Robert De Niro as Jake LaMotta: 7 Quotes About Iconic Role

The most recognized role in Robert De Niro’s illustrious career has to be his portrayal of boxer Jake LaMotta in the 1980 film "Raging Bull." It was his first film that netted a Best Motion Picture Actor award and 35 years later the film still holds a special place in American lore.

As with any movie that lives on for decades in terms of popularity, there are myriad memorable quotes about the film.

Let’s take a look at seven quotes about De Niro’s portrayal of Jake LaMotta

1. “I have tremendous respect for the fighters. Acting is one thing, real boxing is another.”
– Robert De Niro, to The Telegraph in 2014 while promoting his film “Grudge Match” with Sylvester Stallone.

2. “I’ve always been interested, since a kid, I used to see LaMotta, he was a bouncer in a club. When the book was sent to me, what amazed me was he was so much out of shape.”
– Robert De Niro, to The Telegraph

3. “Famously, De Niro spent almost a year training with LaMotta to learn his distinctive style and develop a similar physique. Then, for the part of the film that follows LaMotta's retirement, he went on an eating tour of France and Italy to gain a reported 60 pounds of genuine washed-up boxer flab.”
– Alex von Tunzelmann, The Guardian

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De Niro gained a large amount of weight for the film, working to have an accurate portrayal of LaMotta’s post-boxing career.

4. “I read Jake LaMotta’s memoir, ‘Raging Bull: My Story,’ when I was working on the film ‘1900’ in Italy,” De Niro said, “and I told Marty [Scorsese] to read it. It had heart. It wasn’t a great book, but there was something about it, a jumping-off point, if you will.”
– Robert De Niro, to Time magazine, about his ideas to develop the film

5. “What's more impressive is how the actor commits to the boxer's interior: Looking dead-eyed, driven, and always a little peevish, he creates an impression of a man so beset by his own demons that he can't enjoy his own success.”
– Rolling Stone, referring to De Niro’s dead-on portrayal of LaMotta

6. “It was De Niro's idea to interrupt the filming while he put on weight for these scenes, in which his belly hangs over his belt.”
– Roger Ebert

7. “The damage of their sparring sessions showed as much when Jake later commented that both men ‘ended up with black eyes’ and that his ‘upper teeth caps were busted.’”
– Laurent Kelly, What Culture, about the training sessions that De Niro and LaMotta engaged in

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