It’s always a good idea to work with someone you trust. We’ve seen this play out several times in Hollywood. Most filmmakers tend to have favorite muses. Quentin Tarantino has Samuel L. Jackson, Steven Spielberg has Tom Hanks, and Ryan Coogler has Michael B. Jordan. The collaboration trend goes as far back as the golden years, when John Ford frequently sought the services of John Wayne, and Alfred Hitchcock wanted no one other than Cary Grant.

For his part, likes and Leonardo DiCaprio, though his relationship with the former is stronger. The two have made 10 feature films and one short film together since 1973. They were introduced to each other by Brian De Palma (who Scorsese had known for years) and have been friends ever since. So, when Scorsese calls, De Niro always comes, except for one time when the actor felt that he wasn’t the perfect man to fulfill the filmmaker’s vision. That time came when Scorsese was planning to make The Departed.

‘The Departed is both . In it, Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio), a Boston police officer, is recruited by Captain Queenan (Martin Sheen) and Sergeant Dignam (Mark Wahlberg) to . At the same time, Staff Sergeant Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon), who was raised and mentored by Costello,. He is now perfectly positioned to feed his criminal benefactor all the information he needs.

All eyes are on the two cops as they do their best to push their respective teams to the finish line, while going to increasingly desperate lengths to block any suspicion. As both moles get more comfortable inside their respective organizations, . Though he is a proverbial chameleon, Costigan struggles to adjust to the hedonistic rhythms of the men he is targeting and starts feeling bad about having to live a double life, while Sullivan finds it even harder to maintain a clean image, considering his nature. Soon, . Even more interesting, Costello and Costigan are each given the job of finding the said moles. And just when it seems the two lawmen are ready to sign off on their gigs, unexpected wrinkles arise.

The Departed was a massive success when it came out, grossing $292 million at the box office. And at the 79th Academy Awards it . Mark Wahlberg also received his first ever Academy Award nomination, being recognized for Best Supporting Actor award for his performance. The film also marked the first time Scorsese won an Oscar after five previous losses, though many commentators felt he deserved it more for previous efforts than he did here.

Is the American version superior? That’s debatable. Internal Affairs . So good is it that it has been remade a few more times: in India as Homam, in South Korea as City of Damnation, and in Japan as Double Face.

Infernal Affairs caught the world’s eye when it came out in 2002. Never before has the absurdity and lunacy of trying to gather information been so wickedly and honestly captured. The worked well to project a sense of raw brutality and capriciousness of the milieu into which we are pushed, one in which betrayal is rife, and you can never be certain which side of the moral divide your colleague is really on

for $1.75 million. Martin Scorsese then agreed to direct after reading William Monahan’s screenplay. Initially, , but he changed his mind, saying a younger actor should be given the part.

During a conversation with Total Film, Robert De Niro revealed that , but he didn’t have time to do it. “I wanted to,” the actor revealed before elaborating, “I wish I would’ve been able to, but I couldn’t find time.”

However, Scorsese has a different understanding of what happened. Speaking to Deadline, he.

“We talked to Bob about [starring in The Departed], but he didn’t want to do it,”

He also shed some more light on their collaborative history.

“He wanted me to do Analyze This, and I said, ‘We already did it. It was Goodfellas.’ I talked to him about other projects, and at one point he said, ‘You know the kind of stuff I like to do with you.’ I said, ‘OK.’ That became The Irishman, and it took nine years. We were always looking. ‘What about The Departed?’ ‘Nah, I don’t wanna do that.’ ‘OK.’”

Was De Niro right to reject the opportunity? Probably not. Frank Costello could have been another great role in his resume. Scorsese revealed that Ray Liotta was also approached, but he had other commitments.

Robert De Niro’s decision to reject The Departed was surprising, considering that . Meet the Parents and Meet the Fockers were his only major hits of the decade, and Ben Stiller was more responsible for the awesomeness of these marvelous 2000s comedies than him.

De Niro : the spy thriller, The Good Shepherd, and the animated fantasy film, Arthur and the Invisibles. He chose to pursue those two, to varying results. The former was received well by critics, while the latter was panned. Both projects performed averagely at the box office, only breaking even by a small margin. Today, neither is remembered as fondly as The Departed.

But did De Niro really lack time to do it (as he says), or was he just not interested (as Scorsese claims)? The latter seems more believable since Matt Damon had the time to do both The Good Shepherd, Ocean’s Thirteen, and The Departed at around the same time. Still, De Niro shouldn’t be judged too harshly. The spy thriller . Apart from acting, he .

Despite De Niro’s commitments, he should have squeezed time for Scorsese’s project since the movie would have stabilized his career (shaky at the time). There’s no denying that the actor was born to play characters like Frank Costello. From Vito Corleone to Al Capone and James Conway, most of his iconic roles have come in gangster movies.

Unfortunately, Jack Nicholson wasn’t good enough to make us forget what could have been if the frequent Scorsese collaborator had agreed to take the part. Even though he is one of the greatest actors of all time, Nicholson only did the bare minimum in the movie, offering nothing more than grunts. Previously, he had played horribly believable specimens of humanity for whom violence and mischief were a religion, not just a career requirement. Here, he was just another stock bad guy, colorless and arid, so dull that we hardly care what becomes of his malicious character. Unsurprisingly, the Oscars ignored him in favor of Mark Wahlberg. Thankfully, De Niro and Scorsese would team up again years later in The Irishman, followed by Killers of the Flower Moon.