30 Mind Blowing Things You Probably Didn’t Know About The Fan Favorite Director Martin Scorsese

Martin Charles Scorsese, the world renowned American director, producer, screenwriter, and film historian, with a career spanning more than half a century, was born on November 17, 1942. He is famously known for the frequent use of slow motion, freeze frames, long tracking shots and often a quick cameo. Here are some really interesting facts about the director:

1. The National Endowment for the Humanities selected Scorsese for the Jefferson Lecture, the U.S. federal government's highest honor for achievement in the humanities, in the year 2013. This made him the first filmmaker in the history to have been chosen for this honor.
2. In August 2007, he was named the second-greatest director of all time in a poll by Total Film magazine, only after Alfred Hitchcock and is followed by Steven Spielberg.
3. In “The Wolf of Wall Street,” Jonah Hill wanting to work with Scorsese, took a pay cut and was paid the S.A.G. minimum, which was $60,000.
4. While filming the movie “Goodfellas,” he was so involved in every detail of the film’s cast's wardrobe that he tied Ray Liotta's tie himself in order to make sure it was accurate for the film's setting.
5. He was given the novel "Silence" by the Reverend Paul Moore back in 1988, which he read in Japan. He along with the screenwriter Jay Cocks had written an early draft of the film in the 1990s. He intended to direct it after his 2002 movie “Gangs of New York.” However, he went on to do “The Aviator,” as he couldn't get financing for “Silence.”
6. For the screenplay of “Goodfellas,” he collaborated with Nicholas Pileggi and persuaded him saying there was no need to follow a traditional narrative structure. He would compact scenes and realized that if they were kept short, "the impact after about an hour and a half would be terrific".
7. Before making the 2010 “Shutter Island,” he along with Leonardo DiCaprio decided to work on “The Wolf of the Wall Street,” but was not able to proceed with the decision due to the financial condition that time.
8. During the production of the movie “The Aviator,” he designed each year in the film to look just the way a color film from that time period would look. He recreated the look of Cinecolor and two-strip Technicolor, mainly through digitally enhanced post-production.
9. In the year 2007, Scorsese was honored by the National Italian American Foundation (N.I.A.F.) at the nonprofit's thirty-second Anniversary Gala.
10. For the movie “Goodfellas,” he approached Nicholas Pileggi, just as he first got the wind of the book "Wiseguy." Although, at that time he had sworn off making another gangster movie, he immediately cold-called Pileggi and told him, "I've been waiting for this book my entire life." To which Pileggi replied, "I've been waiting for this phone call my entire life.”
11. During the filming of the 2002 movie “Gangs of New York,” he recreated 19th-century New York on the lot of Cinecitta studios in Rome. It was reported that when George Lucas visited the massive set, he simply told Scorsese, "Sets like that can be done with computers now."
12. His movie “Goodfellas,” reportedly received the worst preview response in the Warner Bros studio's history. Warner Bros was initially nervous in releasing the movie, due to the extreme violence and language. Despite everything, the movie was released unaltered to overwhelming critical acclaim.
13. On January 17, 2010, at the 67th Golden Globe Awards, he was the recipient of the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award.
14. During the filming of “Silence,” director Martin Scorsese was said to have been "intimidating" on the set and that "he requires absolute silence...if he hears one tiny sound, it shatters it for him.”
15. In the post production stage of the most famous movie “The Departed” it was reported that, Scorsese added the final touches on the film only a week before its theatrical release.
16. Before the filming of “Goodfellas,” Scorsese did not want Ray Liotta to meet or even contact the real Henry Hill, because he had never directed Liotta earlier to that, and did not want Hill to influence Liotta.
17. He was awarded the French Legion of Honour in Paris, France, in recognition of his contribution to cinema, on January 5, 2005.
18. Olivia Harrison was impressed with his 2005 Bob Dylan documentary “No Direction Home: Bob Dylan,” and chose him to direct “George Harrison: Living in the Material World.”
19. In the movie “Goodfellas,” for the famous "Layla" montage, it was Scorsese, who actually played the "piano coda" section of the song, during the shooting of each scene so that certain bars of the piano piece would match up with certain shots.
20. It was reported he got interested in making “Gangs of New York,” in the early 1970s after he read the book while house-sitting on Long Island one New Year's Eve. During the production, he even returned his salary to bring the movie within budget.
21. He did not realize that the movie “The Departed,” was actually a remake of a Hong Kong movie, till he agreed to direct it. However, the movie went on to become the only remake of a foreign film to have won the Academy Award for Best Picture.
22. On February 12, 2012, at the 65th British Academy Film Awards, Scorsese was honored with the BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award.
23. It was his daughter Francesca Scorsese who presented him a copy of the Brian Selznick book, “The Invention of Hugo Cabret,” as a birthday gift hoping that someday he would make a film out of it. She also suggested to have the film presented in 3D format. Scorsese claims that just as he read the book, he felt an immediate connection to the story.
24. Scorsese claims that his award winning movie “The Aviator,” had its filming completed in just 91 days. He also said that he personally paid $500,000 of his own money to cover over budget expenses.
25. While receiving the top award from the Director's Guild of America for the movie “The Departed,” he claimed it to be the first movie he has “ever done with a plot."
26. In 2011, Scorsese received an honorary doctorate from the National Film School in Lodz. While receiving the award he said, "I feel like I'm a part of this school and that I attended it.”
27. During the filming of “Goodfellas,” he requested the associates of the actual people to be available always on the set, to give helpful and essential information about the life, people, settings, and moods.
28. For his most popular movie “Hugo,” his first foray into 3D, he rather than having the 3D accomplished by post-conversion, decided to have it shot in native format. For this, he along with VFX supervisor Robert Legato and cinematographer Robert Richardson, spent around two weeks at the Cameron/Pace group doing a crash course on filming in that format.
29. For his work on the most popular documentary “George Harrison: Living in the Material World,” he won two Emmy Awards for Outstanding Directing for Nonfiction Programming and Outstanding Nonfiction Special.
30. Two of his movies were placed on the American Film Institute’s 10 Top 10 list: “Raging Bull” at #1 for the Sports genre and “Goodfellas” at #2 for the Gangster genre, on June 17, 2008.
31. Martin Scorsese Net Worth: $70 Million