“Once you’re in, you’re in”: the director who was “truly intimidated” by Robert De Niro
You can’t talk about Robert De Niro without also talking about Martin Scorsese.
The two New Yorkers comprise one of the greatest actor/director pairings in history, responsible for some of the most acclaimed movies ever made. From Raging Bull to Taxi Driver to Goodfellas, each man is able to bring the best out in the other, as demonstrated by some of the less successful fare they’ve produced on their own. Scorsese might be his ‘bestest’ buddy in the whole wide world, but that doesn’t mean other directors haven’t also made magic with De Niro.
The Italian-American star has made four films with David O Russell, with a fifth one titled Shutout on the way. Michael Mann got a great performance out of him in Heat, as did Brian De Palma in The Untouchables, and while he’s made a bunch of films with Jay Roach as part of the Meet the Parents series, we really don’t need to spend time on those.
One collaboration that’s easy to overlook is the time De Niro starred in a Kenneth Branagh film. The double Oscar winner played the iconic monster in the 1994 film Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, with Branagh both directing and starring as the titular scientist. The movie was co-written by The Shawshank Redemption director Frank Darabont, who really fell out with Branagh as a result, and was conceived to be a definitive version of the classic horror novel, in much the same way that Francis Ford Coppola attempted with Dracula.
Branagh was already a big star at this point. As well as acting alongside some of the biggest names in the biz, he was also a seasoned director with four feature films under his belt. He’d rubbed shoulders with the very best that Hollywood had to offer; however, as he told US Magazine, De Niro was an entirely different story.
“I think he’s a great, great actor, and I was truly intimidated by his extraordinary body of work,” he said via the Branagh Compendium, “I didn’t know what he’d think of me or if he even knew who I was. And him being him, he checked everything out on me. He asked people, he watched my work… It was like going through a long courtship. And I’d say with Bob, once you’re in, you’re in. He’s a friend for life.”
It doesn’t come up very often in discussions of his work, but De Niro’s performance here is really underrated. Most productions of Frankenstein omit the creature’s ability to speak, but Branagh wasn’t afraid to let his monster (and therefore De Niro) express himself in dialogue. His transformation from a mindless hodgepodge of body parts to a fully functional quasi-human is done so well, which is a credit to both men.
Sadly, unlike Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein failed to win over critics. While it did well at the box office, there were complaints about everything from Branagh’s directing to the plot to the overall tone of the project. Still, it gave Branagh the chance to become pals with Robert De Niro, which is something money can’t buy.
