NEW YORK - "It feels comfortable to be in the company of these people again," says Martin Scorsese about returning to the mob after the restraint and refinement of The Age of Innocence. "It's like a home movie. You find it difficult at times because you don't want to repeat certain things you've done before, but that only makes it more interesting, to try different things but then again rely on people you know can give you the emotional truth of situations. And then introducing Sharon into that process - it was remarkable to see how they all played off each other."

After casting Michelle Pfeiffer in Innocence and now Sharon Stone in Casino, Scorsese could start to get a reputation as a director of women's films. Although Stone comes across as more than a match for the nogoodniks portrayed by Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci, in fact she found the experience at first intimidating.

"I started in a state of abject terror and could barely speak," she recalls. "Then I snapped out of that in short order and started throwing myself at them until they had no choice. It was really fun to shoot. I had such a great time smashing that car, I can't even tell you. Haven't you just wanted to do that?"

But trashing "Ace" Rothstein's Eldorado was the extent of Stone's recreation in Las Vegas, a town whose allure she finds bewildering.

"I'm not real invested in gambling and that kind of thing. It seems to have changed quite a lot from when I remember going there when I was a young girl; it seemed then that it had more glamor than it does now. I think it's become more accessible because it has a kind of MTV glamor now, but I felt that the old style has a little bit more charm."

"Well, it's a different place now," adds Scorsese. "It's more for the tourists. One reason I was interested in making the film was that for me it was like the end of the old West, a place constructed and made for people who were interested in gambling, certain lifestyles, hustlers, gangsters, hitmen, whatever, it's a place where they all thrived. Whether you say that's a bad thing - on a certain level, yes. But in reality, that was the type of place - that closed-off society - where if you went there, you had to know what you were getting into and be able to deal with it. There were no surfaces put over things, nothing fake about it in that way. Now that's gone and it's as simple as that."

Because of its location, Scorsese feels that Casino takes the themes of Goodfellas and puts them in a broader context.

"Pride is not the only element that's interesting in Goodfellas, it's the morality of the lifestyle that we were dealing with there, the day-to-day morality of the lifestyle and the dangers involved. Here, it's set up against America. It's set within a city - when Nick and I started working on the script, it was on the cover of Time magazine, a shot of the MGM lion, and it said, "The American City." What does this reflect about the culture in a society? A place where, if things go well for you there, you easily fall into excess, and excess leads to a lot of problems.

"It also reflects a decade of excess - the '70s. It was just a fascinating venue for us to explore and resonate a little bit for the future, to think about what's going on with the country and where we're going. There's a sense of building, but it's all going in the wrong direction, it's all negative. They're building to get more for themselves and to hell with everybody else. They want more, they kill, they get more. But it has the same pioneer spirit, only gone awry. Maybe it's the nature of a place where a certain morality exists. The idea of gambling - you get a chance. It's the underside of the pioneer spirit, and that's what I find so interesting.

For Stone, these issues were secondary to the opportunity to expand beyond typecasting as a blonde femme fatale.

"Prior to Casino, I was cast in a more typical and superficial fashion. In this movie I got to play a character who had a greater range and life experience and truth. Working with Marty is hard to describe because it's such an organic experience, where you talk and discuss things. And when we rehearsed, we found the voice of the character."

It was also an opportunity to try out love scenes with two disparate leading men - Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci. Stone describes De Niro as "an excellent kisser."

"I'm glad to get that compliment," says De Niro, in what for him is practically an oration.

"Can you say anything about my kissing?" asks Pesci.

"It was so-so."

- Peter Keough