Martin Scorsese speculates on his retirement: “A couple more, one more maybe, and that’s it, okay?”

Martin Scorsese he’s been making films for a long time, and at 81, some are wondering when the director might retire. Throughout his career, Scorsese has had his fair share of run-ins with the studio system, and at times, the situations he found himself in were so frustrating that he wanted to quit. But he never did.

In a recent interview with GQ, the director talked about some of his difficult experiences with the films he worked on. With The aviator, Warner Bros. cut its budget and he was forced to spend $500,000 of his own money to finish it. There were also problems with New York gangswho was injured by his producer, Harvey Weinstein, and Scorsese found himself fighting with him over the film’s length and budget. He explained:

“I realized I couldn’t work if I had to make films like that again. If that was the only way I could make films, then I would have to stop. Because the results were not satisfactory. It was extremely difficult at times and I would not have survived. I would have died. And so I decided it was over, really.

The director is still going strong, though! He managed to overcome the bullshit of Hollywood and continue making films. But how many more films will Scorsese produce before retiring? He recently speculated that he might have one or two left in him. He explained:

“I’ve come this far. And that’s what I do. That’s all. And if I could just muster the energy, God willing, to make a couple more, one more maybe, and that’s it, okay? That’s all I understood. Keep going until you can. But what I mean is, you have to rip it out of your skull and guts. To find out what the hell… what do you really feel should be said by you at this point in life? You have to say something with a film. Otherwise what would be the point of doing it? You have to say something. […] How long can I be me? I will be 81 years old. […] I do not know! I’ll try until they lift me off the ground. What can I tell you?”

We don’t know exactly what his next movie or movies will be, but he’s made a couple of them. One of these includes a new film about Jesus. He said: “I responded to the Pope’s appeal to artists in the only way I know how: by imagining and writing the screenplay of a film about Jesus, and I’m about to start making it.”

So, that could very well be his next project. We’ll just have to wait and see. In the meantime I can’t wait to see his next film, The Assassins of the Flower Moon.