Martin Scorsese made a cameo in Silence and no-one caught it

The director, a religious man, played a religious character in a very religious film

(Studio Canal )

Silence was a deeply personal film for Martin Scorsese, to the point where he even wanted to appear onscreen in it.

The auteur made a very brief, non-speaking and uncredited cameo in one of the movie’s final scenes, playing a European visitor to Japan looking on as a defeated Ferreira (Liam Neeson) and Rodrigues (Andrew Garfield) sort religious iconography.

The moment appears to have gone unnoticed during the film’s theatrical run, but was picked up on Twitter this week:

Scorsese doesn’t generally cameo in his films, though he did make one in his daughter’s micro-budget superhero movie last year.

The somewhat esoteric Silence, which centred on Jesuit priests in 17th century Japan, failed to make a big impact at the box office.

Scorsese’s next two films are likely to though - The Irishman, a Netflix-produced mob drama starring Robert De Niro and The Devil in the White City, a serial killer thriller starring Leonardo DiCaprio.