Martin Scorsese & Robert De Niro, Great Friends, Brilliant Collaborators, On Where It All Started As ‘Mean Streets’ Plays Tribeca Festival
deadline.comRobert De Niro feels he’s been extremely “fortunate to wind up with Marty” for all these years, and Martin Scorsese returned the compliment as the actor and director sat down after a screening of Mean Streets, the 1973 film that marked their first collaboration, and Scorsese’s breakout.
They went on to make nine more features together. The two grew up together in Manhattan’s Lower East Side, an Italian enclave populated with low level mafiosi.
De Niro’s “Johnny Boy” Civello in Mean Streets, a reckless but charming small-time gambler deeply in debt to loan sharks, was based on people they both knew, the duo told a Q&A with rapper Nas after the packed screening at the Beacon Theater.
The climatic final scene, a car chase, shooting and crash, was inspired by a trauma Scorsese said he barely escaped – getting out of a car only a few minutes before it smashed.
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