King of Comedy Jerry Lewis Bounces Back with Bride-to-Be,” Jim Jerome, People, February 7, 1983.
21 “I know I’m number two”: Ibid., 90.
22 “I went in with a very simple”: “God’s Biggest Goof.”
23 “Bobby is no fool”: “Penthouse Interview: Jerry Lewis,” James Delson, Penthouse, May 1984.
2
4 “extremely difficult for everyone”: Thompson and Christie, eds., Scorsese on Scorsese, 88.
25 “turned this world”: “After Open-Heart Surgery.”
26 “I said, ‘You cocksucker’ ”: “Penthouse Interview: Jerry Lewis.”
27 “I don’t know if I said”: “Playboy Interview: Robert De Niro.”
28 “When you work with great people”: “Queen for a Day.”
29 “didn’t have anything to do”: Levy, King of Comedy, 423.
30 “Marty told me later”: Kelly, Martin Scorsese, 156.
31 “Jerry is totally surreal”: “What’s So Funny About Jerry Lewis?,” Lynn Hirschberg, Rolling Stone, October 28, 1982.
32 “In order to work with Bobby”: “Penthouse Interview: Jerry Lewis.”
33 “He didn’t have that helmet”: Kelly, Martin Scorsese, 157.
34 “The whole routine”: “Maximum Expression.”
35 “We needed to go”: “The Shadow King.”
36 “I had my head shaved”: “De Niro,” Schruers.
37 “If you really have a problem”: Kelly, Martin Scorsese, 171.
Chapter 14
1 “liked the idea”: Marilyn Beck, New York Daily News, January 7, 1986.
2 “We weren’t even sure”: “The Incredible Talent of Robert De Niro,” Barbara Goldsmith, Parade, December 2, 1984.
3 Candid Camera: HRC.
4 “The visual background”: HRC.
5 “I understand your problem”: Yule, Enigma, 258.
6 “Bob sees his role”: “The Mission Diary,” Daniel Berrigan, American Film, November 1986.
7 “There were floods”: “The Shadow King.”
8 “Jeremy [Irons] would come”: “A Master Class on Movies from Producer David Puttnam—a Child of Celluloid and Sprocket Holes,” Geoffrey McNabb, The Independent (London), May 10, 2013.
9 “Well, Bobby, you may be right”: Yule, Enigma, 272.
10 “I tell people, ‘You deal with me’ ”: “Woman About Town,” James Servin, New York Times, June 28, 1992.
11 “I always wanted to do a play”: “An Unlikely Odyssey to Broadway,” Leslie Bennetts, New York Times, July 17, 1986.
12 “He trusted us”: “Povod’s Teddy Bear Makes the Push to Broadway,” Michael Kuchwara, New York Post, July 19, 1986.
13 “With Bob De Niro”: “An Unlikely Odyssey to Broadway.”
