Martin Scorsese has revealed that Robert De Niro wanted the whole of Killers of the Flower Moon to be filmed in the Osage language.
Scorsese revealed the news during a Q&A session with fellow filmmaking legend Steven Spielberg after a screening of the film last week (November 14) at the DGA Theatre in Los Angeles.
The recently released film – which is led by Leonardo DiCaprio, De Niro and Lily Gladstone – is based on a non-fiction book of the same name published in 2017. It tells the true story of a series of murders of Osage Native Americans over the rights for the oil under their land in Oklahoma.
The film includes several scenes in which the Osage language is spoken, and De Niro in particular enjoyed learning it so much that he asked the director whether the whole film could be made in that dialect.
Scorsese said: “By the way, a lot of the Osage language is lost, but they’re putting it back together, so to speak. There was a teacher, Chris, and he was teaching [Gladstone] and Leo, and also Bob, too.”
“De Niro liked it so much that he wanted to do most of the film in Osage, and I said, ‘You can’t, come on Bob’.”
During the conversation, Spielberg described Scorsese’s new film as “an exceptional experience”.
“You know how I feel about all of your films, but this one stands out in a way for me that’s so impactful. It’s an epic journey, but it’s not a Hollywood epic – for me, it’s a humanitarian epic.”
Spielberg rounded off the conversation by saying: “You are the master of our medium, and this is your masterpiece, Marty.”
Scorsese recently heaped praise on Brendan Fraser after the actor received criticism online for his performance in the new film.
“We had a really good time working together, particularly with Leo,” the director said. “Particularly in the scene where he says, ‘they’re putting a noose around your neck, he’s saving you dumb boy’.
“Really for us, when we heard that he brought the whole scene down on Leo it was perfect. And [he] had that girth, he’s big in the frame at that time. He’s a wonderful actor, and he was just great to work with.”
His improvisations were “endless, endless, endless”, Scorsese told The Telegraph, while “Bob [De Niro] didn’t want to talk.”
Leonardo DiCaprio‘s “endless” ad-libs in the film also left Scorsese and De Niro “rolling their eyes”, according to the director.
Scorsese, who has made multiple films with both actors, said: “Every now and then, Bob and I would look at each other and roll our eyes a little bit. And we’d tell [DiCaprio]: ‘You don’t need that dialogue.’”
NME gave Killers of the Flower Moon a glowing five-star review, writing: “These days, Scorsese seems to exclusively make long films but this 206-minute epic is lengthy even by his standards. Thankfully Killers of the Flower Moon earns its runtime.
“Each conversation between De Niro and DiCaprio is an exercise in clever euphemism and while some may find the tempo a bit too stately, the story of an entire people’s eradication deserves to be told in full. This is among Scorsese’s most important work.”
Killers Of The Flower Moon is available to stream on Apple TV+ and is also showing in cinemas.
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