"…he drove a cab for two weeks. He had just won an Oscar...

"…he drove a cab for two weeks. He had just won an Oscar for The Godfather Part II. One evening, an actor got into his cab and recognized him. The guy, who couldn’t believe his eyes, exclaimed, “Do you have to drive a cab? Are times as bad as that? Hasn’t the Oscar helped you?" One night, I got into Bobby’s cab myself; I sat up front, next to him. We drove up and down 8th Avenue, a bad neighborhood. The impression I had was that anything could happen. You have no control over what could happen. Your life doesn’t belong to you anymore. That was exactly what the character had to feel. Believe me, anyone who drives a cab in New York at night will be like Travis Bickle sooner or later."

—Martin Scorsese, on how Robert Deniro prepared for his role in Taxi Driver

via Bright Wall/Dark Room. http://brightwalldarkroom.com/post/54025772167/he-drove-a-cab-for-two-weeks-he-had-just-won-an