Overview
- Martin Scorsese, Jodie Foster, Robert De Niro and Paul Schrader reunited at the Tribeca Film Festival on Friday for a 50th‑anniversary Q&A at the OKX Theater.
- Scorsese said he cast Foster because her matter‑of‑fact, authoritative demeanor in their first meeting convinced him she could be trusted with the film’s heavy adult material.
- Foster recalled that Scorsese and De Niro struggled to explain a scene in which her character unzips De Niro’s fly and that the two men broke into giggles while trying to give her direction.
- She credited De Niro with teaching her improvisation on set, a lesson Foster said shifted her view of acting from reciting lines to treating performance as an art.
- Foster’s longtime child‑actor background, the film’s Oscar nominations for her and De Niro, and these new firsthand stories underline Taxi Driver’s lasting cultural impact and renew attention to how filmmakers work with young performers.