Sorti Martin: 11 things you probably didn’t know about The Departed

Tuesday 9 July 2019

11 things you probably didn’t know about The Departed

11 things you probably didn’t know about The Departed

Posted: 08 Jul 2019 04:24 PM PDT

It's been almost 13 years since the release of The Departed, which is streaming for free this month on The Roku Channel. If you’re a fan like me, you’ll appreciate learning a few things about the film that you probably didn’t know. From DiCaprio, to Nicholson, to Damon, to Wahlberg, here are some fun facts about The Departed.

Leonardo DiCaprio said his one-on-one scene with Jack Nicholson was one of the most memorable moments of his life.
Mark Wahlberg based his performance on the police officers who'd arrested him about two dozen times in his youth.
Martin Scorsese wasn’t aware that the movie was a remake of a Hong Kong crime thriller until after he had agreed to direct it.
Originally, Jack Nicholson turned down the role but Martin Scorsese, William Monahan, and Leonardo DiCaprio, convinced him to play Frank Costello.
Jack Nicholson joined the production because he wanted to play a villain again, and he considered the character of Costello to be the ultimate incarnation of evil.
The Departed is the only remake of a foreign film to win an Academy Award for Best Picture.
Body count for the movie: 22. (No human was harmed in the making of this film.)
Leonardo DiCaprio did not receive an Oscar nomination for his performance because Warner Brothers initially did not want to favor him over his co-stars and place him in the leading actor category.
Jack Nicholson refused to wear a Boston Red Sox hat during filming…he wore his New York Yankees hat instead.
Originally, The Departed planned to star Brad Pitt as Colin Sullivan and Tom Cruise as Billy Costigan.
As research for his character’s occupation, Matt Damon worked with a Massachusetts State Police unit out of Boston by going on actual patrols, drug raids, and they taught him proper police procedures – like the pat down.