“I knocked him down. I don’t know what else I gotta do.”
Robert De Niro read the autobiography of Jake LaMotta while filming The Godfather: Part II (1974). But it took over four years to convince anyone, including collaborator Martin Scorsese, to make the film. Mardik Martin wrote a traditional, linear script but then backed out from exhaustion. Paul Schrader rewrote the script, making Jake’s brother, Joey La Motta (Joe Pesci) the second most prominent character and starting the story in the middle of La Motta’s career, rather than at the beginning. De Niro and Scorsese spent five weeks rewriting Shrader’s script keeping his overall structure, but are uncredited as screenwriters. De Niro went through extensive training, and entered in three actual Brooklyn boxing matches, winning two. He gained 60 pounds to play the older Jake La Motta, holding the movie weight-gain record until it was broken by Vincent D’Onofrio – who gained 70 lbs for his role as Pvt. Lawrence in Full Metal Jacket (1987). Joe Pesci, at the time a frustrated, struggling actor, had to be persuaded to make the film rather than return to the musical act he shared with fellow actor Frank Vincent. Beverly D’Angelo and Sharon Stone both auditioned for the role of Jake’s wife, Vicki LaMotta. Scorsese cast Cathy Moriarty (whom the producers saw before D’Angelo), freeing D’Angelo to be in Coal Miner’s Daughter (1980). The Nicholas Colasonto character, Tommy Como, is based on real-life mobster Frankie Carbo, who ran boxing in New York City during the 1940s and ’50s. The word “fuck” is used 114 times.
