Robert De Niro’s Taxi Cab License Used to Prepare for Taxi Driver (1976)

We all know that Robert De Niro has nev­er cut cor­ners when it comes to prepar­ing for roles in films. Need him to gain 60 pounds to play the retired Jake LaM­ot­ta in Rag­ing Bull? No prob­lem. How about drop­ping down to a lean 4% body fat for Cape Fear? Con­sid­er it done. And while we’re at it, let’s pay a den­tist $20k to grind the actor’s teeth down, you know, to achieve the men­ac­ing look of Max Cady. When it comes to Taxi Dri­ver, the least a method actor can do is learn to dri­ve a cab. Above, behold the hack license obtained by Bob­by D. in 1976. As part of De Niro’s metic­u­lous prepa­ra­tion for Taxi Dri­ver, writes Andrew J. Rausch in The Films of Mar­tin Scors­ese and Robert De Niro, the actor spent some week­ends as a cab­bie. On one occa­sion, a pas­sen­ger rec­og­nized him and asked him if he was Robert De Niro. The pas­sen­ger, who also hap­pened to be an actor, then quipped: “Well, that’s act­ing. One year the Oscar, the next you’re dri­ving a cab!” (I’d real­ly like to believe that sto­ry is true.) The license per­ma­nent­ly resides at the Har­ry Ran­som Cen­ter in Austin, Texas.

via That Eric Alper

Relat­ed Con­tent:

Revis­it Mar­tin Scorsese’s Hand-Drawn Sto­ry­boards for Taxi Dri­ver

Mar­tin Scorsese’s Very First Films: Three Imag­i­na­tive Short Works

Young Robert De Niro Appears in 1969 AMC Car Com­mer­cial

A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Cast­ing of The God­fa­ther with Cop­po­la, Paci­no, De Niro & Caan