Interview with Martin Scorsese
The Rolex Arts Initiative requires a serious time commitment and you are extraordinarily busy. So what made you say accept the invitation to be a mentor?
When I was a film student in New York in the early 1960s, I won a scholarship to spend five days in California observing the making of a television show. While I was there I asked to be an observer on the films of certain directors, but it just wasn’t done at the time. So I said to myself that if I ever get in a position to offer that to young people, I would.
How has this worked out in practice when you invite young people to work with you?
I find that if the protégé knows how to behave on set, this is where they really get the education. If they know how to observe and know the right questions to ask, only at the right time. I would have been a terrible protégé, asking too many questions all the time.
On location with Shutter Island, you gave Celina Murga a great opportunity simply by keeping her by your side as you monitored the action from the director’s blue tent.
Oh, those horrible blue tents!
They don’t look horrible, they look wonderful, like a royal pavilion.
They look wonderful but they remind me of a quote by Stanley Kubrick. When they asked him what’s the most difficult thing about film-making, he said: “Getting out of the car in the morning.” Because you’re going into the tent – the place where all the decisions are made!
Celina is a delightful person, and at the same time, when it comes to her work, she has a kind of ruthless drive.
A director has to have that – we’re desperate people! We’ll do anything to get it done. But seriously, there was an inner strength and a very sure quality about her, a very healthy confidence. Whether she questions herself or not, she’ll invariably stay on the right road to whatever project she’s trying to create.