[on working with Martin Scorsese on The Aviator (2004)] I grew up idolizing him, as many people in show business do. I had pictures of him on my wall as a teenager and stuff. I was a pretentious teenager, so of course I had, you know, Raging Bull (1980) posters and all of that. "Raging Bull" is not a pretentious movie, but me having the poster was a pretentious action. I even grew a goatee and had a Knicks cap, because I thought I wanted to be like Spike Lee. What a douchebag. So getting that part, auditioning for him - it was kind of this rigorous audition process. It was crazy. For good reason too, because you're on his set, and it's really challenging. Like, I was in that scene that's me, Leonardo DiCaprio, Cate Blanchett, and Jude Law, and we're all sitting around this table, and between takes - this is a scene with like, 400 extras in this room - and between takes, you can hear a pin drop. It's just silent. I'd never been on a set like that before, all this respect for this guy. He wants a quiet set, so it is dead quiet, and for good reason. We all had to focus, because we were all playing characters, we all had voices, different mannerisms. It was really kind of head-to-toe. Like, we were working hard. We had a five- or six-page scene that we took three days to shoot, which is a long time to work on something, so we were all just spent, but in the best way possible. I mean, I will never forget a second of that experience, of auditioning for it, getting it, going there for the summer and working on it. Every little interaction I had with Scorsese is forever tattooed on my brain. It's just a special experience, special moment in my life, let alone in my career.
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