Martin Scorsese Talks About How He Decided Against Being a Priest in Lost 1990 Interview

In the latest episode of the wonderfully animated lost interview series “Blank on Blank“, the legendary film director Martin Scorsese opened up about his childhood fondness for Westerns, his supportive parents and how his overwhelming desire to work in film surpassed his desire to be a priest in a 1990 interview with journalist T.J. English.

Just when I was about fourteen. Just a preparatory seminary, mid ‘50s, ’56, ’57. One doesn’t realize that one doesn’t need to become a priest or doesn’t need to have a third or fourth person to be able to talk to God. If you want to talk to him there’s direct communication. Making of the first short films that i did at NYU, that’s when I decided that I would probably fare better in what I wanted to do with making movies. I didn’t set out specifically and say I could put whatever emotions or passions I had for the priesthood into filmmaking. That happened.