The iconic New York movie Robert De Niro refused to star in: “It turned out to be a blessing”
Personally and professionally, few actors have ever been as synonymous with New York City as Robert De Niro, and that’s been reflected as much in his filmography as it has been in his life away from the cameras.
The two-time Academy Award winner was born and raised in Manhattan, and he still calls the borough home to this day, while he studied acting at the city’s Stella Adler Conservatory, with his Tribeca production company and film festival continuing to lay down cinematic roots in the ‘Big Apple’.
Then there are the movies. Think of New York’s most indelible pictures, and there’s a high chance that De Niro has appeared in at least a handful of them. Martin Scorsese’s New York, New York is the most on the nose, but there’s also Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, Once Upon a Time in America, Goodfellas, and more.
Having avoided the small screen all his days, what was the miniseries that convinced the legend to take his talents to television for the first time in his entire career? Netflix’s Zero Day, which was set and shot in New York, with De Niro making it a non-negotiable that he’d only commit if he didn’t have to travel too far from home.
Needless to say, he’s got NYC in his veins, and he’s become etched into it as one of the city’s definitive movie stars. And yet, when he was offered the chance to appear in another instant classic that was deeply embedded in the culture of the time period, he turned it down and missed out on another Oscar nomination.
Along very similar lines to several of De Niro’s credits, Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing is one of New York’s most iconic films. The innovative and influential dramedy features an ensemble cast made up largely of unknowns and character actors, but it could have had a significant injection of star power when the writer and director approached the Raging Bull figurehead to offer him the part of Sal Frangione.
“He wouldn’t do it,” Lee told New York Magazine, fittingly. “And it turned out to be a blessing, no disrespect. For it to work, it had to be an ensemble piece, and a star of that magnitude would have changed everything. So Danny Aiello was great. It was a hella fine cast, hella fine.”
Aiello earned himself a ‘Best Supporting Actor’ nomination at the Oscars for his performance as the pizzeria owner at the centre of the societal maelstrom that unfolds in Brooklyn, with ties to almost every major character. It’s easy to see De Niro playing the role, but Lee made a good point.
He was too big a name compared to the cast, and had one of the best actors in cinema history taken second billing behind Lee’s Mookie, then most of the focus and attention would have fallen on him. Still, it’s strange to think that De Niro, of all people, was so resistant to one of New York’s finest onscreen stories.
