There’s little that Martin Scorsese can be taught about the art of filmmaking, but there’s plenty he doesn’t know when it comes to the internet—as evidenced in a viral TikTok shared by his 23-year-old daughter, Francesca.
The five-minute video, titled “Dad Guesses Slang” and sporting a high-pitched audio effect, shows the 80-year-old auteur trying to decipher various terms. He seemed to have a firm grasp on some—“spilling the tea,” the elder Scorsese surmises, “that means you’re gonna tell all you know.” Someone giving you the “ick” in relationships implies that “you were thoroughly repulsed by it.” But other phrases elude the filmmaker, including the definition of a “sneaky link.” It’s a “booty call,” Francesca explains. “Oh, really?” Scorcese replies. “We never saw specific people in my day.”
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At multiple points, Francesca deploys films from her father’s career as hints. For instance: “watching a movie in 70 [millimeter film] hits different.” That, of course, Scorsese understands. “It’s an easy one. You perceive it in a totally different way. Not a totally different way, but you see it…it’s another perspective on the image, so to speak, and the effect the film has on the audience.” When she tells her father that Lily Gladstone “ate” in Killers of the Flower Moon, Scorsese can infer that means “she did very well.”
Perhaps the most telling moment comes when Francesca refers to her father’s 1983 film The King of Comedy as “slept on,” which sets Scorsese on a very entertaining tangent. “People hated it when it came out,” he recalls. “It was the flop of the year. That’s what it was called on Entertainment Tonight, New Year’s Eve, ‘83-’84. It’s okay; it’s alright.”
This isn’t the first time the Oscar winner has graced his daughter’s TikTok. In July, the recent NYU graduate posted a fan cam video of her father, referring to him as a “certified silly goose.” Last November, the duo did the “I have a flea in my hand” trend to more than 2 million views. Francesca has appeared in a few of her father’s films as well, including The Aviator, The Departed, and Hugo, and will be featured in an upcoming commercial he directed starring Timothée Chalamet. She also co-starred in Luca Guadagnino’s HBO miniseries We Are Who We Are and had a cameo in the Italian director’s 2022 film Bones and All, which was eventually cut from the film.
At the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, both father and daughter debuted projects—Scorsese’s was the highly-anticipated Killers of the Flower Moon, while Francesca’s was her directorial debut short, titled Fish Out of Water. “The best part of going into the same profession is that I have him. I mean, he is the best teacher, guide, just overall mentor—and also, he’s literally my best friend,” Francesca told The Hollywood Reporter in May. “I tell him everything. He tells me pretty much everything. And it comes so naturally—he’s like just my one person that I go to.”
