The one director Robert De Niro continues to hold out hope of working with
Plenty of filmmakers would bend over backwards to accommodate Robert De Niro if he signalled a desire to get involved in one of their projects, but the legendary star continues to twiddle his thumbs, waiting on that one phone call that still hasn’t come.
Being a legend of the industry comes with its own set of perks and privileges, one of which is the ability to secure parts based on name and reputation alone. De Niro has been in that position for a long time, and yet he still sits idly by in the hopes the one auteur he wants to tick off his wish-list reciprocates his feelings.
The list of directors the star has collaborated with is almost as impressively extensive as his collection of screen credits, which yielded him two Academy Awards from nine nominations and gave rise to indelible characters like Travis Bickle, his Jake LaMotta, and a Vito Corleone that rivalled even the great Marlon Brando to name but three.
While 21st century De Niro has displayed an increasing habit of slumming it in comedy nonsense that’s signposted from miles out as blatant paycheque gigs, recent work alongside regular muse Martin Scorsese in The Irishman and Killers of the Flower Moon reiterated talent is something that doesn’t dissipate with age, even if it does face a constant battle against motivation.
His Scorsese pictures delivered some of the greatest-ever work, but that’s just one of the countless top-tier filmmakers De Niro has worked with. He’s notched Brian De Palma, Francis Ford Coppola, Quentin Tarantino, Michael Mann, Bernardo Bertolucci, Ron Howard, David O. Russell, Michael Cimino, Sergio Leone, Alfonso Cuarón, and Elia Kazan on his belt, but the white whale remains out of reach.
When asked by Cigar Aficionado if there was a director he hadn’t worked with as of yet who he’d love to share a set with, “Paul Thomas Anderson” was the extent of his answer. Not that he needed to explain why, given he’s one of modern cinema’s most consistently acclaimed and engaging creative minds.
He’s far from being alone in that regard, too, with Denzel Washington being another all-time great who’d love nothing more than to partner up with Anderson despite so far not being given the opportunity to do so. In 99% of cases, any filmmaker who caught wind of interest from those two powerhouses would instantly scribble them into their next screenplay, but PTA has never been driven by star power or name value.
Instead, he casts his parts with the best performers in mind first and foremost, which has gained him a reputation for being arguably the pre-eminent actors’ director in the business. He’s steered so many stars towards awards season recognition and glory, with many of them reaching the high point of their professional lives under his direction.
There’s no shortage of evidence to suggest De Niro does his best work with the best directors, so putting him into Anderson’s orbit would be a win-win situation for both parties. It hasn’t happened yet, but it can’t be ruled out that it isn’t going to happen eventually.
