Billy Crystal Recalls Being Taught by Martin Scorsese at NYU: ‘He Was Very Scary’

Billy Crystal is reminiscing about being a student under the legendary Martin Scorsese.

Crystal, 76, recalled what it was like being taught by the legendary director while he was attending New York University in the late 1960s on the Dec. 15 episode of Today’s Sunday Sitdown with Willie Geist podcast.

“I was in film school here [at NYU], and Martin Scorsese was my film production professor,” Crystal said. “He was a graduate student at the time, just doing his first movie, called Who’s That Knocking at My Door. And it was 1968, 1969, 1970.”

“And [he] had a big beard and granny glasses and hair down to his shoulders. He looked like everybody,” the comedian joked, noting that Scorsese, 82, was an intimidating presence. “He’d stand behind you while you were editing your film and he would be very scary, because he would look and he was so intense and he would speak very quickly — even then — he spoke quicker then because he was, you know, 50 years younger.”

Related: Billy Crystal Recalls the 'Fantastic Chemistry' He Shared with Meg Ryan on When Harry Met Sally, 35 Years Later (Exclusive) 

“And he’d go, ‘Why’d you shoot it that way? Use a wide shot! Howard Hawks always used a wide shot.’ I said, ‘I’m 19 — I don’t know who Howard Hawks is!’ “ Crystal recalled, prompting Geist, 49, to laugh out loud.

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Crystal also said that even after all this time, Scorsese still feels like the exact same person, noting "it’s the same energy" when he sees him.

During the conversation, the When Harry Met Sally star also reflected on what it was like living in New York City’s West Village at the height of the counter-culture movement.

“This neighborhood was wild," he remembered. "It was a terrible time for America, but a great time at the same time. ‘Cause all of that adversity and all of the protesting against the Vietnam War. It brought us together … What came out of it was a renaissance in music, in poetry, in art — that we’re still feeling today.”

“Suddenly there were voices," he continued. "There was Joan Baez, there was [Bob] Dylan, there was the Grateful Dead. All of that world was like right here.”

Related: Joan Baez Reveals How She Found 'Total Forgiveness' for Bob Dylan Years After Breakup (Exclusive)

Both Crystal and Scorsese went on to have massive careers in acting and directing, respectively.

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Crystal has gone on to win six Emmys and a Tony. He has hosted the Oscars nine times, authored multiple books and won the 2007 Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. He was also honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 27th Annual Critics Choice Awards in 2022. Scorsese’s films, meanwhile, have received 20 cumulative Oscar nominations over the course of his epic career, per Screen Rant.

Most recently, Crystal appeared in the Apple TV+ drama Before, available to stream now.

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