You Might Be Martin Scorsese, But Who’s Steven Spielberg?
On the plane ride to SXSW, I watched The Wolf of Wall Street, which I had been wanting to watch for a while. The critically-acclaimed film was directed by Martin Scorsese, widely regarded as one of the greatest directors of all-time.
I have an Amazon Fire HDX (disclosure: I’m an Amazon shareholder) and, where possible, Amazon has an X-Ray feature where they will display a list of actors currently on the screen as well as information about the film.
During one of the film’s speeches, this note was displayed, from IMDb:
On a routine visit, Steven Spielberg spent a day on the set, watching the shoot of the Steve Madden speech. Martin Scorsese claims that Spielberg essentially co-directed the scene, giving advice to actors and suggesting camera angles.
Wanting to dig into this story a bit deeper, I found this roundtable hosted by The Hollywood Reporter. In it, Scorsese discusses the production of the film, alongside stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Jonah Hill, and writer Terence Winter. I have actually watched this conversation before because it was so fascinating. Here is the part about Spielberg’s set visit:
SCORSESE: Well, he came on the set the day we were shooting the speeches. He said he came in to say hello, and he stayed the whole day and was helping me, saying, “I think you should move the camera.” (Laughs.)
DICAPRIO: That was like a double-whammy for everyone on set. Everyone who had to act that day was like, “Spielberg and Scorsese are watching me? Jesus Christ!”
HILL: We would go back to get notes, and they were sitting next to each other. It was insane.
SCORSESE: And I hadn’t been on his set [since] Catch Me If You Can. Back in the ’70s, we’d hang out, and we used to get [each other’s] advice a lot. But as we all got older, [we] grew apart, in a way, making our own kinds of pictures.
Let’s say you are the greatest community professional in the world. You are the Martin Scorsese of this profession. Excellent.
Who do you turn to for advice?
Who do you invite to your community (or your office) for a few hours, or a day, to have a look around and provide a fresh perspective?
Who’s your Steven Spielberg?
Of course, it’s about more than one person. As Scorsese says in the video, there are all sorts of people he turns to for advice. Because, no matter how great you are, if you have the right people to turn to, it’ll make you greater.
