One of Robert De Niro's Most Famous Movie Lines Was Improvised

Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver was first released half a century ago, premiering in New York on February 8, 1976, and went on to screen at the Cannes Film Festival later that year, where it won the Palme d’Or. The screenplay was written by Paul Schrader, but what would turn out to be one of its most famous lines wasn’t actually in the original version of the script.

The famous sequence in which the central character of Travis Bickle (played by Robert De Niro in an Oscar-nominated performance) looks at himself in the mirror and asks “Are you talkin’ to me?” was actually the result of improvisation by the actor. Here’s a look at how one of the most iconic lines of dialogue made it to the screen.

A Blank Slate

In an early draft of the film’s script, Schrader describes Travis trying out different guns in his apartment and examining his appearance in a mirror as he does so. However, there’s no mention of the character saying anything as he looks in that mirror, let alone the dialogue which is delivered by De Niro in the final film. According to Schrader, a further draft elaborated on this initial description by noting that Travis talks to himself during this process, but did not specify what dialogue should be delivered during the scene.

De Niro therefore called the screenwriter for further guidance on what he had in mind for this sequence: “The script said he looks in the mirror and plays like a cowboy, pulls out his gun, talks to himself. So Bob called me and said, ‘What does he say?’ and I said, ‘Well, act like you’re a kid and you got that little holster and cap gun and you’re standing there.’ He took it from there.”

Mirroring the Madness

While De Niro now had freedom to take things forward, what Travis would say would remain undefined until the day of shooting itself. The scene in the final film is focused on Travis imagining himself confronting another man, which he does by looking at his own reflection in a mirror as though he were this other person, and Scorsese later recalled: “There was no dialogue, I believe, in the scene, and I remember saying, 'Can you say something to yourself? In the mirror?'”

De Niro then improvised on the set while Scorsese filmed several takes, and the actor ultimately zoned in on repeating variations of a line based around the idea of talking, which would ultimately result in the dialogue used in the final cut: “You talkin’ to me? You talkin’ to me? You talkin’ to me? Then who the hell else are you talkin’ to? You talkin’ to me? Well I’m the only one here. Who the f*** do you think you’re talking to?”

Two More Minutes

By the time this scene was filmed, it was the final week of the shoot, and Scorsese and De Niro were very short on time as the production was running behind schedule, with the producers becoming agitated at the costs involved. The director and actor ended up locking the door of the room so they could complete the filming of the scene. Scorsese later recalled that the producers were “banging on the door and I had to go to the door, open the door and say, ‘This is good. This is good. Give me five—two more minutes. One more take, one more take.'”

And the extra time was well worth it, resulting in one of the most frequently quoted scenes in film history: in 2005 it came in tenth place in the American Film Institute’s list of the greatest film quotes of all time: “100 Years…100 Movie Quotes.”

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