7/28/2019 Robert De Niro interview

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driver's seat

Niro makes directorial debutLovece ages g and 17: Respectively, Francis

Capra (no relation to director FrankWe talkin' ta him? We talkin' ta Capra), and Lillo Brancato. Casting

'Cause there's four other people nonactors is risky enough for any di-... rector, let alone a first-timer - yet

Robert De Niro, the American except for Joe Pesci in a cameo, Delegend, sits resignedly at a Niro had nonactors for virtually everyhotel, enduring what's role in the film.

"a roundtable." Seldom men- "l knew I had to use unknowns" forby the press, it's the journal- authenticity, De Niro says. "l told the

equivalent of a sausage factory: casting director from the beginningplugging a movie sweep that it's gonna be an unusual, not-the-

town, a few dozen journalists arein behind rhem, and the ,l've wanted to directhop from table to table for . , _ - .

20 minutes and five-to-ninl fOf a lOng time, SO ,apiece. rils a common method

iusf figured lrd bgttergetting broad publicity in the-amount br time, though dO it nOW. ...

ttttimatety, t woutd tikeat an artist's mind. tO Wfite and difeCt,

generally avoid the,m.

But for oe Niro,*w"'fr'nr"t"

an ex- which iS a COmpleteDressed informally, evenin a black button-down

shirt and a charcoal-brownblazer, he has his silvery brown-hair pulled back into a bun. Af-

but unsmiling, and much morein rare past inter-

he makes it clear he's justhis job - promoting his direc-debut, "A Bronx Tale," in which

"I've wanted to direct for a longsays the 50-year-old De Nirohis soft, New York street-guy voice,

I just figured I'd better do it now.

always wanted to, but then I was

so many other things - actingI'm very happy acting, but I

I do wanna direct. Ultimately, I

like to write and direct, whicha complete thing, a complete cre-

But I said for now, I have to

if something comes along, I

do it. And Chazz's thing cameso I said I really have to do it,

in and do it."" Chazz's thing" is actor-playlvright

Palminteri's one-man perfor-piece, "A Bronx Tale," a vivid

about growing up in an

neighborhood in theAs a child, Palminteri wit-

murder, and from that real-seed sprang a story of a youthbetween two role models: His

bus-driver father, LorenzoNiro), or the local mob boss,

(Palminteri), who runs thelike a benevolent

Two nonactors play the youth at

thing, a completecreation. But I said fornow, I have to jump inand do it.'

normal situation ... basically I wantedto look for real people who are notgeared even to wanting to be actors.This is the kinda (story) that reallywarrants that."

As for whether these unknownscould pull it off for the camera, De

Niro professes, "I wasn't worriedabout that. I knew that ... when I got

all these kids together, that theywould all be from basically the same

background, so they would becomecomfortable with each other. Same

with the older guys, like in the crapgame (scene)

- they kinda knew what

to do."Indeed, at least one of that wiseguy

bunch - with nicknames like FrankieCoffeecake and JoJo the Whale - was

played by the real-life inspiration. "Icast Eddie Mush as himself," De Nirorecounts, speaking about an oblivious,wiseguy hanger-on known for losingevery bet he ever played.

"I said to Chazz,'Where is EddieMush? Maybe he's around someplace.'

So we started lookin' for him, and one

day we found him. He came down, and

I had him read, and I said'I don't have

to look any further, this guy's great!"'AII that nonactor casting is ironic,

given De Niro's own extensivelytrained background. The son ofpainters Robert De Niro Sr. (who died

last May and to whom the movie isdedicated) and Virginia Admiral (with

whom Robert Jr. lived after his par-ents divorced), he left school at 16 tostudy acting with Luther James, Lee

Strasberg and Stella Adler.After making a splash in off-Broad-way theater, De Niro broke intomovies with the early Brian DePal-ma films "Greetings" (1968) and "TheWedding Party" (filmed 1963, re-leased 1969), both of which onlybriefly played theaters. But with"Bang the Drum Slowly" and "MeanStreets" (both 1973), he began hisleap to becoming what critics andpeers call, in Jeremy lrons' words,"America's greatest living actor."

A lifelong New Yorker, De Niro hasa 16-year-old son, Raphael, and anolder stepdaughter, Drina, from his1976-88 marriage to actress-singerDiahnne Abbott. Other companionshave included activist-entrepreneurToukie Smith, and model NaomiCampbell.

De Niro goes to London in Octoberto play The Monster in "Mary Shel-ley's Frankenstein," which is beingproduced by Francis Coppola and di-rected by Kenneth Branagh. He'salso vaguely considering several pro-jects, including "To a Violent Grave:An Oral Biography of Jackson Pol-lock"; "Highly Confident," in whichhe'd play junk bond king Michael

Milken; and "Exchange Students," a

suspense-thriller developed by hiscompany, Tribeca Productions.

That company is figuring more andmore prominently in his career. "ldon't get offered certain parts," De

Niro acknowledges, "and I don't careabout that. I just wanna create myown thing. And even then it's hard,'cause you still have to go to thepeople with the money to get itmade."

Just one more hassle of the busi-ness, like doing interviews - or, atleast, doing roundtables.

OI993 NEWSPAPER ENTERPRJSE ASSN.

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