Martin Scorsese Praises Leonardo DiCaprio’s Maturing & Courage (Exclusive)

On Wednesday night, “Extra’s” Mona Kosar Abdi spoke to famed director Martin Scorsese on the red carpet for the “Killers of the Flower Moon” NYC premiere event.

Scorsese opened up about why he wanted to tell the story and about teaming up with Leonardo DiCaprio yet again.

Martin commented, “I've been lucky enough to meet him years ago. We worked on ‘Gangs of New York’ and he happened to like my films a lot, especially with Bob De Niro… What happened over the years, we got to trust each other on ‘Aviator’ and then on ‘Departed,’ and after that what began to happen… as he's growing as a young man into an older man… his maturing in reality in life is reflected in his work, and he's maturing in his work.”

“I find I can even give more from him because he's got… a lot of courage and incredible amount of talent… He's got the perfect face for cinema,” Scorsese noted. “He doesn't have to say anything, you know, his looks, his eyes look a certain [way]. I know it because we edit the film.”

Their new film is based on a true story about a Native American massacre over their oil rich land in Oklahoma that led to the formation of the F.B.I. The movie also features a breakout performance from Lily Gladstone as Leo's character Ernest's wife Mollie.

Should Gladstone receive an Oscar nomination for her work, as industry buzz predicts, she would become the first Native American woman nominated for Best Actress.

As for why it was important to tell the story now, Marty explained, “We don’t want to give a history lesson, a civic lesson, or preach a sermon… I took the story and placed it in the most intimate setting, and we saw it through the lens of a marriage between Mollie and Ernest, which is based on the real story, too.”