Martin Scorsese Didn’t Like Leo DiCaprio’s Improv on Killers of the Flower Moon

Leonardo DiCaprio is an Oscar-winning actor, but even he needs a little coaching every now and then. And who better than Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro, who didn’t hold back while filming Killers of the Flower Moon.

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, the legendary director detailed the very different acting processes of his two leads, Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro. The former had an “endless, endless, endless” approach to dialogue improvisations and discussions; the latter preferred to stick to the script.

“Then Bob didn’t want to talk,” says Scorsese. “Every now and then, Bob and I would look at each other and roll our eyes a little bit. And we’d tell [Leo], ‘You don’t need that dialogue.’”

In DiCaprio’s defense, it’s not like Killers of the Flower Moon hasn’t gone through numerous changes over the years. Elsewhere in the interview, Scorsese says his first attempt at the film was a plodding procedural drama told from the point of view of bureau agents.

“After two years of working on the script,” says Scorsese, “Leo came to me and asked, ‘Where is the heart of this story?’ I had had meetings and dinners with the Osage, and I thought, ‘Well, there’s the story.’ The real story, we felt, was not necessarily coming from the outside, with the bureau, but rather from the inside, from Oklahoma.”

According to Scorsese, that change prompted Paramount to drop out of financing the film, which led to Apple putting up $200 million. Killers of the Flower Moon releases in theaters October.

You can watch these Killers of the Flower Moon featurettes as a primer.