You talkin' to me? Behind the Scenes of Scorsese's Taxi Driver
On the eve of a screening at the Tribeca Film Festival, the film's stars, director and screenwriter recount the tension and tumult (trivia: Harvey Kettle’s pimp was originally written as black; producers "had to hire a gang to protect us from other gangs") that preceded a movie masterpiece. A version of this story first appeared in the April 22 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. PAUL SCHRADER (screenwriter) I had a series of things falling apart, a breakdown of my marriage, a dispute with the AFI, I lost my reviewing job. I didn't have any money and I took to drifting, more or less living in my car, drinking a lot, fantasizing. The Pussycat Theater in L.A. would be open all night long, and I'd go there to sleep. Between the drinking and the morbid thinking and the pornography, I went to the emergency room with a bleeding ulcer. I was about 27, and when I was in the hospital, I realized I hadn't spoken to anyone in almost a month. So that...