Martin Scorsese’s 2006 crime drama, The Departed, featured a huge star cast from Leonardo DiCaprio to Mark Wahlberg. The remake of the 2002 Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs, The Departed, follows a spy and an undercover agent constantly counter-attacking each other to prevent exposing themselves to authorities. The film was a commercial and critical success and grossed over $290 million at the box office.
It was nominated under five categories at the 79th Academy Awards and won four Oscars, including Best Director and Best Picture. While the movie is notable for its stellar performances, it’s memorable to its cast members for some other reasons. And actor Jack Nicholson pulling a gun on his co-stars is one of them.
Leonardo DiCaprio Was Terrified of Jack Nicholson
The 2006 crime drama The Departed features Jack Nicholson’s character Frank Costello and Leonardo DiCaprio’s character Billy Costigan in a conversation about a “gnawing, teething fu*king rat.” While both the stars gave incredible performances, DiCaprio looked seriously stunned throughout the scene.
And director Martin Scorsese shared the reason why the Titanic star was so astounded throughout the scene. The director explained that Jack Nicholson, who portrayed the Irish mob boss Frank Castello in the movie, surprised his co-star by pulling a gun on him.
“The first thing Jack did was sniff the glass and say, ‘I smell a rat.’ And then he pulled a gun on him,” Scorsese shared in Richard Schnickel’s book Conversations With Scorsese. The Oscar-winning director shared that The Shining star wanted to make the scene “more intense.”
The Hugo director also shared that DiCaprio’s reaction was “great” and said, “Leo’s reaction is real-time. I still get chills. It’s so real to me.” While The Pledge star did manage to get some amazing reactions from his co-stars, it only added to other cast members’ struggle to keep up with his unpredictable behavior.
Matt Damon And Leonardo DiCaprio on Working With Jack Nicholson
Matt Damon has shared his experience working with Jack Nicholson in the 2006 film and claimed that he and Leonardo DiCaprio were very confused and alarmed due to his unpredictable behavior on the set. During an interview, he said,
“Leo and I are like a deer in the headlights in a lot of those scenes with him because we have no idea what this guy’s gonna do.”
The Shutter Island star also shared that in a number of scenes, he had no idea about “what was going to happen.” He explained that although he had a “sense of fear” while working on the film, it also had some positive effects.
DiCaprio shared that the constant sense of fear gave his character in the film a “new dynamic.” He shared that Nicholson had a “short run” so he filmed his scenes and left. But he also described those moments as the “most intense moments” of the film and some of the memories he will never forget as a person.
The Departed is available on HBO Max.
Source: Conversations With Scorsese
