Gangs of New York - Interview with Martin Scorsese & Daniel Day-Lewis (2002)

[Music] in 1977 Martin Scorsese read the Herbert as berries the gangs of new york book he immediately declared it would be the next project he would direct but there were obstacles to overcome over the years there have been many attempts at turning the book into a movie there was also the challenge of convincing Daniel day-lewis to take the lead role he had not acted in more than five years with casting in place in Miramax behind the film there was still extending shooting schedules script rewrites release date changes and endless nights of editing after 25 years Martin Scorsese has finally completed Gangs of New York and here is the trailer for the pen [Music] I am pleased to welcome both Martin Scorsese and Daniel day-lewis back to this table what good to see you my friend 25 years yeah about that you wanted to make this film since you read the book or was this even be earlier than that to make really yeah earlier much earlier I think it had to do it had to do was growing up downtown Lower East Side had to do with Elizabeth Street Mott Street Mulberry Street and st. Patrick's old Cathedral yeah you know and seeing that church and the graveyard and the red brick waldek still there still around it and when I was about eight or nine years old I heard the stories about these groups of people called them they Know Nothings who wanted to attack the church at one point in time in the 19th century and that the Irish American community gathered around the church not just the men but the women and the children too and the groups and no nothing's who came down from the Bowery down Princeton today was stopped by that and turned away and I was surprised to hear that story because eight or nine I thought everybody was no problem coming to America that when when immigrants came in everybody just assimilated it was not you know what was the problem what I was surprised to hear about the and the anger and the rage against Catholicism and the Irish at that time and so I started doing a lot of finding these old books from the period about st. Patrick's or Cathedral and researching and I found the book gangs New York and what did that do coy reading as Berry's book well that really made it very clear in my mind that that was a whole section in a sense of no way called American history it's New York history that was not really taught to many of us to school I think where we thought about the civil war that there was North in the south I mean elementary schools not not later but but especially I'm talking about education in elementary school in the 1950s the north and the south is a very sharp dividing line everybody above that line was for the Union everybody below was for the Confederacy it's not true particularly New York apparently is not true there are a lot of Southern sympathizers certainly anti abolitionists yeah and in the south certainly not in the Mount North Carolina Tennessee lots of people work for the noise yeah and when I read the gangs in New York the the the Herbert Asbury book the richness of the life of the underworld in New York at that time and particularly the place in the five points which was termed the worst slum in the world at the time in the 1850s in fact the the keno Charles Dickens came came here wrote a book called American notes and on his on his on his tour oh it was quite horrified it was worse than anything he had seen the East End of London that's Dickens and so when they say those film yeah when they said if the film is kind of Dickensian at times well I mean he was here he saw it and it was even worse than what but and apparently Davy Crockett came down he was appalled yeah and Lincoln when he came here to speak at Cooper Union his first visit he made us to the five points to see that man did not say anything about it know what what they did but they did to him was to take him to a and the Old Mission brewery the old brewery mission I should say they had a class of young immigrant children who all cleaned up and he they showed him a class of immigrants being taught arithmetic or whatever and doesn't that sort of thing you then took out an ad in variety that I'm going to make this movie yeah I really felt I felt that I thought I wanted to create that world that nobody's really ever seen before in film kind of a world that in a sense the foundation from all I guess all my other movies came from I think and I started working on ideas for it and gave it over to Jay Cox but he started writing it we announced it with Berta Grimaldi in 1977 I think was an ad in variety way with a picture famous picture by Jacob Riis actually which was taken much later in the eighteen seventies but gives you the idea of it and and the rest of Airy long time so you bet four five screenwriters come in yeah Jay and Steve Zaillian Kenny Lonnegan three through and Hossein Amini helped us at one point but be looking for what looking for it directly ultimately getting my head around what exactly the story I wanted to tell was because for me the book the book gangs New York led to other books his Herbert has berry source books books in the period I just wanted to say everything I didn't know where to stop you know didn't hear a story a story you want it I want it I really wanted to do it yeah their aspects of it I'd still this stuff in that book and in Luke Stan's low light which which is really like the idea start a tap on on all those books is a remarkable stories of New York and people trying to live together and how should I put it testing democracy absolutely yeah and so you get a script them you finally got some script at some point you've got to start casting and then you got to find the money or whatever the way that works you do the casting first and then find the money upon the money into the casting it said that you wanted your longtime colleague Robert De Niro to play bill oh well what happened in a case like that is that can we help me with script originally and there was not a there was not a an issue of him playing the part at all never one said but that we discussed of course naturally discuss it but the reality was that I knew that in his his interest at the time it was more to help me guide the script a little bit yeah you know and he was giving me other things of his and so we kind of worked that way together went down to again came clear that way by the way well I'm definitely I know that sort of yeah I had me come down to to hear a reading of the script and I didn't like the way the script was going or so written by actually West least Rick was really good but it was this um I just and also the original Cape Fear is a very good film so I wanted you don't do a remake and so we just come down to listen I don't want to do it I'm gonna do it there have it come down they all read it there and Wesley was there and Spielberg was there and finally went out to dinner afterwards and and kept saying I really want to play this boring mac stand by a big table and Steve was next to me Spielberg and I said I hate I just the script the weight is now I don't you know cactus family's upsetting and it's a too happy together I said it's really annoying and Steve said you're like the script change it bad yeah so wait a minute what do you mean he said well you could do this he said does the family live at the end I said yes of course they have to because I'll do anything you want up to there and so that got me and so it's that kind of a relationship that in the case of analyzed analyzed this for example I didn't want to do that I didn't go I can go along with that and a couple of other things but that's because I have my own interest in has his own interest okay two things one is that my understanding is that tapir they got you in exchange for doing something else somehow there was another movie that was involved in that yes what was that um not really another movie we got I guess it may have been I was going to probably do Schindler's List but that's exactly what it was yeah but that was really Stevens project yeah but it wasn't even had something do with KP okay but yeah he's that pretty snake he just came here here's what I heard yeah okay sorry what is what George was going you again in a minute yeah he likes officers what I heard is that that Schindler's List was on the table and and they you sort of looked at it and developed it certain extend all of a sudden Steven realized and man he wanted him so he brought it back and there was some kind of tragedy there was a trip but the thing was this but I had a project in mind for his Last Temptation of Christ right many years ago I always talked to Steven Spielberg myself Jaycox Paul Schrader everybody knew this project we all took Brian DePalma and Stephen had shimmers list right for many years and so the passion I had palestin tation he had for Schindler's and at some point in time I think it was right after the Last Temptation I was offered to probably try to do Schindler's List him and got Steve Zaillian involved and worked on the spirit for a while and then after I've during the process I realize you know that but this is really his passion this is something he's got to go through right and ultimately at that same time he had told me Marty one day I'm going to produce a film for you that will make the most money of anything they've ever made not last of course and sure enough it was Katie really it made the most money of any picture ever made which allowed age of innocence to be made and Kundun so you turn to a guy who's not making movies when he's always had be here somewhere studying cobblers or something am i right man let's just do I mean it's he had he was here in 1997 on to the boxer you get to make a movie after that No why not I um I just felt it was time to to work away other things for a while and I didn't know how long it would be for I knew that I was going to stop for a while and keep out of the game but I really didn't know how long it would be for and I have no concept of time I'm very I mean maybe I'm wasting the time I don't know but I it was really quite shocking to me when somebody said you know I had didn't you do anything for five years and I just didn't I didn't fill the time passing I was very happily doing other things what were you doing [Laughter] so long ago you had to talk him into doing it this was not an easy sale well yeah nothing really wasn't that easy but um there was a thought of Daniel when we were doing age of innocence Jacox was a Koran that owned Jade given me that script in the story the novel age of innocence and we had just done another pass on gangs New York once again back in 1990 J and I write and so of jaded and I at one point he looked up to me says you know it would be really goodness and I know I don't know I said then we worked with them on age of innocence than us yeah that might be really interesting you know because he had said um yes I want to hear that what did you say I understand the rage I think that by what you said locked in ready to go you mean you think there's rage locked inside of him well I think it can be tapped I want to do the work he's writing a very pious he's right there yeah yeah exactly mm in the morning is he right I don't know you know I I chose to believe that what that what Martin kind of men was that he knew that if that's what I had to do then I do it yeah yeah exactly I think so whatever part of me was available to be yeah investigators or whatever you know that I go there a new day there and he said yeah baby all right yeah I do have to say that it wasn't you know it sounds like I'm being very coy about the whole thing but it was my reluctance was kind of a two-pronged reluctance one was one was because I I really didn't know if if it was the right time to meet her but I'm directly relating to that I was I was also very concerned I didn't want to because Martin he's hard to resist obviously and I thought well how far am I gonna have to travel to get round him and it was not without a sense of dread that I had this conversation in the first place but of course it's not telling me about the story and I thought oh Jesus here we go but I I was I really wanted to feel that I that if I went into this tunnel with Martin that I that I knew I could be an ally for as long as he needed me and you have to know that of yourself and uh what do you mean by I knew I could be an ally if we win in this tunnel and if he needed me well because Barry you know everyone knows the demand that you make upon yourself and that you know that the situation makes upon you that others make upon each other and so forth and and you can go into something with all good intentions and with with goodwill you know and a certain amount of energy but but if you're not going to stay in there and see it through then you're not an ally right I don't mean like in necessarily in any like specific way but just though that Martin know that he's de right he's got a core group of people around him that you can count on yes as simple as that you know because you'd know the beer would be a few naysayers together would be activated the guys around you the men and women around you'd say ok no matter what yeah it's raining there the sets have been destroyed the customs are burned will still shoot you know he's tougher than anybody here but opportunity yeah yeah yeah was there anything about the character that made you say yeah yeah yeah yeah well yeah I I don't remember well it was if I could if I could repeat Martin's description of he told me more about that he didn't tell me I don't think you told me so much about the story as you were working on it but more about the five points of that period and that what was going on in a bit in that time and he told me about Bill Poole yeah who was the original bill the bona it was almost a folkloric yes character yeah then let me go to you who was bill pull this is who build a butcher's a stock Bill Poulos the butcher in our home is partially based on Archangel pull but bill bill Poole was build a butcher Poole who was a great gambler and man-about-town a nativist sentiment who was a little McCloud points was was a great New York character and had a running battle with every Irish many confined areas men and woman he could find and so finally on Spring Street and Broadway in the damn woods hotels be good meta mr. Baker yeah who was an associate of his of his archenemy I think John Morrissey the guy's name was and a fight broke out of this new hotel called a Stanley Hotel which had only been open a week and was a weekend night a fight broke out sometimes some things were said and and mr. Baker came back with a gun and shot up the place and he got hit and within five days later he died but in time enough for him his friends to say to his friends his friends to report his his last words were goodbye boys thank God I died a true American and he became at that time which is another movie it's in the film yes but in a different form because he was killed in 1856 and we have our build a butcher William a cutting right we change the name dying and during the draft riots in 1863 both so he became an essential character that William cutting is sort of based on became a kind of a martyr from the nativist cause against the Irish because he was killed by an Irishman and it was apparently in 1856 was apparently what you would consider now whether we've talked about the 1920s the great gangland funerals with apparently the first of them 10,000 people in the streets and there was a great deal of anti-irish feeling and hatred and I look them death the even Julia cause of the funeral there he was sort of a last gasp I think for the nativism until I guess the Native Americans and the wide awakes and all those groups changed changed configuration I think after the Civil War it was part of that tradition of philanthropic hoodlums for the ages exactly Robin hood-like yeah carving the years off a man what one day and then just you know handing out me to the poor yep the Nydia and he's a lovely boy you know I don't have to love your color I got to use the good fireworks birth of July it's great you know but there is something about the Robin steel clip and just say there's something about this whole Robin Hood nature of him but also he's always giving away meat contour your character is always giving away unavailable death man in one point before we see the first clip the Asbury novel was was losing the heirs playbook was yes that and you have taken these things then you've moved him around to fit what to fit your story to get to fit what I can do to represent the period right that period of American history and also to have the proper backdrop giving enough the impression of the time politically and socially anthropologically to give enough of a background so that our characters can stand on the foreground and carry along our story in the foreground so ultimately what happens but it's really a story to a certain extent of a young boy coming of age too by the time he finally does there in the draft riots it's also the country and the sense of coming of age and maturing ultimately I was figure that and heard a lot of the story and say this to it that the American Revolution was really complete in 1865 in a way the country was unified finally and the years of the 19th century in America was the most violent century in American history and I wanted to give the impression about that world what it would be like to be in a world like that very primitive in that area the underworld at the time in New York almost all civilizations lawless broken down relegated to tribalism in a way and still in the midst of New York City and travel is a month but where they came from yeah exactly and the religion their religion too okay roll tape here's our first scene in which bill played by Daniel day-lewis meat sent to them who was played by in order DiCaprio here it is what is your name Amsterdam sir Amsterdam I'm New York don't you never come in here empty-handed again you gotta pay for the pleasure of my company here's what you get a sense of throughout this film is that bill the butcher it is almost a lesson in leadership I mean here is a guy who understands constantly he says it he's in fear all the time and he or he's being tested all the time and that any feels that he has to show his courage and his capacity to have his way yes yeah tell me what you wanted this character what did you want from within you what you wanted to show about bill so what I really I really wouldn't know how to run about because it's so long now since I'm in just the very earliest stages after when we started getting ready for it that I had any because I'll at some point I suppose as like as far away as possible if you're lucky from the moment when you confront the camera that that objectivity that would allow you to think of it in that way just melts and so there was there was no conscious intention I don't think to show him as one thing or another there was I thought neat like I remember feeling as I approached him a great sense of I don't know something kind of relish in his company before you know before I yeah that's a great line and where I felt a certain relish in his company meaning that he was someone you wanted - yeah I did I mean I don't know what that doesn't mean okay yeah but yeah I heard something I found I don't know I'm kind of reinventing the truth because I honestly can't remember what my initial feelings were except that there was obviously a sense of fascination about him but but I found him in his loneliness very touching as well just I mean when he was still just at some distance from me yeah yeah that's a clear point I mean I what I find interesting about that but he did have blown leanness and and there were moments in which in terms of his relationship with the character that Cameron Diaz plays there was a sense of which she said you know he never tried to go to bed with me some point I went to him finally I mean there was a sense of some there was a sort of internal sense of honour or help me understand no I think that's a very good point because because we're looking at something like this we would tend to judge those people with the ethic that we live directly there yeah yeah we could easily ignore the fact that they were living with a very structured code of ethics even within the apparent chaos and anarchy of that place in that time that there was there was a real sense of honour there were things you did things you didn't do it seems as if anything goes there but that's not true that's as I said sort of based in codes for each tribe and fraternities yeah just that natural situation any people come over in people the Irish in the sense buildings of gathering themselves into different gangs they come over there's no jobs people don't like them because I don't speak English and most importantly they are they're subject to another foreign power which is the Vatican did a young Marty Scorsese growing up hear these stories I heard stories from the church I heard stories around the church st. Patrick's old cathedral my father remembered some old gangs from the the teens in turn-of-the-century one of them particularly called one gang called five pointers and the other called the 40 thieves that the names were apparently so interesting that just regenerated in each generation different ethnic groups would take them over but it was also a place in New York called 4th Ward which was very tough downtown Bullock fourth ward yes remember that sort of thing and it was kind of a mythology of it and it's even in the Asbury book there's a to certain extent this mythology in there too tell me about the casting of Cameron Diaz and Leonardo Leonato when the idea was first presented to me was by Mike Ovitz one night visiting me while you're shooting bringing out the dead he said what you want to do next I said I'm not quite sure I was talking about some projects or why don't we do gangs in New York just like that yeah Mike also was the fellow who sort of helped us put together lesson tation of crisis Timken done and that sort of the he's cutting some pictures made my career that would never lead could not get made you have in fact if said he changed your life yeah literally yeah he was back in 1987 we got got together and he said I'm forming a new company a management company and one of our clients is gonna be Leonardo DiCaprio and I had heard a feel from Bob De Niro because he did this boy's life and DeNiro told me this is young this is a young man you have to work with some day he's a brilliant actor he's going to be developed it's going to really develop interestingly we should do something sometime or whatever and then I watched him in Gilbert Grape right and I thought it was I only realised was an actor I didn't know which I thought was a semi documentary and so I'm in total eclipse a number of other films now of course this was after Titanic 2 so that along with along with I think the range the depth of Leonardo DiCaprio as an actor the bankability thereof in Titanic and when ovince mentioned this so that would be really interesting to be great where's the script best that we have the script but we haven't worked on the script like in 8 years yeah so that started a long process did you then have to go build up the character of Amsterdam so would be appealing to add to a certain extent we we had left it Jay Cox had left it in 1990 I think at a certain point we said listen if it's ever going to be a reality we'll go back to it and he'll work on it again Jay will work on it again that's what we sort of did and we sort of we started harnessing the picture because over the years naturally there was so much in it that to keep getting it down to a shootable length and size really one of the big problems we had in this picture for 20 years and 20 20 some-odd years is that none of these places exist in New York it's basically gone I mean I was down there today and five points five points is you know is maybe two of the points left and certainly Columbus Park right around the federal courthouses and that sort of thing they sort of I guess they sort of just bulldozed over the area pretend never existed you know and symbolically put up the Courts of Justice which raises the question why you shot this in Rome well yeah because there are no places in New York that could have none exist not even remotely remotely resemble what New York was literally the exterior the exterior so the exterior in Rome more closely resembled what well they were built yeah and that's that's eventually when Harvey Weinstein came into the picture and and I must say I've always said this even even I'm sorry but even when we were talking about doing the film there was always a part of me to never believe that the picture ultimately we get made you know wait is in terms of like because we're such a big film and when they started building this lab we'll have a big budget though Levi's again and when they sort of building the steps even then I should haunt you know we'll see we'll see you know one day I had to go take a look and Rahl was in June it's no ride we were still working on all kinds of things Dante Ferretti and I got a great deal of chinny-chin touch itas Studios wanted to wants to wanted to regenerate their their presence in film and Macomb Community in the film world made a very good deal for the American companies and built I think the biggest sets ever at Cinecitta and probably I know when George Lucas came to visit a few weeks before shooting started he was looking around he was shooting Star Wars there in Italy he's looking around he said let's get a picture taken mean a little picture the two of us in Paradise Square was nobody else there and he said on one side the old and one sides the new he said I'm the newest at CGI is you won't be needing this best anymore you know I think it's the last time because he's the master of digital yeah I know it may be the last time stuff like this are built which maybe must a mile of New York was built well based on view you know yeah yeah we just lived in it is now now he's on an aircraft rather recognizable and I you know the quality of the work they they didn't we just come back during this five years old where were you living well you look well in Ireland the part of their housing Island yeah yeah little time here ya know Prime Minister they do that right there there is also so I want to get to good Cameron - so was it well Cameron Diaz a Joe brought to mention it to me and I met her and then I saw that her she's very nice so there's something about Mary that she was very funny very good i saw john malkovich film I thought she was good and then when once again and one of the further steps into production was an audition process and she said she would audition so we're auditioning all these other young women she came along and quite honestly when she auditioned with Leo together I saw something happened between the two of them like I still kind of spark and in humor and an attitude that's what this is what we need it was just one of those things I had never really I didn't quite honest here into movies you know I hadn't seen the other pictures but I'd never been in a movie with him no no and it worked and you said I did I got a yeah I thought was great and also the character she's playing I thought there's a character we were still working on again Jenny yeah that Jay and I have worked on foot Jay had worked on for years we're gonna see her in just Galen with such a racket at this picture with Ginny in the film in which she she didn't actually as a knife-throwing incident in which a big moment today yeah that's accepted okay so it's good - oh come on well you better be right - that's incidents tell me we have nothing to hide here I don't want to give notes we didn't want to give away too much of the film but anyhow okay yeah yeah this is the commemoration of the the nature in commemoration day at the Crematory at the Irish and he is the star of the show oh yeah right yeah this is my this is my place this is my Dominion and and I'm running this show you're on stage I'm on stage it is and I have something against ya these young people which I'm not gonna tell rotate there it is [Music] College is my dear pick it up [Music] whoopsie-daisy what's the date or was that you just did that did you eat ignored or you didn't didn't you just did it that we just did it is there yeah and here's what I was asking because you said look at his eyes only dies when you saw looked ugly Renaldo's eyes were like that yeah and he was just reacting or camo to bill or camera when bill was doing his thing with it with a nice with then by the way the actual build of butchered bill pool was known for knife drawing right so again it's an instance of faction in a way to take effect and I move it into it but richest area but in all those reactions that you'll see ultimately if you see the film of Leo reacting to the knife throws and the hits they're all separate shots all designed separately in tracks and moves and all sorts of things so that we overlapped and we redid it a number of many times really but that's the way that that's why the sequence I think is actually one of our kind of like it as a favorite this little sequence each one of the shots each shot in it had something a little special that we were trying at that point every film every shot should have something yeah but you know but we had a little more fun with this one like to hear him talk about movies because he just loved every single upgrade and glean from them look and that's what makes it both difficult and exhilarating in the end yes yeah absolutely there is also this story in gangs of new york which I liked a little bit and I don't think this is I haven't seen performance any better than yours and movies home all year I mean it is clearly the best amuse has a lot of ordinary performances do you feel that way about it I mean I you how to put this in some context in terms of just the sense of getting it just a sense of knock you know landing it looking for sports metaphor you mean now it's over yeah now it's over I've actually seen I haven't I'm looking forward to seeing the polish didn't finish my idea I had to until it didn't know how you are in this film you know I've seen that polished version I know that you created a character here well I did mom Marge and I both I think we both understand this thing of like just he's seen the film a lot of times so whatever sense of mist of a missed opportunity that he might have felt initially like why didn't we get that or why isn't this thing here that I need now so for these had a chance to burn that away and see it for what it is and accept it for what it is and I've still got to go through that initial thing of saying all those things that I just would have wished have done differently here is an interesting story about the craft of directing and acting most of us watching a movie don't have any idea about the options the actor chooses moment to moment and what a director does both in setting it up the number of shots and then at the end editing and the options choosing options you know and if you haven't chosen the right option or try you know you feel like the most because you're making so many decisions every day but most of them if things are going well in Martin's case live for the most part conscious decisions and if things are going well for me for the most part that they related some other level so though you have no sense of control for the most part of those decisions men are being made nonetheless and it's always with a sense and I know it it always with who is surprised when when I see the thing itself the finished thing because you know you're you're working it's great tons of intimacy in Astoria the secretive way with a group of accomplices on something that feels kind of wild and out in the frontier and and there's always that moment when you're confronted with the reality and you think that all it was it you felt there's so much further away from yeah whatever yeah yeah so much you knows not me yeah I know jack but you mean but I that sense is the choices he made or the choices he felt that were made literally intrinsically as he was working for me you know there are thousand of the choices how big he should be in the frame where we're angular you know who's in the background what's that person to be in the back and that's fine okay keep that so it goes on like that and ultimately ultimately I always look at a picture I got to say like they talk about now these directors cut some DVD no this is it this is the picture there's no director's cut this is the one it's it's the result of a process that's going on for a long period of time yeah pretty much every film is but this one even longer and everything has been melted away shaped shaped it's almost like a giant piece of sculpture that we've been knocking around the editing room and I have to come to terms with ultimately the look of this picture the way it's the way it's the way it's completed and what the present form of the film and know that I've tried everything I could under the circumstances and as you make each film there's different circumstances different players the weather is a circumstance the the studio the the editing everything everything is the circumstance of a film is a circumstance to that you have to deal with let's just talk about that a moment you know this was the schedule for Christmas the 25th some say it's next we know the toilet yeah it's not green yeah I mean but you know it's a hardly Weinstein is great in marketing grid showman and then and so you say you tell our business absolutely in a studio a studio it reminds him some of the older the older Hollywood the old Hollywood history of Selznick or or produces a studio heads of that level and he has certain certain the vision about films but he also has a certain extraordinary vision I think and intuition about selling a picture and he did announce 25th but he also announced the summer he announced this Christmas in 2001 so you're gone with it okay you know doesn't I know to get me good morning I want the self assessment so I'm still shooting the pictures and get it up for Christmas and I said absolutely do you remember that yeah that's my point you have some of the Japanese infected yeah and make that I said we're looking forward to seeing that this was 2001 no looking forward to seeing mr. Chris Chris not that did you hear real of course minutes here so shooting absolutely he didn't know Marty 2001 oh I think I know I'll get up in 2002 I mean he tried then 2001 and then then of course I realized that the filming of much more it really needs shaping there was like a year in the editing it's a big movie a real year in the editing we took a couple of months off after September 11th happened everything kind of saw swerved about two or three months but then back into it and and we just started shaping the picture that's our final form you see it now we mention one other thing here's we complete this circle about this film there is the story of boys happening with the gangs at the time at Five Points there is also built into this a love story which is Leonardo and Cameron and the connection in this triumph read between with bill the butcher here is a scene that sort of reflects that take a look I should never say this but you ought to be able to pierce the curtain and be able to hear you two guys talking about first of all you said about this that you took about 18 to H is 17 or 18 - yeah and they skip that so much energy I you know at first the first it was just blasting through the stands in the living room I said of your case yeah I can do another reducer I said you're sure yeah I can't do it right and I kept go I was outside the room and about after the tape taker so I came in between takes to say something I'm both of them are on the bed waiting to air your cases yes I'm fine all right get back in there yeah and you said that when she was wait Duke not on the set oh you guys Saul said when she coming her back bring her back because I've used it she's just terrific to have to be around and John he's attractive she's yes she's salad apparently endless goodwill yes exactly which was to really really something that you may discriminate good where every idea that she's working with yeah amazing thing yeah and at range - I'd said start to do something and I said I need any I needed to be somewhat more emotional if you can actually know she was taking it to a level that I hadn't really had really thought out and I was between the three of them very this is a great audience mm-hmm and great member the audience to watch these guys work you know everybody together you used some historical characters in here boss tweed is in this film yeah before he was boss 3 - yeah right I'm even a William tweed right he was he was just on his way to becoming the world's greatest a corrupt politician some 60 million was a million I think he I think he he was in jail - 60 68 embezzled 16 million when they closed up yeah yeah 18 can be New York Times guy and and what you see here is the not what I was seeing I'm saying this but but basically what it is it is to me the pure politician and everything is about counting votes it was about getting that's right I mean is it in the quote in the film when he says when tweed tells his assistant he said the assistant says a monk is winning by 10,000 more votes and there are people he said well make it 20 we want to try them they said well we all have enough ballots this is what the first rule of politics is not the ballot that when it's the counters of the council to keep counting that's not to vote without them to New Yorkers it was recorded Williams we may seem to have it and it was right after the election by the way and so we got to put this in you know does this film continue themes that have been part of your entire political manic history I I think to a certain extent I really do ultimately ultimately there's it I'm attracted by the place right in a sense because it makes people behave a certain way meaning first for survival and ultimately I always think you know a person does one or two bad things it does that mean that person is bad genuinely bad right you know and and sometimes it's just bad luck and they're forced into a situation you think of Trapani opera you think of some of the lines from the lyrics you know first be the face then talk right and wrong you know and what do you expect and I'm I I'm always drawn to that and in a funny way this is what we talked about like science fiction in Reverse in a way going back in time and creating what creating a heightened sort of impression of what it might have been like to live in such a situation we didn't know where your next piece of bread was coming from if you get me break it is extraordinary career I mean clearly this was a whole you wanted to tell the movie you wanted to make this was part of this city that you love yeah are there other things out there that that you live with in the hopes that you will be able to find the right vehicle to make the film I mean that sensation price was one of them that was one of them does it there's a story most age of innocence like this age of innocence for a while there actually there's one that I'd like to try to do which is a based on the novel silence by Japanese author endo yeah about two Portuguese Jesuit priests get caught in Japan and a seventeenth-century administering to the Catholics and fishing villages there with the Catholicism has been outlawed and the engineer yeah exactly yeah but but really their silence is interesting because ultimately it's about the silence of God and it's about what this person is put there for in this earth is he there to have more martyrs create more martyrs or as he data save them and would he do anything to save those martyrs even go against what he knows his God how could you not love working with us today but it's a great book and I've been dying to do it and then there's this a wonderful thing of them I hope Nicola Jane I put together for a long period of time before my father died yeah we do right right right Ellen but it's a woman yeah it was basically about the Italian Americans or the Sicilians coming into New York and my actually pretty much some of my father's story growing up in the 20s and 30s really if you want to make Dino if you can get the characters you want and get a Hanson yeah you're not you're sure I'm not sure if I could if I if I could really create the right the right story for Dino I'm not sure what the story is Nick had it and the pledgie and it would take on and it could take on but we left the script in a certain and a certain point and we never came back to in fact there was a some point that when one of others expected me to do the film but it turned out we had a chance to gangs and we switch the projects but we were about to go for another of maybe a year's work of writing on that alone if that was to be made so you're not sure I'm not quite sure yeah maybe I will come yeah makes an ordinary collection of actors we made it yeah Hank says Dino yeah to both as introduced anatra no the others did it it's a bit like it's like it would be amazing and you know we did so much work on that and so much working and then I felt at the end I said we haven't gotten it yet you know and then this came along and then in my head yeah yeah so I'm not going to see you five years from now or am I going to do Wow you don't know I don't you really don't know I really go did you find something not acting that was enormously satisfying and I'm fatherhood clearly yeah yeah I think it yeah in it it's not so much to do with looking for the escape hatch I know it's just trying to it's always been that thing of trying to find the balance that would allow me to do the work in the way that I may be able to work in a different way or do things differently I don't know but for whatever reason I've I the way in which I'm able to enjoy the work most seems to mean that I then have to stay away from it for a while for some reason um it leaves me with um ah I know what just um I want to leave it there did this do anything in terms of saying god this is why I like doing this well it did both things that reminded me of all the things that I've always loved unequivocally about the work and quite obviously working with Martin um as you know with you know in its belt something that this likes so hugely sustaining you know I mean but it also reminded me of most of the reasons why kept away from it because it warms you so much I mean even to the extent that on the set you want to be called bills and you have this Friday I don't remember ever ever making that DeMott so many things I was together could imagine no look good no I I can't on what women so you sort of build some when you saw him it was build it was nothing over there so you wouldn't call anything else was gone bill Northey much less your idea or was that and was that it was it was I think I think um you see the flip but I think for most people the thing that gives most joy is learning about something new exist is it satisfying a curiosity that that's where most real pleasure comes from and the greater part of that pleasure of discovery takes place before you start to shoot the film during the course of it you make some very interesting discoveries on in a very different level I mean it's a much more visceral pleasure because it's taking your moment by moment and it's surprising you and and you're much less in control of what's happening but in essence you're giving out you're scooping yourself out of all that stuff that you tried to gorge yourself on beforehand and at the end of it you feel and I'm sure Martin feels the same way tremendously depleted and and and the only analogy I've ever found that vaguely kind of steamed have fit for me was the idea of laying leaving a field lying fallow because you just can't grow anything in it anymore and and and I think it's as much that as anything else and even from hide early on long before I had the luxury of choice because obviously when you're a kid and you're starting out you're raking stuff off the shelves you know if it's available you want it you know you want to make your mark and do that thing but you but I might have made a decision of bad decision of sometime I don't remember specifically but something some I've given this gift of the tiny piece of self knowledge which which which told me that I couldn't just keep doing that thing if I were going to keep doing it over a long period of time I would have to stay away from this as well I don't know why yeah coming from where I do in understanding letting feels life out I understand exactly now and you know what it could be about thank you for coming no it's my pleasure thank you again see you Marty thank you my parent Gangs of New York it is an incredible film brilliant performances it tells the story that will grab you from the very first frame thank you for joining us see you next time

Channel: FilMagicians

Views: 401,811

Keywords: Gangs of New York, Interview, Martin Scorsese, Daniel Day-Lewis, Leonardo DiCaprio, Cameron Diaz, Charlie Rose

Id: AL-LXkJaa1A

Length: 48min 16sec (2896 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 27 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/bobbyditoro]

DDL's best character is in this film, perhaps one of the most menacing. You can smell the power and fear in every one of his scenes.

[u/[deleted]]

He should have won the Oscar that year.

[u/RobbieWard123]

Neither looks very different.

[u/brayshizzle]

Scorsese's eyebrows give me life.