Robert De Niro won an Academy Award in April 1975 for The Godfather Part II. Just a few months later, he was picking up strangers in a yellow cab on the West Side of Manhattan. Most passengers didn't even look up, which was exactly what he wanted.
To prepare for his role as Travis Bickle in Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver, De Niro got a real New York City hack license. This was the same paperwork any working cabbie needed. He then started taking actual fares.
De Niro's Deep Dive into Character
Many stories about De Niro's preparation miss a key detail: when he did it. He wasn't between jobs. He was in Italy filming Bernardo Bertolucci’s 1900. His commute was intense: he would finish filming in Rome on a Friday, fly to New York, drive a cab all weekend, then fly back to report to Bertolucci on Monday.
We're a new kind of news feed.
Regular news is designed to drain you. We're a non-profit built to restore you. Every story we publish is scored for impact, progress, and hope.
Start Your News DetoxTaxi Driver was filmed from mid-June to mid-August 1975. New York City was struggling with a heat wave, a sanitation strike, and financial problems at the time.
Martin Scorsese rode along with De Niro on some of those nights. Scorsese was struck by how invisible De Niro became. "He got a strange feeling when he was hacking," the director told Roger Ebert in March 1976. "He was totally anonymous. People would say anything, do anything in the backseat – it was like he didn’t exist."
The Real Story Behind the Legend
You might have heard a story about a passenger who recognized De Niro's name on his license. This passenger supposedly made a sarcastic comment about an Oscar winner driving a cab. However, the version often shared today misses the best line.
The passenger was a former actor himself. He said, "Well, that’s acting. One year, the Oscar – the next, you’re driving a cab!" De Niro explained he was doing research. The man replied, "Yeah, Bobby. I know. I been there, too."
De Niro, however, is tired of this story. On The Rich Eisen Show, he said his cab driving lasted about two weeks. He also noted that only one passenger ever somewhat recognized him in the rearview mirror. He dismissed the polished version of the story, saying, "That’s a good story, but that’s not the way I remember."
There's an even better story. Writer Mark Carducci, who was covering the film's production for Millimeter, rode in De Niro’s cab months before filming began. He never realized who was driving. Carducci had the exact fare and didn't leave a tip.
