It’s somehow fitting that the director behind a documentary series delving into the life of a master filmmaker would end up with what’s generally regarded as the highest honor that a director can earn from one’s peers.
That accomplishment came to pass in February when Rebecca Miller won the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary Series/News on the strength of the “All This Filming Isn’t Healthy” episode of Mr. Scorsese (Apple TV+). This marked her first career DGA Award nomination and win.
Fast forward to today and Miller’s work as director and executive producer on the five-part series shedding light on the life and career of Martin Scorsese has again received high-profile recognition–this time with her first two Primetime Emmy nominations: Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series, and Outstanding Directing for a Documentary/Nonfiction Program.
Miller recalled walking offstage after accepting the DGA Award, not anticipating how “overwhelmed” she would feel about receiving the Guild honor. Gaining such “a massive acknowledgment” from fellow directors was meaningful and gratifying–as are the pair of Emmy nods–said Miller, noting that five years of her life went into trying to do justice to Scorsese’s remarkable personal and professional life.
Miller credited her “wonderful producers” with whom she shares the Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series Emmy nomination–exec producers Damon Cardasis, Cindy Tolan, Rick Yorn, Julie Yorn and Chris Donnelly, co-exec producers Robert Fernandez and Patrick Walmsley, and producer Ron Burkle. Mr. Scorsese garnered a total of three Emmy nominations, the other going to editor David Bartner (with additional editing by George O’Donnell) in the Outstanding Picture Editing for a Nonfiction Program category (for the “Stranger In a Strange Land” episode).
Mr. Scorsese is just Miller’s second turn as a documentary filmmaker. The first was the feature documentary Arthur Miller: Writer, for which she earned a News & Documentary Emmy Award nomination in the Outstanding Arts and Culture Documentary category in 2019. Prior to that, Rebecca Miller was largely known as an accomplished narrative filmmaker on the strength of such films as Maggie’s Plan, a Sony Pictures Classics release starring Greta Gerwig and Julianne Moore, Personal Velocity which won the Sundance Dramatic Grand Jury Prize as well as the Independent Spirit’s coveted John Cassavetes Award, and Angela (Miller’s feature debut) which received Sundance’s Filmmakers Trophy.
Arthur Miller: Writer was a personal, familial first foray into nonfiction as the subject was none other than her father, Arthur Miller, the late, legendary playwright whose body of work includes the seminal “Death of a Salesman,” “The Crucible” and “All My Sons.” Arthur Miller: Writer whetted Rebecca Miller’s appetite to take on more documentary work–and she eventually did just that with Mr. Scorsese.
As for what draws her to documentary filmmaking, Miller said, “I think the primary allure is the tremendous freedom you have in terms of how you glue together the narrative. Even in the case of Mr. Scorsese, there’s a linear thrust but you’re looping back and forth all the time, and you get to play imaginatively…You get to play with different ways of telling stories, ways of showing information, ways of cutting, and I think it’s just a lot of fun.”
Also appealing, continued Miller, is that she can sometimes entertain other work alongside her documentary duties. She found it possible to make a feature even while sort of in the midst of a documentary, and that the dual projects helped her stay “kind of limber…One helps me stay limber for the other one, if that makes sense. It’s all storytelling.”
Plus, there’s the excitement of discovery. Miller knew Scorsese socially prior to embarking on the documentary series. She, for example, encountered him on the set of 2002’s Gangs of New York in which her husband, Daniel Day-Lewis, starred. “I didn’t have any kind of deep friendship with him [Scorsese] yet,” she recalled. But over time, Miller had a feeling that she and Scorsese “could be an interesting combination” artistically. She, for instance, was intrigued by the dichotomy of “his Catholicism and his fascination with violence, and how those two things kind of went together.”
She found Scorsese to be a willing documentary subject–and a delight for a documentarian given his honesty, particularly “his honesty about himself.” Miller observed that such “self-honesty” is a rarity. “In people who have had immense success, there’s a desire to tell your own story in a way that flatters yourself a certain amount.” Not so with Scorsese whose honesty spans seemingly every aspect of his life. She described Scorsese as “the most fascinating and ever-changing person” in the sense that his life has run the gamut from immense success to failure, from love to heartbreak, to coming back from a serious drug addiction. And he continues to strive and achieve. “He just never stops surprising you.”
Scorsese, related Miller, exemplifies “the idea that it’s never too late to reinvent yourself,” adding that he’s “a man who’s had many reinventions: artistic and personal–and I think they’re both equally interesting and equally important.”
While much of Mr. Scorsese consists of the director’s own recollections spanning life and his films, assorted other colleagues and collaborators share insights into him, including editor Thelma Schoonmaker, Paul Schrader, Robert De Niro, Leonardo DiCaprio, Day-Lewis, Steven Spielberg and Spike Lee.
As for how getting to know Scorsese in such depth has informed her as a person and a filmmaker, Miller shared, “I think just being around him for so long made me feel very courageous in a certain way.” Scorsese’s courage in his work and in exploring himself as a person, she affirmed, has been “inspiring.”
Mr. Scorsese was co-executive produced by the aforementioned Fernandez in association with Moxie Pictures. Fernandez is co-owner of and exec producer at Moxie which last year took on global branded content representation for director Miller. While she hasn’t yet taken on shorter form branded content projects, Miller said she’s looking forward to doing so–and once again working with Fernandez–once her schedule permits and “all the stars align.”
Miller also plans to continue as a documentarian but at the moment she’s currently prepping a feature, Moonsong: A Life in Seven Verses, starring Elle Fanning and Julianne Moore. Miller said they’re in the process of assembling the rest of the cast and the plan is to begin shooting next spring.
In addition to Maggie’s Plan, Personal Velocity and Angela, Miller’s filmography as a director also includes The Ballad of Jack and Rose (2005) starring Day-Lewis and Camilla Belle, The Private Lives of Pippa Lee (2009) starring Robin Wright, and She Came To Me (2023) starring Peter Dinklage, Anne Hathaway and Marisa Tomei. Miller wrote the screenplay for the feature film Proof (2005), adapted from the acclaimed stage play. She is the author of two short story collections, “Personal Velocity” and “Total”, and the novels “The Private Lives of Pippa Lee” and “Jacob’s Folly.” Miller adapted both “Personal Velocity” and “The Private Lives of Pippa Lee” for the big screen.
This is the final installment of SHOOT’s weekly 15-part The Road To Emmy Series of feature stories, connecting with directors, producers, cinematographers, editors, production designers, VFX talent and assorted other artisans to gain insights into their work and their collaborators. Coverage of the Creative Arts Emmy winners will appear on September 5 and 6, and we will report on winners at the primetime Emmy Awards ceremony on September 14.
