Robert De Niro compares his ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ character to “stupid” Donald Trump
Robert De Niro described Donald Trump as “stupid” during a discussion about his character in Killers of the Flower Moon at the Cannes Film Festival.
Killers of the Flower Moon recently premiered in Cannes and stars De Niro alongside Leonardo DiCaprio. The Martin Scorsese film is based on David Grann’s 2017 book of the same name and focuses on the serial murders of members of the Osage Nation in Oklahoma in the 1920s after oil was discovered on their land. De Niro plays cattleman William Hale, who he compared to Trump.
At a press conference for the film, De Niro said: “I don’t understand a lot about my character. Part of him is sincere. The other part, where he’s betraying [the Osage people], there’s a feeling of entitlement. We became a lot more aware [of that dichotomy] after George Floyd with systemic racism.” He added: “It’s the banality of evil, the thing we have to watch out for. We see it today, of course. We all know who I’m going to talk about, but I won’t say the name.”
De Niro continued: “That guy is stupid. Imagine if you’re smart. Even Hale was smart in many ways. It is something that’s systemic and that’s the scary part about it.”
Following the premiere of Killers of the Flower Moon, director Scorsese received a nine-minute standing ovation from the audience. He told those in attendance: “I don’t think I’ve ever experienced anything like this. It’s taken its time to come around, but Apple did so great by us, shooting out there… there was lots of grass – I’m a New Yorker. We also lived in that world with the Osage, we really did, and we really miss it.”
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