Martin Scorsese’s made so many movies with Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio, that he’ll never be closely associated with actor Daniel Day-Lewis. But remember: Day-Lewis starred in two Scorsese films, including one of his best and most underrated works: The Age of Innocence. Day-Lewis was nominated for an Academy Award for his other Scorsese movie, that being Gangs of New York, where Day-Lewis played the unforgettable Bill “The Butcher” Cutting.
Day-Lewis retired from acting a few years ago, but he showed up at last night’s National Board of Review awards dinner to present the Best Director award to Scorsese for his work on Killers of the Flower Moon. After paying tribute to the filmmaker, Scorsese himself took the stage and accepted his award from Day-Lewis. And when he did he made an interesting comment.
We did two films together, and it was one of the greatest experiences of my life,” Scorsese noted before adding, “Maybe there’s time to do one more?”
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I was fortunate enough to be in the room at Cipriani’s 42nd Street last night for the National Board of Review awards, and when Scorsese said that, the whole room let out a collective gasp, followed by huge round of applause. It was the only moment like that the whole evening.
Now whether Day-Lewis can be coaxed out of retirement is a whole other story. And Scorsese himself is not exactly a spring chicken; he recently turned 81 and he’s already working on his next film, a project about Jesus Christ based on a novel by Shūsaku Endō — the same Japanese author who penned the source material that Scorsese used as the basis for his 2016 film Silence.
So I would say the odds of a third Scorsese/Day-Lewis are long at best. But when that crowd gasped and applauded at Cipriani’s last night, I was right there with them.