Martin Scorsese Opens up About the Movie He Wishes He Never Made

Martin Scorsese is widely regarded as a filmmaker who prioritizes structure and clarity, typically avoiding the bizarre or nonlinear paths taken by his more experimental peers. His legendary career has been defined by a meticulous approach to storytelling, often bolstered by the precise screenplays of collaborators like Paul Schrader and Nicholas Pileggi.

However, the early 1980s marked a departure from this stability as Scorsese navigated a period of intense creative exhaustion and physical illness. The production of his 1982 social comedy, The King of Comedy, was particularly fraught with difficulty.

Having just completed the grueling Raging Bull, Scorsese was physically depleted and suffering from a severe case of pneumonia when he began work on the new project. He later admitted in the book Scorsese on Scorsese that he felt entirely unprepared to proceed, recalling that by the second week of filming, he was begging to be released from the commitment.

He described his physical state as so dire that he was coughing on the floor, comparing himself to a character in a tragedy. Despite his personal struggles, Scorsese remained deeply engaged.

He spoke highly of the cast, noting that Jerry Lewis was terrific and the rehearsals were productive, even if the film itself felt increasingly strange. The shoot was famously slow, taking twenty weeks to complete, with Scorsese taking full responsibility for the lethargic pace.

He remembered certain scenes, such as the agonizingly awkward moment when Rupert Pupkin arrives uninvited at a host’s home, as being extremely difficult and painful for the entire crew to film.

Though The King of Comedy was a commercial disaster upon its initial release—earning a mere $2.5 million against a $19 million budget—it has since undergone a massive critical reappraisal. In recent years, it has been viewed as a prophetic masterpiece that predicted the modern era’s obsession with fame and celebrity worship.

Today’s audiences find the film’s “cringe comedy” and themes of isolation more relevant than ever, often citing it as a direct influence on modern blockbusters like Joker. As of February, Martin Scorsese is showing no signs of slowing down at 83 years old. He has officially begun production on his latest feature, What Happens at Night, which is currently filming on location in Prague.

The film marks his seventh collaboration with Leonardo DiCaprio and also stars Jennifer Lawrence as an American couple who find themselves trapped in a surreal, nearly deserted European hotel while attempting to adopt a child. DiCaprio recently revealed that Scorsese instructed him to study Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo as a primary reference for the film’s atmospheric and psychological tension.

Do you think Martin Scorsese is returning to the experimental, unsettling style he first explored in The King of Comedy, or is this just another evolution of his late-career mastery? Share your thoughts in the comments.