The Irishman: In Conversation

A short but fun roundtable discussion on the making of Martin Scorsese's The Irishman.

Scorsese appears with his main actors. Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci and Al Pacino who tends to ask most of the questions. Pesci bought his pet cat for the talk, it's on his head.

The film had a long and complicated history before it got to the screen. It is nice to hear Scorsese's thoughts on the movie as well as De Niro who serves as both star and producer. It is De Niro who liked the book on Sheeran and bought the project to Scorsese.

Pacino was grateful that Hoffa had so much footage he could look up for research.

The interesting aspect was the work needed to de-age the actors. Pesci who had mainly been away from screen acting for 20 years found it strange to walk on set and see these huge cameras with multiple lenses which were going to be used by ILM technicians to make them look younger.

Scorsese talked about how when scenes were shot, the actors had to move differently depending on what age they were in the scene.

When Pacino first appeared on set as Hoffa, he got up too slowly from his seat for the scene that was being filmed. This is the first time Pacino has worked with Scorsese. When the crew noticed that Pacino's movement was too slow for the younger Hoffa, They told Scorsese. He was reluctant to tell Pacino because of his temperamental reputation. He ordered one of them to tell Pacino which they also declined to do.