How Francesca Scorsese Helped Dad Martin Scorsese with His Super Bowl Ad: 'We're Best Friends' (Exclusive)
The young filmmaker served as the creative director for the behind-the-scenes look at her dad's Squarespace Super Bowl commercial
Martin Scorsese's daughter Francesca, 24, is making her own mark in the entertainment industry.
The youngest daughter of the Oscar-winning Killers of the Flower Moon director and producer Helen Morris is forging her own path in Hollywood, from directing and writing to acting and creating on TikTok.
She's acted in Luca Guadagnino’s We Are Who We Are, and her short film Fish Out of Water premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and screened at Cannes. She even co-hosts the podcast Treading Lightly.
Her latest endeavor is serving as the behind-the-scenes creative director on her dad’s upcoming Super Bowl commercial with Squarespace, a brand that offers website building and e-commerce tools for entrepreneurs. PEOPLE has the exclusive first look at the making of the anticipated ad.
“It's like you have to be a fly on the wall, but still get everything at the same time. It's borderline impossible with a big camera in everyone's face," she tells PEOPLE of creating the video.
For the behind-the-scenes look at her dad's Squarespace commercial, she wanted to get “as much establishing shots as possible, because we were shooting in some really cool places. And also just getting my dad doing his thing and all of the insanity that went into creating this. … There was a lot of rigs and craziness that went into it.”
Martin's 30-second ad will play during Sunday's big game on Feb. 11 when the Kansas City Chiefs take on the San Francisco 49ers.
A graduate of New York University’s Tisch School, her dad’s alma mater, Francesca says she was “nervous” to study film, despite loving the craft her whole life. Leading up to college, her dad had even made an appearance on the ACT entrance exam (“He’s haunting me,” she jokes).
“My first day, I was wearing a hoodie, I was late to my first class. And so I showed up, and I hid in the back, put my hoodie on, kind of sunk into the chair. And the first thing the teacher says, he's talking and talking ... and he goes, ‘As the great Scorsese once said,’ and everyone turned around and looked at me,” Francesca says. “I don't know how these people knew me. It was insane.”
“And then I remember a couple of my teachers had to change major parts of the course because they were about my dad,” Francesca says. "[A professor] was like, ‘I could give you a different essay prompt, but that's not fair to the other students. So I'm just going to change the whole thing completely.' I mean, I get it. It's not fair. I could just go up to him and ask him. (I mean, I wouldn't).”
Over on her popular TikTok page, Francesca, who starred in the HBO series We Are Who We Are, has gained a following with videos illustrating her relationship with her dad. From showing a personality trailer to pretend directing their dog Oscar (who, by the way, is not named after the award), her TikTok gives a new perspective on one of Hollywood’s greats.
“People love seeing him doing these things and the more normal side of him. People see this big, big star, incredibly talented person, which he is, but also then kind of like the dad,” Francesca says. “I'm a total daddy's girl. We're best friends. And I saw people doing this with their dads, and I was like, ‘I want to do it.’ So I did it, and I realized that people not only loved him, but they loved our relationship, which I love, because I love our relationship, and we're very goofy with each other. He always says that I make him silly. He's like a big kid. I say he's like a 15-year-old in an 81-year-old man's body.”
The two have fun filming together, and he even asks to do them now, Francesca says, clarifying that he draws the line with TikTok dances. Given his stardom, some of the videos have to go through some extra edits, too. In a viral video quizzing him on modern slang, Francesca reveals there were a few terms cut from the video that were a bit too “raunchy." "Those got shut down by his assistant," she says laughing.
Despite the love she’s received for sharing her life and showcasing her dad in a new light, posting on the internet has opened the door to trolls. “In the beginning, it was horrible. I would just sob. The easiest thing that people can pick on is your appearance,” Francesca says, adding that her dad and his assistant helped pick her up after a particularly hard instance of online hate. "I'm not going to explain myself to the world. People are going to hate me, and people are going to love me, or people are just not even going to care."
Related: Robert De Niro Improvised Taxi Driver's Iconic ‘You Talkin’ to Me?’ Line, Says Martin Scorsese
Online critics also throw the "nepo baby" term at Francesca, since she's pursuing a path similar to her dad's. Of course, Francesca knows the "opportunities" her last name brings, but she's also proud of the work she’s done on her own. “I can't help it. I'm just here. I didn't ask to be here, but for some reason, I'm here on this earth," she says. "I just try to be as transparent as I can be and humble. And ... I try and spoil the people that I love as much as I can.”
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Her career is just getting started, but jumping forward a few decades, she hopes her work has left an impact on people. "30 years from now? I hope I've put some good out into the world in whatever art form I choose," Francesca says. "I just hope that I would make myself proud and that I would be able to pursue all of the different paths that I want to.”
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