Taxi Driver, the 1976 psychological drama that many consider one of the greatest films ever made, turns 50 this year. To celebrate the anniversary, Robert De Niro spoke with Martin Scorsese and Jodie Foster during a June 5th panel in New York City.
During the conversation, it was revealed that the most popular line from the film, which many people know even if they have never seen the classic, came straight from De Niro. The line, of course, was: “Are you talking to me?”
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As reported by PEOPLE, De Niro revealed that those exact words weren’t written in the script. He improvised them on set that day. “I came up with it,” he confirmed.
Paul Schrader, the screenwriter of the film, explained, “Bob asked me about it once, and I said, ‘Well, it's just like a kid who's 8 years old standing in front of a mirror with his cap gun, going, bang, bang, bang.' He's talking to himself, that's that. I never elaborated on exactly what he was saying. I figured, you know, that was up to the actor. The actor's got to come up with something. So that was the last I heard of it."
Scorsese recalled telling the actor, “When you do this thing in the mirror, you gotta say something.” He then explained to the audience, “I remember just being on the floor with earphones on, and [De Niro] just started playing with the gun and then this stuff started coming out, and I remember saying a couple of times, ‘Yeah, do it again, do it again.’ At that point, I remember Pete Scoppa, who was this great assistant director in New York, he was banging on the door, and I had to go over to him, ‘What is it?' He goes, ‘You're two hours over! We gotta get this thing done. Come on, get out of there.' I said, ‘No, this is good. Give us another few minutes.' And I closed the door, went back in and just continued."
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Taxi Driver won the Palme d'Or at the 1976 Cannes Film Festival. It was also nominated for Best Picture, Best Actor, and Best Supporting Actress at the Academy Awards. In 1994, it was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.
Even though it is now 50 years old, the film still holds up to this day, with a 93 percent audience score on Rotten Tomatoes and an 89 percent critic score.
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