The Gang's All Here

(2 of 3)

DAMON: Now you've heard stories, like At Close Range--Sean Penn asking for a gun with real bullets. But I've never heard of a guy asking for a fire extinguisher.

NICHOLSON: [To Scorsese, while lighting a cigarette] Hey, where's the f___ing gas mask today?

SCORSESE: I have compressed air on a set because of the smoke. I've been wearing it for years because of asthma. It's just compressed air, but it ties you to a tank. It's a pain when you want to talk to the actors.

DAMON: There's always smoke on a set.

TIME: It's not from smokers?

DAMON: No, they go outside most of the time.

TIME: Do you go outside?

NICHOLSON: No, son. No.

TIME: Each of you has a scene of uncontrollable violent rage in this movie. Is rage easier or more fun to play than other emotions?

NICHOLSON: What kind of a question is this? You got to be able to play anything. Playing your own grandmother pissing on the ground should be no more difficult than carrying the groceries up the driveway before you get shot. That's acting. That's the real answer to the question.

SCORSESE: But anger does fuel the picture.

DICAPRIO: That is true. It was a tension-filled set. Was it fun working with all these guys? No, it wasn't fun. You have the occasional joke to break the tension, but there's this intense energy every moment, people trying to pull their hair out trying to make the thing authentic.

TIME: Matt, you and Leo aren't in the same frame until the climax of the movie. When you finally shot that scene, was there immense pressure to make it really pop?

DAMON: We workshopped that one scene with Marty for a month.

SCORSESE: We kept it late in the schedule. It was about two days of shooting on the roof, and the energy of the two of them together, it's like--I can't explain. For some reason, this is a film that I made that I actually like to watch. Because when it builds to that sequence, it all comes together.

TIME: Are there films you've made that you won't watch?

SCORSESE: Most of them.

NICHOLSON: Once you're in it, it's an artifact as a viewing experience. It's uncomfortable.

TIME: So it's not just false modesty when actors and directors say they hate watching their movies?

DICAPRIO: It takes probably 10 years to detach yourself from the filmmaking experience.

DAMON: You remember every-thing. So you watch it, and it's impossible not to think about what you ate for lunch that day. That's not even getting into all your hopes for what it might have been.

TIME: Are there any of your own movies you have come back to?

NICHOLSON: On TV, if some-thing happens by.

DAMON: If Titanic is on, I cannot turn it off. [Much laughter. DiCaprio nods and smiles wryly.] I say that only half- joking. There are just those movies--GoodFellas is like that for me. You stop what you're doing, and you can't turn it off.

DICAPRIO: There's something about Marty's directing where if his films come on, I watch them every time. It's a rare thing, but you do find these details that you've never seen before. He's obsessive about authenticity and minutiae that you may skip the first time, and then--Oh, my God! Slicing the garlic meant something! They weren't just slicing garlic!