IT is hard to imagine an actor could have thrown their heart and soul into a portrayal more than Robert De Niro did in ‘Raging Bull’.
De Niro won a Best Actor Oscar for his performance as Jake LaMotta – who has died aged 95 – in the Hollywood epic.
The screen star not only learned to box but piled on an incredible 60 pounds for the movie, released in black and white in 1980.
De Niro suggested LaMotta’s story as an idea for a film to legendary producer Martin Scorsese, having read the fighter’s book while on set for the filming of Godfather Part II.
But Scorsese was not a sports fan and found boxing “boring”, initially refusing to produce the film.
However, after Scorsese almost died of a drug overdose years later, he came around to the idea of a story he could now relate to.
De Niro gave the role everything, capturing LaMotta’s volatile personality while mirroring his weight gain in later life – perhaps the most striking element of the obsessive display.
LaMotta trained De Niro for the role, as the pair of New Yorkers traded blows to hone the actor’s fighting skills.
In an interview with Time in 2013, De Niro explained: "I read Jake LaMotta's memoir, Raging Bull: My Story, when I was working on the film 1900 in Italy.
"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.
"I sparred with people with gear on, but we were careful. We weren’t looking to kill anyone. Then I trained with Jake.
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"He would say, 'Hit me, don’t worry, don’t worry.' He was 55, but he was really tough. I didn’t realise until I got to his age that you could still take a punch.
"It wasn't a big movie. It wasn't really a hit. But it was a movie we were proud of.
"All the movies I've done with Marty are different, and they've all been wonderful experiences."
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