He is one of the most famous personalities in the world of cinema. He’s an actor, film director and producer. In addition, he has innate talent, winning two Oscars for it. He is, without a doubt, one of the greatest artists of recent times. He has starred in such popular films as Taxi Driver, The Godfather: Part II, Casino, Goodfellas, The Irishman and many others.
But he doesn’t let himself be pinned down to one particular genre; he also starred in dramas and comedies (and acting-wise, he’s just as good as in the ones mentioned above!) So today, we bring you some interesting facts about one of the most important representatives of the seventh art.
Once he got the role of Jake LaMotta in “Raging Bull”, having to go on a pretty strict diet, not in order to lose weight, but in order to gain 27 kilos. He learned how to box, too. And he became so absorbed in his role that he accidentally broke a rib for Joe Pesci during the filming of a scene when they were arguing.
He moved to Sicily for “The Godfather: Part II,” living there for four months to learn the Sicilian dialect so he could play Don Vito Corleone perfectly. And he did this because some of his dialogue was in Italian.
He had some professional details like this in all his movies to deepen his role and make the performance not so superficial: he learned to play the saxophone for “New York, New York”; in “The Untouchables” had his hair cut to play Al Capone, and worked as a cab driver for four weeks to understand his role in “Taxi Driver”.