Martin Scorsese’s Daughter Only Saw Him ‘Once or Twice a Year’ in the 1970s

Martin Scorsese’s daughters are giving a glimpse into what it was like growing up with the famous director as a father. 

In the new documentary Mr. Scorsese, director Rebecca Miller looks back on the Oscar winner’s life dating all the way back to his childhood in New York City’s Lower East Side. 

During episode two of the five-part series, which premiered on Oct. 4 at the New York Film Festival, Miller explores the 1970s when Scorsese released some of his most famous films to date, including Mean Streets and Taxi Driver. And while he was finding great success in his career, his daughters Domenica and Cathy, who are interviewed for the project, share the impact it had on his family life. 

Scorsese and his first wife Laraine Marie Brennan welcomed daughter Cathy in 1965. Eleven years later, and shortly after marrying his second wife Julia Cameron, he became a father again with the birth of Domenica in 1976. 

“I came along with New York, New York,” Domenica says in the episode, referencing her father’s 1977 film with Robert De Niro and Liza Minelli. On the day of her birth, her mother brought her from the hospital to the set. 

“The film clearly made parallels to art imitating life and life imitating art and the blur in between of a marriage falling apart in the middle of success,” Domenica says.

After New York, New York’s poor critical reception, Scorsese was left thinking “where the hell was I going to go,” adding that he “lost the muse,” seeming in reference to his divorce from Cameron “about a year” after they wed. 

During that period, which Scorsese says was filled with “destructive behavior,” his daughter Cathy says she’d see her dad “once or twice a year.”

Domenica agrees, sharing that she didn’t see her dad “as much” during that time. 

Scorsese welcomed a third daughter, Francesca, later in life with his wife Helen Morris after tying the knot in 1999. While reflecting on how fatherhood differed with Francesca, he told Parade magazine that raising a young child in his 60s brought a “childishness” to his mind. 

“Being a father at a later age is different from when I had my other two daughters when I was in my 20s and 30s. If you’re in your 60s and you’re with the kid every day, you’re dealing with the mind of a child, so it opens up that childishness in you again,” he told the outlet.“You start playing and getting into the fantasy of the kid, so you make up even crazier stories and suddenly we’re making this movie! She’s a lifesaver!”

Following Mr. Scorsese’s New York Film Festival premiere, the series begins streaming on Apple TV+ Oct. 17.