Martin Scorsese Explains Why Ego is the Enemy of Cinematic Freedom

I've spoken about finding your own unique voice that makes you stand out among the crowd many times on this site, and today is no different.

Finding what makes you unique can be a lifelong journey. But what happens when you finally find it, achieve massive success, and everyone starts calling you a genius?

That may seem like a fantasy for most of us, I mean, I still get excited when anyone thinks I am competent. But according to legendary director Martin Scorsese, that’s exactly when you need to tear it all down and start over.

In a recent interview clip, Scorsese opened up about the ongoing battle between ego and ambition, and how it's affected him as an artist.

Let's dive in.

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The Trap of Believing Your Own Hype

There is a great South Park episode about people who smell their own farts and get high on their own supply. Anytime I have a little success in Hollywood, I go back to it to remind myself that no one likes someone always sniffing their own brand.

Look, it's natural to have ambition. In fact, it's great.

We NEED ambitious filmmakers.

However, the danger arises when that ego starts dictating your creative choices. Scorsese admits that in his younger years, the more he listened to the immense praise he was receiving, the more it actually hurt him creatively.

And that can get confusing when things start not working out.

To survive as an artist, he had to actively push the ego away. When you start believing you are a master who knows everything, you stop taking risks. You rely on your old tricks instead of searching for the truth of the scene.

It’s where rewards are found.

The Power of "Not Knowing"

Scorsese hit a massive creative reset during the making of The King of Comedy. After pouring every ounce of his soul and technical knowledge into masterpieces like Taxi Driver , New York, New York , The Last Waltz , and Raging Bull , he hit a wall.

His realization? "I didn't know anything anymore."

Instead of this being a terrifying moment, Scorsese found it incredibly liberating.

The power of accepting this allowed him to be a student of the process again. He could begin to experiment and to learn from other films and filmmakers. He could move the cameras in new ways and play with the story and subvert tropes.

He threw out his own preconceived notions of what a "Scorsese film" was supposed to look like; he gave himself permission to experiment.

That's how auteurs continue to get better and how we can all keep improving on what we've learned.

'The Aviator' CREDIT: Warner Bros.

Banishing the "Ordinary" Shot

I'm sure you've seen the standard three-point lighting system. That's great sometimes, but push yourself outside the box and see what you can do in other ways.

One of the most practical takeaways for directors is Scorsese’s absolute refusal to shoot "ordinary" coverage. Even on massive, sprawling epics like The Irishman , he forces himself to stop and question the default choices.

He keeps his ego in check and forces himself to learn and to do it a bit differently.

Take something as simple as an establishing shot of a car pulling up. Most directors will just set up the camera, capture the action, and move on. Scorsese argues that it can never just be a car driving up. It has to have rhythm. It has to have musicality.

It's a small show, but you can give it a bigger feeling in the narrative.

If you just shoot it by the numbers, it becomes ordinary. Every single frame must be thought of differently, dictated solely by the nature of the characters within it.

Face Yourself

Scorsese says the goal of a director is to free oneself from the restraint of how something "should" be done.

You have to be chasing what YOU would do, then breaking that down and chasing what is NEW and exciting.

Once you strip away all the traditional filmmaking rules, the safety nets, and the ego, you are left with a terrifying reality: Your biggest problem is yourself.

This constant reinvention is exactly what has allowed Scorsese to effortlessly bounce between something crazy like The Wolf of Wall Street and a 3D family adventure like Hugo.

It's also what's made his career last as long as it has. He's chasing something new and something different, and so are audiences. It keeps him and his voice relevant.

Summing It All Up

The next time you step onto a set feeling overly confident in your shot list, take a page out of Scorsese's book and ask yourself if you are shooting a scene a certain way because it's what the characters demand, or simply because it's the "rule."

Check your ego and embrace not knowing something. That's where great creativity lies.

Let me know what you think in the comments.