Robert de Niro Talks About the Film Role That Made Him Feel Terrible and Regretful

The partnership between Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro has created some of the most memorable films in cinema, and Raging Bull from 1980 is often seen as their landmark project. It’s the role that many consider De Niro’s most iconic.

Interestingly, it was De Niro who first suggested turning boxer Jake LaMotta’s autobiography into a movie. He convinced Scorsese to take on the project, even though the director initially had doubts about the story.

The film follows LaMotta’s rise as a middleweight champion and the personal struggles that eventually led to his downfall. It also launched the careers of Joe Pesci and Cathy Moriarty, both of whom earned major praise for their performances.

While the movie didn’t break box office records at first, critics immediately recognized it as a landmark in American cinema. To make his performance authentic, De Niro went through an extreme physical transformation, gaining 60 pounds to portray LaMotta in his later, less fit years.

He talked about how difficult the process was in an interview with Playboy. “At first, it was fun. I ate ice cream and everything I wanted—it’s like part of the fantasy that one has about eating everything.

I took a tour through France, from Paris to the Riviera, stayed in inns, and ate. And for two weeks, I was miserable because as good as the food was, it’s rich—you could eat only one big meal a day and then lie there, digesting it.”

De Niro admitted the weight gain became even harder as he got closer to his target. “But I’ll never, ever eat like that again—it gets boring, it’s tiring, and I did it in a fast way. I felt terrible. After 15 to 20 pounds, it was hard work.

I had to get up early to eat a full breakfast and digest that in order to eat a full lunch and digest that in order to eat a full dinner. And lots of Di-Gel or Tums.” He chose to avoid prosthetics because he wanted the audience to see LaMotta’s physical and psychological decay for real.

“I didn’t want to do it with just make-up. I wanted to really do it so you could see his stomach. So I thought, Let me try this as an experiment. I said, ‘Shut down the production.’ Marty and I planned it.

There was something about Jake—he was a young fighter, and then he let himself go, and it was so sad, in a way. To see that deterioration and to capture it on film was really interesting to me.”

Over the years, De Niro has become one of the most respected actors in cinema history, with legendary roles in The Godfather Part II, Taxi Driver, and Goodfellas. His collaboration with Scorsese has lasted more than five decades, most recently with the 2023 epic Killers of the Flower Moon.

He’s currently filming a high-stakes thriller with David O. Russell, expected to wrap later this spring. Raging Bull continues to be studied in film schools and has been preserved by the National Film Registry for its cultural and historical significance.

The film set a new benchmark for method acting and intense character-driven storytelling, cementing De Niro’s undeniable reputation as one of the greatest actors of all time.

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