After putting the final touches on his 2006 crime drama “The Departed,” director Martin Scorsese was understandably proud.
But a frequent collaborator says he was also sure the film — which turns 10 today — had no chance at the Oscars.
“He was obviously extremely proud of the film, as was everybody,” Emma Tillinger-Koskoff, a frequent collaborator with Scorsese, told TheWrap. “But he also said, ‘Here’s the good news: We’re not going to be traveling the world and hitting the pavement on the awards circuit because there is no way — this movie is so vile and violent.’ So it’s ironic that he ends up winning the Academy Award and it won for Best Picture.”
“The Departed” also won Oscars for editing and adapted screenplay, earning the film four Academy Awards in total and representing Scorsese’s only career win (so far) as director.
The Boston-set crime drama starred Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, and Mark Wahlberg, and featured memorable performance by Alec Baldwin, Vera Farmiga, Martin Sheen, Ray Winstone, and more.
She says it’s something the two still laugh about to this day, saying, “You know that little film that won the Academy Award? ‘The Departed’?… We certainly had zero expectations.”
Tillinger-Koskoff did, however, manage to get her now-departed dog, Monkey, immortalized with a cameo in the film.
The producer is busy working on Scorsese’s upcoming film about Jesuit priests, “Silence,” and said she only realized it was the 10th anniversary of “The Departed” when TheWrap reached out to her.
“It’s one of those films — I really can’t change the channel when it’s on,” she said of “The Departed.”