‘The whole world has opened up to me, but it’s too late’: Martin Scorsese has heartbreaking thoughts on filmmaking at age 80

Martin Scorsese is opening up about filmmaking in his 80s, and his sentiments are enough to make you want to pull out the tissues and hug someone you love. Scorsese has been in the business since the 1960s, and if anyone knows what it means to experience a world ever-changing and evolving in front of you, it’s him.

When Deadline asked Scorsese if he had the fire to get right back behind the camera after one film had wrapped, he said he did — but it’s more than just a want. It’s something he feels that he needs to do; there’s a strong sense of urgency under the surface.

“Got to. Got to. Yeah. I wish I could take a break for eight weeks and make a film at the same time [laughs]. The whole world has opened up to me, but it’s too late. It’s too late.”

Scorsese was asked to clarify what he meant, and his response is enough to bring tears to your eyes, whether you’ve watched one of his movies or all of them.

“I’m old. I read stuff. I see things. I want to tell stories, and there’s no more time. Kurosawa, when he got his Oscar, when George [Lucas] and Steven [Spielberg] gave it to him, he said, ‘I’m only now beginning to see the possibility of what cinema could be, and it’s too late.’ He was 83. At the time, I said, ‘What does he mean?’ Now I know what he means.”

Being a creative presence is something inspiring; sometimes — it feels like a gift. There’s something almost otherworldly about being able to take nothing and transform it into something mystifying and all-encompassing, or seeing a blank page or screen and realizing what it could be, what magic could exist there. There’s another side of the coin, though, and it’s the fact that there’s never enough time — something people in all facets of life can agree with.

There’s not enough time to constantly take in new ways of working, new courses of crafting and building, and knowing that one day, the sand in the hourglass will run out. That perspective changes with each day we age, and in a significant way, as we look back and see decades of work and wish we had decades more to play and grow.

Scorsese has learned through experimenting and trying new things during his time in entertainment, and as he sees new ways of creativity blossoming all around him, he just wants more time to soak it in, learn from it, and be part of it. It’s a nod to Scorsese’s passion for his craft and the way he recognizes beauty and potential all around him, and it also paints him as a bit of a romantic at heart.

We see it in the eyes of our children, and also in our parents and grandparents — in the things we read from our favorite authors and in the scenes we see unfold in front of us in film and television — the world holds so much magic and value, and yet, there’s never enough time.