Martin Scorsese Reveals the Two Movies Robert De Niro Passed on Starring In

Martin Scorsese is looking back at his longtime friendship with Robert De Niro.

Over the years, the longtime collaborators have worked on several movies together including Taxi Driver, Goodfellas, The Irishman, and most recently Killers of the Flower Moon.

In a new interview, Martin, 80, revealed the two movie roles he offered Robert, 79, but he passed on.

While speaking with Deadline, Martin revealed that he approached Robert to star in The Departed and Gangs of New York.

“We talked to Bob about it, but he didn’t want to do it,” Martin recalled of The Departed. “‘What about The Departed?’ ‘Nah, I don’t wanna do that.’ ‘OK.’”

“I didn’t work with Bob for 10 years until we did Goodfellas,” Martin continued. We went off in different directions. Then we made another two, three films. And then, for another 19 years, we didn’t.”

He added, “So, with Bob, after Casino we stopped for a while and I did Kundun and Bringing Out the Dead. And then Gangs of New York. We always checked in, on that and everything else.”

As for why Robert turned down Gangs of New York, Martin said, “That was just a check-in. Literally, he said, ‘What are you doing?’ ‘I’m doing this. You interested?’ ‘Nah.’ ‘OK.’ We always talked about that kind of thing, because he is the only one around who knows where I came from and who I am, from that period of time when we were 15 or 16 years old. He knows that part of New York. It was all instinct between us and his courage and his humility, in terms of how he’ll say, ‘If a scene plays on my back, fine, but if it plays better on the other person’s face, play that.’”

Martin also revealed that Robert approached him about directing the 2002 film Analyze That, which ultimately ended up being directed by Harold Ramis.

“He wanted me to do Analyze This, and I said, ‘We already did it. It was Goodfellas,’” Martin said. “I talked to him about other projects, and at one point he said, ‘You know the kind of stuff I like to do with you.’ I said, ‘OK.’ That became The Irishman, and it took nine years. We were always looking.”

Martin added, “Now, that was a certain period of time. Does he still think that way, 10 years later? Turns out he did! But is he the old Bob? No. You’ve got to see where they are.”

Robert recently shared the first photo of his 7th child!