Taxi Driver: 10 interesting trivia about Scorsese's timeless classic

A masterpiece in true sense, Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver' has been inspiring loads of filmmakers around the whole world since 1976.

'Taxi Driver' is regarded as one of the greatest movies ever made in the world. This dark and intense drama revolves around the life of a taxi driver named Travis Bickle, his life struggles and how he deals with them and things that lead him to some chaotic consequences. The film beautifully portrays the social structure of the then New York city as well as the political scenarios of the then America. Here, we have gathered some amazing trivia about this film that you probably didn't know.

  1. Martin Scorsese's initial choice for the role of Travis Bickle was Dustin Hoffman. But Hoffman turned it down as he thought the role was too crazy!
  2. To prepare for the role of Travis, Robert De Niro worked as a cab driver for almost a month. He also visited a US Army base to learn the accent of midwestern soldiers and studied several things about mental illness to understand Travis' mind.
  3. The whole cast and crew members compromised a lot to make this film. Robert De Niro charged only 35,000 dollars for this movie, when he was being offered 500,000 dollars to act in other films.
  4. Director Martin Scorsese surprised as well as impressed everyone by playing the role of a taxi passenger in the movie. Actually, actor George Memmoli was originally supposed to play the role but he couldn't due to some injuries.
  5. Before Jodie Foster was cast for the role of Iris, several other actresses such as Melanie Griffith, Kim Basinger and Linda Blair were considered for the role.
  6. The screenplay writer Paul Schrader wrote the entire screenplay of 'Taxi Driver' in just ten days.
  7. After 'Taxi Driver' released, Martin Scorsese called the film his "feminist film" in an interview with Roger Ebert.
  8. Jodie Foster, who played Iris in the movie, couldn't perform the explicit scenes as she was only 12 years old when the film was being shot. Connie Foster, Jodie's older sister who was 19 at that time, worked as her body double for all those scenes.
  9. Harvey Keitel, who played the role of Sport in the movie, rehearsed with pimps when he was preparing for the role.
  10. Travis's line "You talking to me?" is still iconic and equally popular among the cinephiles. But the line was not in the script, it was Robert De Niro who improvised the entire scene on set.
'Taxi Driver' is worth discussing even after 45 years since its release. For this film, Martin Scorsese won Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 1976.