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Sat 16 May 2026 21:15, UK
Considering Martin Scorsese’s status in Hollywood as one of the most acclaimed and beloved filmmakers, you wouldn’t think that a single actor would turn him down, but you’d be surprised.
He has long attracted the biggest stars in the business, and they usually stick around, too. After giving Harvey Keitel his first acting role in his directorial debut, Who’s That Knocking at My Door, the pair reunited five more times over the coming years, rising to prominence arm-in-arm, so to speak. Robert De Niro is, of course, the best example, becoming Scorsese’s leading man time and time again, and it’s hard to imagine either of them existing in Hollywood without the other.
Then there’s Leonardo DiCaprio, too, who has collaborated with Scorsese multiple times over in the 21st century, all of which enabled the star to reach the next level of his potential. He’d already been in huge hits like Romeo + Juliet and Titanic, but when DiCaprio became Scorsese’s next muse, landing roles in the likes of Gangs of New York, The Aviator, and The Departed, he graduated from his heartthrob status and moved towards a grittier, more challenging cinematic avenue that earned him a much-deserved ‘Best Actor’ Oscar.
These long-standing collaborations, which aren’t just working ones, but personal relationships, too, reflect Scorsese’s reliability. He doesn’t seem like the soulless money-grabbing director type, and instead appears to really love his craft, and he’ll rope in his friends as much as possible, desperate to work with people he respects and admires.
But there’s one actor who would argue with this assessment, although he’s not one you can ever take all that seriously. Vincent Gallo has said some pretty nasty things about people in the past, even attempting to put a hex on Roger Ebert’s colon when he gave The Brown Bunny a bad review, and unfortunately for Scorsese, he too has been unable to escape Gallo’s wrath.
To be honest, I think it would be quite the honour to be slagged by Gallo, because he comes out with the most ridiculous insults imaginable.
Interestingly, Gallo actually appeared in a very minor role in Scorsese’s Goodfellas, one of his earliest screen appearances. Eight years later, he’d gain notoriety for his directorial debut, Buffalo ‘66, and the offensive comments he’d make about its star, Christina Ricci, which was only furthered by his next film, The Brown Bunny, featuring a real blowjob scene between him and Chloe Sevigny.
Further reading: Cutting Room Floor
So, while Ricci was called fat by the actor-director, Ebert was told by Gallo that he had “the physique of a slave trader”, and even Spike Jonze was called “a pig piece of shit”, Scorsese actually got off pretty lightly. Gallo should’ve been grateful for landing an early onscreen appearance in something as successful as Goodfellas, but instead, he once declared Scorsese “an egomaniac has-been” who he “would never work with”.
Gallo is adamant that no amount of money would convince him to collaborate with the filmmaker, adding, “I wouldn’t work for Martin Scorsese for $10million. He hasn’t made a good film in 25 years”. Sure, it’s OK to prefer Scorsese’s earlier work, but is Scorsese really a “has-been”? And out of all the directors in Hollywood, Gallo included, I’d hardly call Scorsese the most egotistical.
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