Robert De Niro, Al Pacino & Martin Scorsese – The Irishman Press Conference in Full

So ladies and gentlemen would you please
now welcome to the stage director Martin Scorsese followed by Robert De Niro and
Al Pacino and the producers Jane Rosenthal and
Emma Tillinger Koskoff the long walk down thank you very much
and welcome as Trisha said what an amazing line-up to have here on on this
stage for this press conference just before I throw it open to the questions
from the press I wonder if it rather than go down asking you all individual
questions this is something that I’m sure everybody will have something to
say about which is in some ways we look at this line up along here and we say
why did it take so long you’ve known each other
decades and I know this project has been in your minds for a while in one way or
another so give us a little bit of context as to
how the irishman comes together well it it goes back to some special work that
Bob and I were involved in for 20-some odd years we were trying to get another
project going based on our tenure in Hollywood so to
speak in the 70s and the 80s and that development to something else developed
into something else and we never quite settled on on on the project and the
last time we really worked together was in 1995 casino and so from that point on
we would always check with each other what we were doing whether I could fit
it into his plans and vice versa and ultimately we did I think we did get
involved what was above the winter of Frankie machine
yeah project yeah I mean we weren’t too enthusiastic about it sorry but we
decided we had to do something no but I think I was there in 2010 no two
thousand eight thousand seven thank you and so we did enough time we couldn’t
settle on something so this is a project that we thought we would have some
possibilities I was really looking for something that with Bob to
rich more or less where we had gone in the 70s and the 80s in the early 90s I
mean you know to just replicate what we had tried to do in the beginning of our
careers would wouldn’t be anything I wouldn’t be enriching in any way and so
you were about to direct the Good Shepherd and Eric Roth was writing that
and Eric knowing that we were trying to do something called Frankie Machine
about a hit man who’d retired Eric gave you a book called I heard you paint
houses by Charles Brandt for research yeah we were talking about he said he
just read it and and he had just come out and I said oh I got to read that
book and and then when Marty and I were preparing so that was about two years
earlier than when Marty and I was starting to were committed through
Frankie Machine and were Mario starting to show me films like Jean Jean Gabin
film like to Sperrys be and Mel fields do lo and LeDoux’s iam souffle and
pictures like that get a sense of the gab and character because you at the
time you were doing casino I felt that that presence was similar and then and
then I said well I have to read this book that I’ve been always wanting to
read Cole I heard you paint houses and so I did read just as research for the
character and then I after I read it I got together with Marty and I said you
you got a look at this and because I think this is what you’re gonna want to
do so that was it and well Jane you had the story about on the telephone with
Brad gray right so we were ready to commit
babam are you ready to commit to making Frankie winter Frankie machine and it
was going to be financed by Paramount Brad grey and we were all on I call
together and Brad who’s going to give us the green light and in the middle of
middle of this conversation Bob said well there’s this other book
that we’re thinking about and you know it could be researched maybe
could combine these two movies and Brad said oh so you thinking so you want to
take a go movie and turn it into a development project and you kind of
heard everybody go mm-hmm so so anyway that was 2007 and then we brought Steve
Zaillian on and Steve delivered Steven Marty and Bob worked together and we
adoption die here you paint houses Frankie machine went away and Steve
delivered a script in 2009 nine yeah I mean the point is that we’ve been trying
to find something that we felt right with I don’t know how you define right
you know it’s ambiguous and kind of we felt comfortable with in a way it’s
something we couldn’t articulate it and once he described this character to me I
felt that he had a good sense of it and I said well this is maybe where we
could really try to explore and see see what we could come up with and it might
really be a value ultimately for us as creative partners working together and
getting out involved getting Joe Pesci involved and the rest of the cast and so
we took a chance and got Steve Zaillian say Eileen and I you know we pulled
together a wonderful script and and it took a number of years because why well
well we Steve wrote the script which was terrific wonderful as Marty says and and
then it was a matter of getting everybody his schedules to line up and
marty was doing Hugo I remember coming over here I don’t know when you were
doing 2009-2010 I thank you and we were talking about that and how – what we
were gonna do and his availability and he wanted to silence and and so on and
then I had I said – Marty I wanted to make sure he was okay if we would just
let it out there when we talk on interviews and usually I’m very
superstitious about that because when you talk about it it usually doesn’t
happen and I thought maybe in this case since
we were so we had no backers no people really interested the idea that we were
doing it with with Al and Joe that cleaning with Marty and then we I talked
to Joe and and Al about there okay and he mentioning that they’re on board so
we did that and then we had a reading of the script that was the reading of the
script was right before the January right before you left to go do silence
we had this one opportunity to get everyone together and we taped a reading
2012 I personally believe that was all we would have of of the irishman it was
so difficult to get financing and then when everybody heard it there was a new
energy but Marty and Emma went off to to shoot silence so we had another delay a
good one a good one so if I can bring a Pacino in here Jimmy Hoffa so I mean
with what was your initial reactions the idea of playing Jimmy offer it’s me it
is you well it was a confess I’ve known Marty him and Bob very long time in Soul
when the Bob came to me called me about it and it sounded really interesting and
the opportunity to work with them was you know it was very important to me I I
really wanted that for years we almost worked in the other Marty and I at
different things and of course Bob and I have worked together I mean we’ve known
each other since we were young actors so we and and we’ve worked together so it
was good thing the first meeting we had about this with you al was a we talked
about it tell in LA oh that’s right the hotel yes
yeah so coming back to me all right well it’s so long ago
but the thing was he after the discussion we talked a little bit then
he looked at us and he said is this going to happen because the
complications of schedules and then of course no real enthusiasm to say the
least about financing really it made it you know something that is a nice dream
but we were pretty clear as you said Jane that maybe the reading was going to
be the the only time you’d have heard it or seen it you know and we knew that
going in but somehow we pursued but I think that reading was very well
arranged it so that I guess you would say the right kind of people were there
yeah to listen to it and that was a very effective yeah they got excited by that
they still need to miss the money see I didn’t know about the money good word of
mouth yeah yeah Steve Zaillian came in and and I remember was you know al Bob
Bobby Cannavale Paulie Herman I was there to Joe Pesci Stephanie could
Scerbo plays Bob’s wife in the film yeah it was kind of enjoyable reading you
could feel it though yeah you know you could feel that there was something
there was a live wire there it had life to it so I always thought I get a call
from time to time from Al is it gonna happen as you happen don’t worry
hold on hold on working on it well thank goodness it did because the result it’s
fantastic time for some questions from you oh so many hands in my hands okay
lovely let’s where there’s microphones there’s one there okay can we get this
straight to wade down here please first and then
if we can get another microphone over here as well and then we’ll go up to
that thanks hello Catherine Drago from free cinema I just saw the film was
mind-blowing it was one of those all hmm old epic things that make you lucky to
be in a cinema and watching it and so thank you so much for all of you for
that the question is you this is obviously a Netflix production and it’s
coming out very shortly after it has its run in the cinemas and it’s a it’s very
it’s it’s it seems like a good collaboration at the moment between TV
or Internet companies with films with with the film industry so and there are
of course some people who are naysayers so what would you think will will we
need to at some point redefine perhaps what is cinema well you’re looking at me
yeah but I think we’re redefining it now in in such a way I think it’s not just
an evolving of cinema but it’s a revolution I mean it’s as even bigger
than the revolution that sound brought to cinema it’s the revolution of cinema
itself back 120 years ago hundred 15 years ago it’s a new that and we say the
new technology we bring in the things that are unimaginable and how not only
is it is it something extraordinarily good for narrative films but it that way
narrative stories told with the inside it emphasized in motion motion and
motion picture images but it opens up whole the the the original conception of
what a film is and where it’s to be seen has now changed so radically that we may
have to say ok let’s say there’s a certain kind of film that’s made here
there might be obviously virtual reality films there’s Holograms there’s all
sorts of things that have been becoming that we really know so in effect one
thing we one thing that we’ll never something that that should always be
protected as much as possible and I think we’ll always be there is a
communal experience and I think that’s best in a theater now
homes are becoming theaters too but it’s it’s a major change and I think one has
to keep an open mind you know there’s no doubt like this seeing a film with with
an audience is is is really really important there is a problem though on
that you have to make the film and we went out we run out of room in a sense
there was no room for us to make this picture and even if from many different
reasons I guess and ultimately there was a financial issue to in terms of the CGI
that we did and the reason why we went for CGI is kind of complicated because
at a certain point if I made the film earlier we may have could they could
have played younger and then at a certain point we missed that and then
they said well use younger actors to play them younger and I said well that’s
what’s the point of that and I don’t know back and forth and finally to CGI
and we tried it and so let’s try let’s see what experiment open it up
I mean CGI and that to that extent is really an evolution of makeup really you
know you accept certain norms and makeup you know that that’s he’s not that old
if she’s not that young but you accept that as a norm
I mean you accept the illusion so to speak taking that and having the backing
of a company that says you know you will have no interference you’ll make this
picture as you want the trade-off is it’s streams with theatrical
distribution prior to that I figured that’s that’s that’s the chance we take
on this particular project you know what streaming means and how
that’s going to define a new form of cinema I’m not sure I thought for a
while maybe long-form TV is cinema it’s not
it simply isn’t you know it’s it’s a different viewing experience you could
look at three episodes two four ten you know one one week second episode the
second week that’s not yeah it’s a different kind of thing so there’s got
to be still what has to be protected is the singular experience of experiencing
a picture ideally with an audience you know but there’s room for so many others
now and so many other ways and there’s going to be crossovers completely the
value how do you say the value of a film that’s like a theme-park film for
example the Marvel type pictures where the theaters become amusement parks
that’s a different experience and Psyche it’s not even it’s I’m saying earlier
it’s not cinema it’s something else you know whether you go for that or not but
it is something else and they shouldn’t be
we shouldn’t be invaded by it and so that that’s a big issue that’s a big
issue and we need the theater owners to step up for that they say to allow
theaters to show films that are narrative films and narrative film could
be one long take for three hours to you know it doesn’t have to be everybody
doesn’t have to be a conventional beginning middle and end but if that it
that answers your question I’m okay I’m retain anything you want to add to
that as the people have to find them the money to do this you don’t have to it
was only if you wanted to stream whether whether cinema is has reached a point
where it’s changing when you’ve got the option of having string wealth as it
were in this case the Netflix option what he said but okay the one point the
one point to add to what Marty said is that it will be in theaters and even
when it goes on platinum it still will continue to be in theaters so audiences
have their choice of whether they’re going to watch it in theatres and have
an amazing cinema community experience or they want to watch it on a platform
Roma for example is still in theaters in the way
around the world so again it’s the audience has the choice of how they want
to how they want to use something and they’re not mutually exclusive
thank you yes next question in a sense mr. Scorsese leading on Helen Barlow
from Australia and covering for Portugal as well hi Sergio Leone’s once upon a
time in in America that starred mr. De Niro was a film perhaps more similar to
this one do you think there are any references to that film here in that
it’s a long film and not as perhaps actually act as your as your earlier
gangster films because I think what really gangster films were very
different to this well in this underworld milieu yeah I mean well the I
guess the similarities it’s very long and Bob’s in it I mean we love Leone but
I there was no way that I was thinking I was doing Sergio there’s no way I can’t
do that you know we just I just intuitively made the movie and I
told Bob when we were trying to get the rate raise the finances I know how to do
this I said I haven’t thought I know how to follow it through and I just went
with that how does it relate to them well they’re well you know back in 1973
we were 29 30 years old now we’re much older
and so we hope that maybe the vantage point of time that something has evolved
and maybe deepened to a certain extent about life really and if that could be
conveyed in the story and the performances and the way the film was
put together and that would be some sort of advancement rather than just
replicating what we had done in the past thank you hi guys that Thomas cross here
from f-104 in Ireland and I just want to say what did it feel like looking at
yourselves younger for the first time when you were looking back at the movie
was it a bit crazy that’s on you guys not on me well considering everything is
crazy it was crazy I don’t know quite what you mean though I’m sorry what what
are you what are you saying like just with the new technology you
know like this opens up everything that anyone can play anyone or anything there
is it does it open up a brand new world for everyone well I I don’t feel that
way personally I mean maybe it does for you know this is this is a technique
that’s early on it’s being formed it’s in its liquid what they have said it’s
it’s a form of makeup you know and it could change things and but we I don’t
think you feel that way as an actor I think you feel it as an actually you you
you playing a role and a role that more than likely hopefully you’re suited for
and and so when you do that you’re you all bets are off really doesn’t matter I
know it sounds it doesn’t matter what you look like
you know it’s did this is this is sort of true in a way because I saw the film
you showed it to me shame they showed it to me without
anything mm-hmm and I just went with it and I didn’t think anymore that these
this was a story it was it was so it handled in such a way it was delivered
in such a way direct orally visually cinema costumes everything and also in
the acting and so I felt that was what was picking me up
mm-hmm you know the story I wasn’t thinking about anything else
after a while I mean I didn’t even think about what a first started of course it
was me I’m a little so I wasn’t thinking about the lines in our faces or anything
I just was accepting these people they existed to that’s another thing there’s
a this was an interesting thing to try with because it’s it’s a story about
real things that happen people who really lived and now I don’t know maybe
that had something to do with my reaction to it so this whole thing to me
is innovative of course but at the same time if you tell a story and and in the
end that’s that’s what I I’m a little bit more I’m a little more concerned
about that and as I say I did see the film without any any work what we call
the effects effects okay and it was fine as a matter of fact I’m not the only one
who felt that way yeah the people who had seen it I mean unless you’re looking
for it right so there it is and then I think it’s really good that it we have
that in the film that we have this potential and it’s exercised in the film
and it’s it’s stating what it’s stating in the old days they put you know the
actor that we all knew and loved and they put grey hair on him and
you’d say oh he got older but you’d accept it you know you’d accept it
because it was makeup and you went with it because in the story I don’t know
what I’m going too far here I feel sorry Dyer holding for myself something I
don’t even know what I’m sorry you want to say a little about how you what you
when you saw yourself yeah yeah III always joke that my career will be
extended another 30 years no it’s a whole interesting thing because how
where it will evolve as far as I was just thinking about copyrights and later
and you and likeness in this and who gets it what long after we’re all long
gone families and stuff like that I mean they
even have that now in some ways with using the famous actors from years ago
in commercials who have a creative and certain whatever that they represent
what that product is whatever so all that stuff I don’t know I I’m just happy
where we’re at the beginning stages of it really being explored and God goes
God knows where it’ll go and and and what excited me about it was
that Pablo Helmand was doing this thing and wanted to make it state of the art
the best it could be to this to date and that was a an ambition for this movie
which was ambitious always all the time it fit the whole the whole thing see
it’s it’s also how we move yeah well that you know how you move these are the
little things in there you know you’re going along looking pretty and then you
you go to get up so someone would come out and just say
hey man what are you doing you’re 39 hi I’m masseur from geek pool Germany and
my question goes to all three of you and what was the biggest challenge for each
one of you on this movie for you directing for you playing your
characters what was the biggest challenge yeah they’re making the movies
it’s a big challenge yeah because I mean in terms of Bob and Alan you know you
guys they’re performing me I can’t speak for that but it for me it’s it’s cutting
through all the issues of how you perceive a story the sweep of a story
what’s essential to get and what isn’t essential and making those editing
choices right there on set but first of all even before set before shooting
begins to make those editing choices and in shooting even tougher on those
editing choices because it’s a very complex picture complex in terms of
technology – and staying close or staying on on on point in a way staying
on the what’s essential to the story and those are the characters particularly
Frank’s character and eliminating everything else around that was getting
in the way and this I think was 108 days shoot so this is something and then in
the editing – so it’s wrangling the picture in a way they call it wrangling
you know and always threatening to run a little bit out of control but grabbing
it again and using Frank Sheeran as the anchor for the whole picture until
finally you wind up with him alone and that’s what it’s all been about I mean
that’s just general about how you make a movie other ways sometimes you make a
movie you don’t know what you’re gonna do when you get there in this set I
don’t I tried that once didn’t work for me it didn’t work and
I usually like planning and and fighting my way through the whole process you
know until we get as best we can to the end result you guys character yeah and
certain things with like Marty we were every so often I would come in to
narrate pieces that Marty was figured that we had to sort of voice over to to
give information or whatever sort of yeah that’s a normal part of making a
movie you went into you even went into the audio tracks the audio tracks a
Frank Sharon’s actual voice yes stories and every now and then we go and we yeah
tell me something so yeah that’s interesting and we’d fool around with
that and try to find time to shoot it in the film I’d give it to Emma and tell
her could you find some production time please I’d say yes yeah so was that your
biggest challenge ever helping Marty realize everything he yeah
try ya know do what you want to get be want to be want them to all of them to
have the time specifically it’s the time time solitude to you to create and and
the environment and the quiet safe sort of space for them to do and and and you
don’t want to you don’t want to rob them of that at all so it’s challenged but we
had phenomenal partners Netflix the best and we we carved out that time and space hello Eloise from Strand Magazine
congratulations on the film it was fantastic
so I just wanted to ask you guys why do you think that we are constantly pulled
back into talking about films about pain and trauma and as in the irishman
there’s a lot on macro level with the president’s assassination etc but it
really does go into personal individual pain and I was just wondering why do you
think that why do you think pain is important in
telling story telling him yes pain suffering that idea what makes an
interesting story I mean what do you think guys well I mean this was a simple
story was about a guy who was caught between two people who were powerful
people and one of them was disappeared we never knew what happened to him
really to this day the other one was also of the joel gallery from franklin
him you you still don’t know who did that to him
it had that to hang on in some ways this this political this sort of this grand
story with these historical if you want the type characters and a simple story
and also bob in terms of that when you’re talking about these guys and then
on the other level you have JFK a Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King you’ve
got knew all this going on and nobody knows really what happened there and I
would say but would it make any difference now we knew exactly who when
how and where no the dark forces that take over that are always present and
these guys are right in the middle of it in a way they just walked by the TV and
there’s missiles coming from Cuba you know so and that’s your afternoon lunch
you know so it yeah I mean that when you say the simple story that was the thing
to hold on to the simplicity of it because the rest is so complicated okay
hi my name’s Stefan Pape I’m just wondering I mean this film for me of
many ways is about like reflection I wonder with your kind of amazing careers
it’s how kind of ingrained into the kind of fabric of sort of cinema do you guys
ever saw sit back and reflect or do always look towards the next project and
also I was just wondering I thought you’re just wondering why okay okay the
second part of the question that was the good part so I thought I’d
never see legends all right so take powers do you think Odin could have made
this film now because you’ve lived kind of full of lives that you’re now in a
position where you can kind of you’re in a position bear but place that sort of
understand the texture of this narrative you mean that we could have made this
film earlier would have been different well yeah I think yep absolutely I mean
it’s like I don’t I think it isn’t we all got it in I don’t think we all got
together and said let’s make a movie and reflect you know we’re all sitting in
the trailer like this is like suddenly as I say it’s intuitive you know then I
think Oh Bob you know it was a movie that evolved it would have I mean could
could it have been done earlier yes but the story came out of a certain point
the book came out that took so many years to evolve we actually had problems
getting the rights to the story there was a lot of confusion there too that
took a bit of time and everything and when you always see these movies that
especially in the old days they’d have 15 years in the making finally on the
screen this is what it’s all about legal and everything legal scheduled actors
availability director everybody the whole thing it’s but we were just happy
that we were able to make it and I had a great time I would have shot for another
five six months with more well sadly time is actually the question here I’m
really sorry to those of you who’ve not managed to ask a question but I want to
thank you for the questions there were and particularly to thank our panel for
their magnificent and moving film so thank you thank you ladies and gentlemen you’re watching hey
you guys hey you guys huh that from the Goonies