What really went down when Robert De Niro partied with a certain famous comedian? And did he really have a feud with another iconic actor? Considering his intense sense of privacy, we may never know for sure.
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00:00What really went down when Robert De Niro partied with a certain famous comedian?
00:04And did he really have a feud with another iconic actor?
00:07Considering his intense sense of privacy, we may never know for sure.
00:12One of Robert De Niro's greatest regrets seems to be the fact that some of his early interviews
00:16got a little too personal.
00:18As he explained to Time magazine in 1977,
00:20"'After my first movies, I gave interviews.
00:23Then I thought, what's so important about where I went to school and hobbies?
00:27What does any of that have to do with acting, with my own head?
00:31Nothing.'"
00:32De Niro does give interviews, but they're mostly restricted to professional topics,
00:35as he figured out what his own boundaries are a long time ago.
00:39In a 1987 profile about the actor, Vanity Fair talked with Parade writer Barbara Goldsmith.
00:44She spoke at length with De Niro in 1984, and afterwards, he called her to clarify what
00:49she was and wasn't going to write about.
00:52Then when the article ran, he called her again to tell her that he regretted ever talking
00:56to her.
00:58As revealed in the biography De Niro, A Life, the media storm around the 1977 movie New
01:03York, New York was so overwhelming that De Niro stepped away from doing interviews altogether
01:07for four years.
01:09De Niro's father, Robert De Niro Sr., was an abstract expressionist artist who passed
01:13away in 1993.
01:15In a 2016 interview with Out, the younger De Niro revealed that he still kept his father's
01:20art studio exactly as he'd left it.
01:23As he explained,
01:24"...it was the only way to keep his being, his existence alive.
01:28To me, he was always a great artist."
01:32And he wasn't the only one to think so, as some of De Niro Sr.'s works were even bought
01:36by the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
01:38But he also warned his son about the struggles of a creative life.
01:42As the younger De Niro revealed,
01:44"...he always used to say to me, great artists are recognized many, many years after they're
01:49gone."
01:50"...I just want to see him get his due.
01:52That's my responsibility."
01:53De Niro's parents divorced when he was young, and over the years, he realized how much his
01:58father loved him and what he was struggling with.
02:01After his father's passing, De Niro inherited his journals, and he could only bring himself
02:05to read the parts that would be used in an art history book about him.
02:09In one excerpt, De Niro Sr. wrote,
02:11"...if God doesn't want me to be homosexual, about which I have so much guilt, he will
02:16find a woman whom I will love, and who will love me.
02:19But I really don't want my homosexuality cured."
02:22When Vanity Fair profiled De Niro in 1987, he declined to talk to them.
02:27He did, however, give them permission to talk to some of his friends and the people he'd
02:31worked with, including director Ulo Brosebart.
02:34Brosebart had some words of wisdom to share, as he advised,
02:37"...do not ever bring up the subject of Taxi Driver with Robert.
02:41He gets extremely upset."
02:43When John Hinckley Jr. attempted to assassinate President Ronald Reagan in 1981, he'd been
02:48inspired by Taxi Driver and De Niro's co-star Jodie Foster.
02:52The assassination attempt actually happened on the same day that the Oscars were scheduled
02:56for that year, although the ceremony was postponed for a day.
03:00De Niro ended up winning an Oscar that year for his performance in Raging Bull, but the
03:04only thing journalists wanted to know were his thoughts about the assassination attempt.
03:09But he had nothing to say, as he insisted,
03:11"...I don't want to discuss the matter now.
03:14Look, I said what I wanted to say at the Oscars.
03:16You're all very nice, but that's it."
03:18"...You talking to me?
03:22You talking to me?"
03:24Late comedian John Belushi was a longtime friend of Robert De Niro, who was known to
03:28frequent one of Belushi's favorite hangouts in Los Angeles, the Chateau Marmont.
03:33On the night that Belushi died of a drug overdose in 1982, De Niro was staying nearby and seeing
03:38some local sights with fellow actor Harry Dean Stanton.
03:41They tried to get Belushi to join them, but he declined.
03:44The comedian was preoccupied with a visitor named Kathy Smith.
03:48De Niro never liked Smith, so he bailed, and then the next morning, he learned that Belushi
03:53had passed away.
03:54As recounted in the book De Niro, A Life, it's been suggested that Belushi's experimentation
03:59with heroin was an attempt to emulate his friend.
04:02De Niro had a reputation for preparing for roles wholeheartedly, and Belushi was getting
04:06ready to play a rock star.
04:08De Niro spoke at a grand jury inquest into Belushi's death, but publicly stayed silent
04:13on the matter.
04:14Robert De Niro is known for going to extremes in the lead-up to his movies, though audiences
04:18generally don't get to see this intense behind-the-scenes work.
04:22For example, during production of The Godfather Part II, he decided to head to Sicily to immerse
04:27himself in the culture and learn the entire language.
04:30As recounted in De Niro, A Life, he became so fluent so quickly that he actually helped
04:35rewrite the film's Sicilian language dialogue to include some of the nuances that he'd picked
04:39up.
04:40Even less impressive is the fact that he learned how to play the saxophone for New York, New
04:44York, even though the music was dubbed for the film.
04:47And to prepare for Taxi Driver, he legitimately obtained a cab driver's license.
04:52Even harder than all that was surely De Niro's regimen of gaining about 60 pounds for 1980's
04:57Raging Bull.
04:58The movie stopped filming for four months while he did that, but it sounds like it wasn't
05:02exactly a pleasant experience.
05:04As he recalled,
05:05I began to realize what a fat man goes through.
05:08You get rashes on your legs, your legs scrape together, you feel your weight on your heels
05:13when you stand up.
05:14It was like going to a foreign land.
05:16But there was perhaps one even worse experience.
05:19For 1991's Cape Fear, he saw a dentist to have his teeth ruined, and then he had them
05:25remade after the production ended.
05:27Not so easy, is it, tough guy, right?
05:30Robert De Niro developed his reputation as one of the most beloved actors of his generation.
05:35Thanks to his work in weighty dramas.
05:37So it was certainly understandable that his jump into full-on comedy with 1999's Analyze
05:42This may have been met with some skepticism.
05:45Fortunately, we can look to the man himself for answers about that pivot, as he's been
05:49much more open about his professional decisions than he is about his personal life.
05:54As he revealed to Forbes in 2023,
05:56With Analyze This, I thought it would be interesting and fun to do.
06:00He had a read-through with his co-star Billy Crystal, and that's all it took for him to
06:04commit to the part.
06:05He also noted,
06:07Then I started getting offers, like for Meet the Parents.
06:10I don't know how, but I wound up committing to that, and then that whole thing started.
06:14I have nipples, Greg.
06:16Could you milk me?
06:18Comedian Rob Riggle, one of De Niro's co-stars in 2020's The War with Grandpa, told CinemaBlend
06:23that he could absolutely attest to De Niro's acting abilities extending to comedy, and
06:28that it was even harder than drama.
06:30As Riggle put it,
06:31De Niro doesn't get enough credit for his comedy chops.
06:34He knows what's funny, and he knows why it's funny, so he knows how to play that.
06:38He's not afraid to look foolish.
06:40If you're not willing to look foolish, that's a hard sell.
06:44In a 2020 interview with Yahoo!, De Niro was asked if he had any intention to retire any
06:48time soon, to which he replied,
06:50I always say, the next thing is grandfathers, then great-grandfathers, then great-great-great-grandfathers.
06:57So who knows?
06:58I'll go as long as I can.
07:00If an actor still loves what he's doing even as he's getting up in the years, then he of
07:04course should be able to continue to work for as long as he can.
07:07But according to De Niro's attorneys, this particular situation is actually a little
07:11more complicated.
07:13In 2021, Page Six reported that those lawyers were in court arguing that their client was
07:18being forced to keep working in order to pay his divorce settlement.
07:22He and his second wife, Grace Hightower, split in 2018.
07:25His lawyers argued that he couldn't keep working to keep up with the payments, while Hightower's
07:30lawyers claimed that he had unfairly cut her monthly allowance from $375,000 to $100,000.
07:37One of De Niro's lawyers, Caroline Krauss, explained to reporters,
07:40While he loves his craft, he should not be forced to work at this prodigious pace because
07:44he has to.
07:45When does it stop?
07:47When does he get the opportunity to not take every project that comes along and not work
07:51six-day weeks, 12-hour days so he can keep pace with Ms. Hightower's thirst for Stella
07:56McCartney?
07:57In 2022, a woman named Shanice Aviles was arrested on charges of breaking into Robert
08:02De Niro's New York City property.
08:04As it happens, the NYPD had been keeping tabs on Aviles for some time.
08:09After she was allegedly seen trying to get into a series of buildings in the area, law
08:13enforcement followed her into De Niro's townhouse, where she was arrested.
08:17She was then accused of stealing Christmas presents.
08:20One of De Niro's daughters had been staying with him at the time of the break-in, and
08:23he confirmed to reporters that they were both fine.
08:26Aviles later claimed that she'd been set up.
08:29She told the New York Post that she wanted to apologize to De Niro and that she loved
08:32his movies.
08:33A judge was less than understanding, though, and she was initially held on $40,000 bail.
08:39In May 2023, De Niro was chatting with ET Canada to promote his new film About My Father.
08:45When he was asked what kind of dad he was to his own six children, he revealed that
08:49he actually had seven kids now.
08:51"...had a baby."
08:52"...seven?
08:53Oh my goodness!
08:54Congratulations!"
08:55Aviles' newest child is named Gia Virginia, and her mother is De Niro's girlfriend Tiffany
08:59Chen.
09:00His About My Father co-star Sebastian Maniscalco also had no clue there was a baby on the way.
09:05As he admitted to Extra in May 2023,
09:08"...I was informed today that he had the baby.
09:10I didn't know leading up to this that he was going to have a baby, but yeah, God bless
09:15him."
09:16Gia Virginia's siblings are her adopted sister Dreena, brother Raphael, twin brothers Julian
09:21and Aaron, brother Elliot, and sister Helen.
09:25When ET Canada asked De Niro if he considers himself a cool dad, he responded,
09:30"...I don't think that I'm a cool father.
09:32I'm okay.
09:33My kids disagree with me at times, but they're respectful, and my youngest now?
09:38That'll be more to come."
09:39"...No, that's what it is."
09:41Robert De Niro and Al Pacino are both Hollywood icons who rose to fame around the same time.
09:46When The Guardian spoke to both of them around the release of 2019's The Irishman, Pacino
09:52revealed,
09:53"...We're really close.
09:54We don't see each other very much, but when we do, we found we shared certain things.
09:58In a way, I think we've helped each other throughout life."
10:01Pacino and De Niro were both in The Godfather Part II, but not in any scenes together.
10:07Despite appearing in similar movies and working with a lot of the same people for much of
10:10their careers, De Niro and Pacino never actually appeared on screen together until 1995's Heat,
10:17in which their characters famously square off in a diner.
10:20A rumored tale is that at the time, they hated each other so much that director Michael Mann
10:25needed to shoot them separately and splice the scenes together.
10:28But is there any truth to this legend?
10:30None whatsoever.
10:32According to a 2016 interview with Pacino, De Niro, and Mann that was moderated by Christopher
10:37Nolan,
10:38"...As Mann recalled, it started with consummate respect for the great artists that these two
10:43guys are.
10:44I knew the little, tiny organic details would be different from take to take.
10:48So what I wanted to do was shoot with two cameras."
10:51The actors were positioned over the shoulder to create a sort of call-and-answer scene,
10:55and that's all there is to it.
10:57It was a simple filmmaking decision to have them appear in alternating shots.
11:01There was no feud, nor any demands to be shot separately, just a directing choice that led
11:06to a fantastical rumor.