Drama on set: DiCaprio’s annoying habit upsets De Niro in Scorsese’s new film!

Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro found themselves acting together in Martin Scorsese’s latest film, “Killers of the Flower Moon”, but the coexistence between the two stars was far from easy.

The cause? DiCaprio’s acting method, which reportedly annoyed his colleague. Scorsese himself recounted the story in an interview with The Wall Street Journal: “He just wouldn’t stop talking. Every now and then, Bob and I would look at each other and roll our eyes. We had to tell him, ‘Look, we don’t need all these dialogues.'”

DiCaprio’s perfectionism

In the interview, Martin Scorsese explained DiCaprio’s perfectionism tendencies, noting that he often asked to readjust scenes and change lines on the set, highlighting the different approaches the two actors had to improvisation, with De Niro being someone who “almost doesn’t want to speak”: “When I work with Leonardo DiCaprio, we talk a lot. His method involves conversation and constant character exploration. De Niro is different. Yes, he talks, but there are also many moments of silence. The two complement each other beautifully”. The director also shared, “After two years of working on the script, Leo came to me and asked where the heart of the story was. I had spent evenings with the Osage and thought, ‘Well, the story is there'”.

DiCaprio’s role

In the initial project, Leonardo DiCaprio was supposed to play the role of Tom White, the FBI investigator considered the hero of the story. However, the actor managed to convince the director to give him the role of the villain, Ernest Burkhart, a ruthless World War I veteran who seduces a young Native Osage.

Set in 1920s America during the oil boom, the film is inspired by a true crime story, the serial killing of several Osage Native Americans who had been living in Oklahoma for centuries and suddenly became wealthy due to the discovery of oil reserves. Drawing from David Grann’s gripping non-fiction book but offering a dual perspective on both white and Native American characters, Scorsese follows the investigations of Detective Tom White and Ernest, the naive scion of a wealthy family who becomes embroiled in the case.

DiCaprio-De Niro. Tensions on set

Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro have known each other since 1993 when they shared the set of “This Boy’s Life”. It was actually De Niro who recommended the young colleague to Scorsese, as the director recently revealed: “Years later, he told me that he had acted with a young guy, a certain Leonardo DiCaprio, in a film titled ‘This Boy’s Life,’ and suggested that I work with him someday. He said it almost casually, but it wasn’t at all casual. It wasn’t like Bob, who never gives this kind of advice”.

Despite their years of working together on set and appearing in multiple films, their relationship seemed to have become strained. The strain was significant enough that the director himself had to intervene to either reconcile their differences or ensure the continuation of the shooting process.