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(hfour)Chapter 2(/hfour) (hfour)Can I Call You Bob? On Meeting De Niro(/hfour)
August 30, 2016
It wasn’t as I had planned it. I didn’t think I’d be on the third floor of a hotel in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, with my wife and two kids, when finding out that I had an opportunity to interview one of my heroes.
Katie Miervaldis, our wonderful talent producer who always looked out for Cinephile, had sent me the email explaining that the one and only Robert De Niro would be on the ESPN campus in Bristol on the following Monday, August 25, 2016, and she could slot me in for fifteen minutes for Cinephile. He was promoting his new boxing drama, Hands of Stone, a biopic of Roberto Durán, and I was delirious with joy.
So, after we finished Baseball Tonight at 11:00 p.m., we loaded up the Buick Enclave to make the five-hour drive back to West Hartford, Connecticut. I’d interview this living legend at 10:00 a.m. and then drive back solo since I was hosting the Baseball Tonight Monday evening show.
On the drive back, my wife and I were both giddy (the kids slightly less so). I asked my friend Tim Kurkjian for advice.
“No one calls him Robert, and Mr. De Niro is too formal, but I don’t know about just calling him Bob out of the gate.”
“Just ask him,” Tim said. “It’s polite and disarming.”
I asked my dad for advice and he agreed with Tim. We got home safely that night, and the next day, our sitter didn’t show up, which led to momentary soul-crippling panic before we dropped the boys off with our lovely neighbor who understood what was at stake here.
We waited in the radio studio: me, my wife Eamon, and producer Dan Stanczyk. I had a basic approach: I wanted to ask De Niro about things most people probably didn’t delve into too much and then hopefully get into the essence of why, for many, he’s been America’s greatest actor since Marlon Brando.
And then I looked and saw Robert freaking De Niro turn the corner and exclaimed, “Here he comes!” It almost felt like it was a surprise birthday party and we should all duck and hide.
But instead, in strode one of my favorite actors. I’ll never forget that moment: his thick head of hair brushed back, a full white beard, the warmest of smiles, and an outstretched hand. The only word I can use to describe how he looked is avuncular. Here he is, ladies and gentlemen: everyone’s favorite uncle, Robert De Niro.
He shook my wife’s hand and she told him, “I’ve been watching you since I was eleven. You’re the reason I love movies.” He politely smiled and I told him this interview was for a podcast.
“Not on camera?”
“Nope,” I said, and he seemed to be a little more relaxed. I was well aware of his reputation and had seen him on countless interviews where many joked about how taciturn he was. But I got over my awe and got down to business.
***
Adnan Virk (AV): On June 3 of this year, I met Al Pacino. And now on August 23, I’m meeting Robert De Niro. So now I can die in peace, meeting my two favorite actors in a three-month span. First and foremost, can I call you Bob?
Robert De Niro (RDN): Sure.
AV: Thank you, sir. I’m wearing my Tribeca Film Festival shirt because I saw Taxi Driver earlier this year, and it was an extraordinary experience to see that film again on a big screen. But I’m always curious about personal passion projects, and I think about actors and festivals [they founded]. And it’s really you and Tribeca and it’s [Robert] Redford and Sundance. And I think about Tribeca and the fact that you and Jane Rosenthal put this together to try to build up New York post-9/11. And it’s become this roaring success. Where do you rank Tribeca as far as your personal accomplishments?
RDN: Well, we started it after 9/11 and I’m very proud of it. It’s doing well. It’s been well-received by people. And I’m happy that it’ll hopefully be a real traditional part of the city—[the] fabric of the city—for years to come.
AV: And I think that’s the beauty of it, because it’s enriching film culture, but it’s also giving back to the city. And no matter what, people always associate De Niro with Tribeca.
RDN: Yeah. Well, as I say, I’m very proud of it. And, you know, Jane Rosenthal has been really the driving force behind it. And we started it together, but she and our whole team, they’re really the ones who make it happen.
AV: Speaking of passion projects: the documentary you did about your father.
RDN: Yeah.
AV: Because the public perception of Robert De Niro is very generous, loving, and caring to those in his circle but outwardly shy, quiet, [and] keeps to himself. So, to [make] a very personal film about your father—who, for those that don’t know, was a brilliant painter, and if you see Bob’s film, he makes the point [that] his dad probably didn’t receive the recognition he should have—and put it on a very public format on HBO, what was the impetus for that?
RDN: I always wanted to just document his life with the films that I had. There was a guy that used to follow him around—and we used some of it in the movie—with a Super 8 camera, I guess in the ’70s. And then he finally got in touch with me. I was aware of him going around with my father from time to time. But then he got in touch with me, as I say, after my father passed away and wanted to see if I wanted the stuff, which I did. I think that I bought it from him. I thought he gave it to me, but someone reminded me that I did pay for it. That’s okay. So anyway, although we didn’t use as much as I thought we would, I just wanted to [do it] for my kids… [who] did not know—don’t know—anything about him… So, I kept his studio. I’ve taken them over to the studio to see it…
I’ve always thought of doing a documentary and finally I said, let me just do it. At the prodding of, actually, Jane Rosenthal’s saying, “Let’s finally do this,” because there were contemporaries of my father who are in the documentary that we were concerned would not be around at one point and it would be essential that they’re in it, and they are. So, that’s how it started. I didn’t know how long it would be. I didn’t know [if] it would be an hour, two hours. It wasn’t intended to be on HBO. Then they came and saw it and they said, “Would you be interested?” I said “Okay.” And then it became what it became.
AV: You think of the great combos in film history: [Marcello] Mastroianni and [Federico] Fellini, [Akira] Kurosawa and [Toshiro] Mifune, Sydney Pollack and Robert Redford, and you and Marty [Martin Scorsese]. Eight films that you’ve made together. And each one, to me, has such strong power. And the stories behind it are great. What is it about you and Marty that connected so well initially with a film like Mean Streets?
RDN: Well, you know, when I was a kid, I’d see Marty around with his group on one side of the street, and then we’d be here. We had a few, maybe one or two, who would go between the two groups and hang with both groups.
But then I was told he’s at NYU. Over the years, I saw his Who’s That Knocking [at My Door] with Harvey [Keitel] and his It’s Not Just You, Murray! and some other things that he had done.
And then a mutual friend of ours, a film critic, got us together at a dinner one time, and we were talking, and I told him how much I liked the movies and so on and da-da-da. And then, he was doing Mean Streets. Well, then we started talking.
That was kind of after this dinner, but he had offered me one of the parts—other than Harvey’s, that was set. And I was trying to decide. I talked to him from time to time: “Should I play this part, should I play that part?” So finally, I settled on the part that I played, Johnny Boy.
AV: Taxi Driver is a movie for young men, particularly angry young men, that you can really relate to: feeling jilted and feeling upset by what Betsy does to him and the lack of connection Travis has in this world. It’s extraordinary how the movie is so universal. I’m Pakistani-Canadian, from Toronto and am not raised in this quintessential New York story, but I can relate to it. It was Paul Schrader’s story. But what was it for you?
RDN: We all liked the script. I forget when I read it. I read it sometime after I did Mean Streets, and we all just liked the script. I thought it was a terrific script. That was there. And so, it was easier to get it made after [The] Godfather [Part] II.
Who can tell what a reaction to a film will be? That, nobody knows. But there was something. I could even identify with being from New York, [with] people all around in a city, and being sort of disconnected as a young man. So, as you say, you’re from where you're from, I’m from where I’m from—I’m from New York. Still, you know, it’s about a guy from out of New York who comes in, disconnected—you can feel that being [from] anywhere or being right from that place. That just struck a chord with everyone.
AV: A film that I think is so underlooked in your career with Marty [is] The King of Comedy. That was ahead of its time, showing how celebrity-obsessed [our] culture was. And Rupert Pupkin, Marty said he thinks it might be your best role ever.
RDN: Okay, well, no, I had a lot of fun doing that. Again, [with] Marty and I, there’s some movies that I wanted to do more than he would and there are other movies that he’d want to do that I’m not crazy about, but I’ll do them because it’s for him. So, that was one that Marty—I remember trying to get him to do that…and going over the script with him. I haven’t seen the movie for a long time, but Jerry [Lewis] told us that story where he was about to go on in Vegas, and he was just getting off the phone. He was outside, a woman was there, [asking] “Please just say hello to my son, my son.” She was on a payphone. And then he said, “I can’t, I gotta go, I gotta go.” So, he goes off, and she says, “You should get cancer or something.”
AV: This is the way some people are. As we close up, we usually do a segment on here called “three words.” Can you describe Martin Scorsese in three words for me?
RDN: Lover of film.
***
The interview wrapped and Bob turned to me and said, “Pakistan?” and I said, “Yeah, I’m Canadian but that’s where my parents are from.” And he said, “There’s a great article about the Hindu Kush in Pakistan, you’d enjoy it. Look it up or let us know if you have trouble finding it.”
I asked for a picture together but before we took the picture, I reminded him of Don Rickles’s killer line, “I had dinner with De Niro once. It was like eating alone.”
Bob gave a good-natured laugh and eye roll and we took a wonderful picture. His friend Stan complimented me on the terrific interview and I graciously thanked him. Bob gave my wife, Eamon, a peck on the cheek and she didn’t wash her face for a month.
Adrenaline pumping, I dropped Eamon off at home and sped back to Williamsport, Pennsylvania, to resume my duties for ESPN, hosting the Little League World Series. On the five-hour drive, I saw an email pop up and the subject heading was simply “From RDN’s Office.”
This was 2:37 p.m. and it read:
Hi. Bob wanted to say how much he enjoyed the time today. Here is the article he was talking to you about, the lost tribes of the Hindu Kush.
And I sat there just dumbfounded on the side of the road. Perhaps the greatest actor of the last fifty years went home in his chopper and then, while working his way through the rest of the day, was thoughtful enough to tell his assistant, “Hey, find that kid’s email and send him this article.”
I was and remain blown away by the gesture. So many actors simply answer the questions and move on with their day. But, clearly, I had made a connection with Bob. What a guy.
Perhaps a year later, I got a request from his office for college basketball tickets. I had no free hookup, but in hindsight, I should have just bought them off StubHub to keep the connection alive a little while longer.
Robert De Niro has given me memories to last a lifetime with his work, but his kindness is something I’ll never forget. He has been vociferously voluble in his attack on Trump and has made some less-than-ideal movie choices this century. I understand he may not be everyone’s cup of tea. But for me, he will always be the epitome of the profession as an actor’s actor and a deeply considerate man who gave me one of the thrills of my life.
