Leonardo DiCaprio Wore Butt Padding to Get Spanked by Robert De Niro in ‘Flower Moon’; Scorsese’s DP Thought: ‘Oh, That Must Hurt’
variety.comZack Sharf Digital News Director Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon” cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto told Insider in a new interview that Leonardo DiCaprio wore butt padding for the scene in which Robert De Niro has to repeatedly spank him.
Prieto recalled watching the scene on set and thinking, “Oh, that must hurt.” He commended DiCaprio for being open to try anything Scorsese asked him to during production. “I don’t think that was in the first script,” Prieto said of the spanking scene. “That was something that was added, and it’s shocking in the film.” “I do remember doing them quite a few times and thinking, ‘Oh, that must hurt,'” Prieto added. “There was some padding on his butt.
But you could tell De Niro was really hitting him…Leo is game for so much. He’ll do anything.” The spanking scene occurs about halfway into the lengthy “Flower Moon” runtime.
DiCaprio’s character, Ernest Burkhart, has messed up part of a larger plan to rob the Osage of its wealth. De Niro’s character, William Hale, is Ernest’s uncle and decides to punish his nephew by bending him over and spanking him.
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