The bizarre paycheque role Robert De Niro doesn’t regret taking: “Fuck it, I’ll do it”
Let’s address the elephant in the room right away and move on: yes, Robert De Niro has taken on a fair number of paycheque roles over the past couple of decades. Yes, his filmography has sometimes resembled a string of forgettable action movies and thrillers you’ve never heard of, occasionally punctuated by masterpieces like The Irishman or Killers of the Flower Moon. However, there’s one paycheque role that stood out as particularly egregious, drawing the ire of fans and critics alike. The surprising part? De Niro doesn’t regret it one bit.
In 2019, De Niro sat down with GQ for an extremely rare career-spanning interview. The star has always been a man of few words and is notorious for being extremely reticent to talk about things like his “craft”. Interviews with the man, as few and far between as they are, can often be like pulling teeth for the interviewer, but he was unusually talkative during this particular chat. So much so that he directly addressed the lesser lights of his recent career.
When asked about his long, illustrious tenure as one of the greatest actors in Hollywood history, De Niro admitted there is an imbalance in what fans and critics ask him about. In essence, people always get excited about his earlier films like The Godfather Part II, Goodfellas, The Deer Hunter, and Casino. He may occasionally run into a younger fan who loves Meet the Parents, but aside from that 2000 comedy blockbuster, very few movies from the last few decades seem to get people’s motors running.
In light of that, De Niro was asked if he ever wished he hadn’t made any of his recent efforts, specifically mentioning the gross-out comedy Dirty Grandpa he starred in with Zac Efron in 2016. De Niro answered, “Oh, there are movies I’ve done that,” but then abruptly trailed off. After a few moments of thought, he added, “I did them. And, look, any movie I did, I did. And I take full responsibility for it.”
This answer would certainly indicate De Niro feels at least a pang of regret about potentially sullying his legacy with low-rent comedies like The War with Grandpa, About My Father, and Last Vegas, or bargain basement action flicks like Savage Salvation, Heist, and Killing Season. Amazingly, though, there is one thing De Niro feels absolutely no regrets about signing up for.
“The Warburtons advert,” GQ began to ask tentatively before being interrupted by De Niro uncharacteristically bursting into laughter. Of course, they were referring to the bizarre – but undoubtedly amusing – commercial De Niro made for Warburtons bagels, which recast the management of the English breadmaking company as a bunch of comedy Italian-American gangsters. Hell, the ad even had a title: GoodBagels.
In between hearty laughs, De Niro explained, “Look, they asked me to do it, and I met the guy, Warburton, and I thought it was funny. I saw Stallone do it and I thought at least he has a sense of humour about it and about himself.” De Niro was referring to a 2015 advert with Sylvester Stallone, which saw him as an Expendables-esque baker leading a crack team of delivery drivers.
So, in the face of dragging his legacy through the mud even further by selling out to the corporate behemoth that is British baking, did De Niro have any pause? Nope. With a customary shrug, the iconic star concluded, “I thought I can look at it two ways. Should I think I should never have done that? I’m too good for that or something? And I said, ‘Fuck it, I’ll do it. Why not?’ Don’t hold it against me.”
