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Tue 14 January 2025 19:15, UK
To be an actor means taking risks and putting your faith in an idea that could either sweep awards season or fail magnificently. Even in the hands of a trusted director – and with a script that seems great – an actor could still find themselves in films that grace ‘worst of the year’ lists. You really never know how a film is going to be received; all an actor can do is take roles that interest them and hope for the best. Sometimes, however, that means missing out on films that become classics – a tale as old as time for Hollywood’s most iconic stars.
Robert De Niro emerged in the late 1960s, rising to prominence as a figure closely associated with the New Hollywood movement. He routinely appeared in incredible films that shaped the industry, from Martin Scorsese movies like Mean Streets and Taxi Driver and Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather Part II. Of course, the actor won an Oscar for his performance as Vito Corleone in the latter, asserting him as one of America’s most impressive new faces.
Since then, he’s appeared in more acclaimed productions, like Raging Bull, Once Upon A Time in America, Goodfellas, Casino, Heat, and Silver Linings Playbook, racking up plenty of awards in the process. Yet, there was a movie that De Niro turned down during the 1970s that went on to become one of the most acclaimed pieces of cinema of all time. It would’ve been another terrific film to add to his resume, but luckily for the actor, the movie he chose to do instead also became known as one of the finest films ever made.
During an interview with Cigar Aficionado, De Niro was asked about turning down Apocalypse Now, which Coppola had shared with the publication previously. The filmmaker had reportedly offered the actor the main role, but De Niro wasn’t interested – even though they’d worked together before on The Godfather Part II.
De Niro revealed: “The reason I couldn’t do that, as I remember it, I was with Michael Philips, and Randy Julia Philips and Marty [Scorsese] in the Sherry Netherland Hotel. We were having dinner there one night. Francis called. As I remember, and I could have it wrong, I said ‘Francis, I’m about to do Taxi Driver with Marty. I can’t.’ He wanted Al [Pacino], he couldn’t get him. That’s what it was—I couldn’t do it. I wasn’t inclined to do it, but if I had been in a situation where….ah, you never know. At that point I just couldn’t do it as I remember.”
Evidently, De Niro picked Taxi Driver over Apocalypse Now, which was certainly the right choice. It’s hard to imagine anyone embodying the character of Travis Bickle like De Niro, who delivered an iconic performance in Scorsese’s Palme d’Or-winning film. Meanwhile, Apocalypse Now, while lauded as one of the greatest movies of all time, faced a difficult production process – to the point that people believed it was cursed.
It seems that De Niro wasn’t that bothered about Apocalypse Now anyway, opting to reunite with Scorsese, whom he would continue to work with on many more films over the coming decades.
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