Stephen Graham has revealed that he came close to derailing the production of Martin Scorsese’s Gangs of New York when he almost broke Leonardo DiCaprio’s leg in a golf cart accident.
Graham, who is currently receiving rave reviews for his role in the powerful Netflix drama Adolescence, had a minor supporting role in the 2002 historical epic which also starred Daniel Day-Lewis and Cameron Diaz.
During a recent appearance on The Tonight Show, Graham told Jimmy Fallon that he accidentally tipped over a golf cart that he was driving around the set, which also contained DiCaprio and Alec McCowen.
“Leo used to drive a golf cart. You know, the way they drive golf carts on big sets and stuff. So I asked him for a go. I said, ‘Can I have a go on the golf cart?” said Graham. And he was like, ‘Uh… yeah, okay.’”
Everything was going fine as the trio sped around Rome’s Cinecittà Studios but things started to go awry when they went down a big hill at the lot.
“Golf carts aren’t that fast, are they? But going downhill, they are,” Graham noted. “I floored it… We were like the Flintstones, basically.”
To try and slow the cart down Graham put the vehicle into reverse which only made the situation much worse.
“You know how when you knock a golf cart into reverse and it takes its time?” Graham said. “Well, if you knock it into reverse when you’re going quite fast, the back wheels lock. So as the back wheels lock, I’ve turned it Jim, and as I’ve turned it, the whole thing’s just started to fall.”
“So it’s falling slowly, and I’m like, ‘Wait a minute,’ and [DiCaprio’s] looking at me and he’s going, ‘What the f***?’” he said. “And the next minute, as it’s falling, it looks like it’s gonna break his leg.”
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Fortunately, DiCaprio managed to escape from the golf cart and avoid a major injury but the incident did earn him a nickname on the set. “Alec, who’s a lovely lad… He goes, ‘You’re an animal!’ And so my nickname became ‘Ani’ after that. They called me ‘Animal.’” Graham then admitted that filming would have had to stop if DiCaprio had got hurt.
Graham went on to star in Scorsese’s 2019 gangster film The Irishman alongside Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino. The British actor was recently reunited with De Niro on BBC’s The One Show where he thanked the icon for the impact he had on his career.
Graham recalled when he was a teenager and his father asking him when he was 14 if he was serious about becoming an actor. When Graham said yes his father decided to take him to the local video store where they rented three movies: The Godfather, Taxi Driver and The Deer Hunter.
“Then we went home and we watched these three films and we watched them all over the weekend, Graham said. “And, you know, it was just… You were the beginning of my whole love of favourite films, really.”
Turning to De Niro, he added: “I don’t think I ever told you that. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.”
