The Martin Scorsese documentary, ‘Mr. Scorsese,’ has released to widespread critical acclaim on Apple TV (it holds an extremely rare 100% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes) â and the reason regular Scorsese collaborator Joe Pesci doesn’t appear in it has now been made clear.
The five-part series features input from Robert De Niro, Daniel Day-Lewis, Spike Lee, Brian De Palma, Jodie Foster, Steven Spielberg, Leonardi DiCaprio, Ari Aster, Mick Jagger, and other friends, family, peers, and creative collaborators of Scorsese’s. However, Pesci is notably missing from that long list.
As it turns out, the reason for his absence is both heartbreaking and understandable.
Joe Pesci’s Past Experiences Are Too Hard to Talk About
Per Variety, the documentary’s director, Rebecca Miller, explained precisely why Pesci, 82, turned down the opportunity to speak in it.
It’s because Pesci’s upbringing in in Newark, New Jersey, saw him surrounded by the criminal underworld. Somewhat ironically, it’s both the reason he’s so brilliant at playing criminal characters, and the reason he doesn’t want to talk about his time doing so.
Miller said, “The only person who said ‘no’ was Joe Pesci. He really didnât want to be interviewed for this. Marty explains it a little bit in the documentary. He talks about how Joe just doesnât want to talk about the experiences that made him so perfect for this kind of role.”
Such was the level of Pesci’s proximity to dangerous individuals, the terrifying scene in 1990’s ‘GoodFellas’ in which he interrogates Ray Liotta’s Henry Hill about his off-handed commented that his character, Tommy DeVito, was “funny,” was improvised based on something he’d witnessed in person.
Miller elaborated, “Joe was marked far worse than Marty was by those people. I don’t think he wants to go over all that.”
Joe Pesci Has Appeared in Four Martin Scorsese Movies
Although it’s understandable, it’s a real shame that Joe Pesci wouldn’t appear in the ‘Mr. Scorsese’ documentary. Frankly, his best work came in his four collaborations with the director.
Not only did he win the Best Supporting Actor Academy Award for his aforementioned role in ‘GoodFellas,’ he also gave brilliant performances in 1981’s ‘Raging Bull,’ 1995’s ‘Casino,’ and 2019’s ‘The Irishman’ (he was nominated for the Best Supporting Actor gong for ‘Raging Bull’ and ‘The Irishman,’ but didn’t win on those occasions).
All five episodes of ‘Mr. Scorsese’ are now available to watch on Apple TV. They hit the platform on October 17. The episodes are titled “Stranger in a Strange Land,” “All This Filming Isn’t Healthy,” “Saint/Sinner,” “Total Cinema,” and “Method Director.”
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