How Robert De Niro’s acting idols shaped his career
Robert De Niro feels like somebody from a bygone age. Not in terms of his views or his approach to acting, but because of his legendary status. He feels like he belongs up there with the greats, the ones who have been dead for decades, and yet he’s still around and still producing top quality performances. In Killers of the Flower Moon, at the age of 80, he stole the show, turning in a shift that would have put most actors half his age to shame.
Instead of being amongst the golden generation, De Niro grew up idolising them. As a child of the 1940s and ’50s, he witnessed the end of the studio system, the rise of colour TV, and the impact television had on cinemas. It was quite the time, full of some amazing characters. It’s no surprise then that, when asked by The Guardian who his childhood inspirations were, De Niro named just a handful of these icons.
His response to the question was incredibly blunt: “James Dean, Montgomery Clift, Marlon Brando, Geraldine Page, Kim Stanley, Greta Garbo.” That’s it. That’s all he said. Bob De Niro doesn’t mess around. Perhaps he was tired of being asked that question or just didn’t like the interviewer, but maybe he knew that people were expecting names like this, as they dominated the era he grew up in.
Brando makes a lot of sense. Both were leading men in their prime, equally capable of a wide range of performances, but at their best when playing a tightly-wound underdog. There are huge portions of The Wild One in Taxi Driver’s DNA, as they both deal with young men rebelling against what is expected of them in one way or another. The two famously played the same character in ‘The Godfather’ series, as De Niro portrayed a younger version of Brando’s Vito Corleone in The Godfather Part II. They both won Oscars for playing the Don, the first time this had ever happened to a fictional character.
The James Dean connection is also blatant for similar reasons. De Niro spoke about his prowess separately, saying “you can’t do what he could do.” Montgomery Clift is known for playing suave, sophisticated characters, unlike De Niro’s usual fare, but people are so often defined by what they are not as much as what they are.
The female actors De Niro mentions are interesting, considering how typically masculine a lot of his performances are. Swedish sensation Greta Garbo was viewed as the height of Hollywood glamour. She’s also the oldest of De Niro’s idols by far, having made her name in the silent film era. Whilst Page was a successful screen actor, her best work came on stage. She had a commanding live presence, able to manipulate an audience like no one else. Considering how impossible it is to take your eyes off De Niro when he’s in full flow, perhaps there is a little bit of Page in him. Then there’s Stanley, the least well-known of the three, known for her impeccable stage technique and ruthless perfectionism.
De Niro’s sheer variety of influences is one of the reasons he is the actor he is. The ability to draw from multiple different sources is invaluable in keeping yourself fresh and delivering well-rounded performances over a long period of time. You only have to look at how much success De Niro has enjoyed for so many decades for proof of that.
