Martin Scorsese Admits His Daughter ‘Tricked’ Him Into Appearing in TikTok Videos
Martin Scorsese opened up about exactly what he thinks of his newfound fame on TikTok since his daughter Francesca Scorsese started featuring him in her videos.
In recent months, the legendary Killers of the Flower Moon director has popped up in several of his daughter's lo-fi shorts. Some of the posts have seen Francesa prompting her father to guess modern day slang like “simp” or “GOAT,” but for the most part they play off of the elder Scorsese’s cinematic reputation.
In one video in particular that went viral, he directed his next acting “muse” before the camera cut to reveal it was his pet dog named "Oscar." And in another clip posted earlier this week, Scorsese took part in the platform’s Letterboxd movie ranking game, ultimately crowning 2001: A Space Odyssey with top honors.
However, the popularity of Scorsese's participation in his daughter's TikTok videos was evidently news to him. “I was tricked into that,” Scorsese said in a recent interview with the Los Angeles Times. “They say ‘viral.’ I didn’t know.”
Scorsese then painted a picture of a typical TikTok shoot day, which involves Francesca attempting to explain the concept until her father simply acquiesces. “I’m at home doing things and she comes up to me and says, ‘Dad, look over here and tell me this.’ So I’m in my pajamas … She says, ‘Everybody’s doing it. It’s a thing called TikTok.’”
While conceding that he was aware of the TikTok involving his “muse,” the 80-year-old admitted that he isn't always aware of when Francesca posts her videos.
“That I didn’t know was going to go up. I was just doing it in the other room with her,” Scorsese recalled of the moving-ranking post. “I don’t know what they’re going to do. They always have those iPhone cameras in their hands. You’re not aware. I honestly did not know she was going to post it.”
Scorsese said in that case, he wasn’t prepared for his opinions to be made public. Choosing the backstage psychodrama Birdman over Clint Eastwood western The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, for example, caused consternation among cinephiles. However, the director also expressed confusion over how exactly the game is supposed to be played.
“Am I choosing the poster, or am I choosing the film?” Scorsese wondered. “I don’t know anything about that. But I will say that my daughter has a good eye.”
Scorsese united with Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert DeNiro, two of his most frequent collaborators, for his latest film, Killers of the Flower Moon. It also stars Lily Gladstone and Brendan Fraser. The Apple Studios release is currently playing in theaters before dropping on Apple TV+ sometime next month.
