From De Niro’s improvised monologue to Scorsese’s unplanned cameo, here are the surprising truths about Taxi Driver
The director's brutal, uncompromising 1976 film is every bit as compelling today, 40 years after its release. Here’s the low-down.
THINK you know everything there is to know about Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver?
Think again.
Here are the biggest secrets from behind the scenes...
The film’s most famous monologue was improvised.
The whole “You talkin’ to me? You talkin’ to me?” scene, delivered by Robert De Niro to a mirror, was unscripted.
The actor improvised the speech on the spot, stealing the famous line from Bruce Springsteen, whom he’d seen in concert days before.
The audience had been chanting his name and Bruce stuck out his chin and called back: “You talkin’ to me?”
Jodie Foster was one of the most experienced actors on set, despite being only 12 years old.
She had already appeared in several movies, as well as a slew of TV shows.
But due to the violent nature of the film – and the fact she was playing an under-age prostitute – a welfare worker had to supervise every scene she appeared in, even making sure she wasn’t on set whenever De Niro’s character swore.
De Niro prepared for the role by working as an actual New York cabbie.
When the film was approved, the actor was in Italy making 1990.
He flew back every weekend to drive a taxi in Manhattan, picking up real fares.
One passenger was a fellow actor, who commiserated with him that, even after winning an Oscar for The Godfather Part II, times were so hard he had to find additional work to support himself.
Everyone involved worked for a fraction of their usual fees.
Such was the power of the screenplay – and the persuasiveness of Martin Scorsese – that the big stars all agreed to take pay cuts to help the film hit its £1.4million budget.
De Niro and Cybill Shepherd were paid just £27,400 each, screenwriter Paul Schrader accepted a similar amount (despite having recently sold another script for £300,000) and Scorsese himself only took £51,000.
Scorsese’s cameo was not planned.
The director’s famous – and pivotal – role as a taxi passenger who describes to De Niro in chilling detail how he plans to kill his unfaithful wife was originally meant to have been played by actor George Memmoli.
But after Memmoli injured his back, Scorsese stepped in himself – and has described taking acting lessons from
De Niro in order to perfect his delivery.
De Niro’s Mohawk haircut was a reference to his character’s Vietnam experiences.
Screenwriter Paul Schrader spoke to Vietnam vets who told him that soldiers would often shave their heads into Mohawk styles before embarking on dangerous or bloody missions.
Other soldiers knew to avoid them as “dead men walking”.
De Niro himself didn’t actually shave his head, but wore a wig for those scenes.