Legendary director Martin Scorsese initially had zero expectations from a movie that earned him an Academy Award for Best Director, his only one. 2006’s The Departed earned many awards despite Scorsese’s prediction that the movie was “too vile and violent” for award shows.
The process of filming the movie was very stressful for the director and he never thought that the movie would win any awards. The movie featured some iconic Hollywood stars like Leonardo DiCaprio, Jack Nicholson, Vera Farmiga, and Matt Damon. One of the film’s producers, actor Brad Pitt, was also supposed to appear in the film but had to leave the project at the last minute.
Martin Scorsese hated this 2006 movie
In 2016, director Martin Scorsese appeared for an interview with The Hamilton Spectator and revealed that the process of working in The Departed (2006), especially post-production, was highly unpleasant for him. The director said,
“I mean, I like the picture, but the process of making it, particularly in the post-production, was highly unpleasant. I said, I don’t care how much I’m being paid, it’ll kill me. I’ll die. Very simply.”
Everyone else supported the idea of the film, even actor Brad Pitt, who was supposed to play Colin Sullivan in the movie, but he left it in order to work with Alejandro G. Iñárritu in Babel (2006). He still continued to produce the film under his and his then-wife, Jennifer Aniston’s production company, Plan B.
The film left the directed exhausted
He further explained that he was drained mentally and physically by the time he finished working on the film. He recalled,
“Moral Ground Zero, I call it. All the characters killed at the end, basically everyone, and there was no place to go, after that. You know, I hardly did any press for that film. I was tired of it. I felt it was maddening.”
Despite no promotions, The Departed was a massive hit. Financially, the film earned $291 million at the global box office on a budget of $90 million.
Martin Scorsese’s The Departed earned four Oscars
It is funny how Scorsese thought the film wouldn’t get any nominations but it managed to earn several prestigious awards including four Oscars at the 79th Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Film Editing.
It was revealed that Scorsese made changes to the film just a week before its theatrical release, which explains how much effort he made for this film. With this movie, the director once again proved that he is one of the best directors in the history of Hollywood.
Source: The Hamilton Spectator
