Robert De Niro picks the funniest scene of his career: “This moment I’m very proud of”
Picturing the face of Robert De Niro, aided by the countless impressions one has seen over the years, it is perhaps easiest to see him as an unimpressed figure of understated malevolence, ready to stop his squint and unleash a barrage of unwanted punches. It has been, therefore, slightly confusing to ever see the acclaimed director not in his usual coiled spring stance of drama but ready to ambush his audience with a comedic performance.
While it might seem like De Niro has only rarely set his foot down in the world of comedy, he has taken on dozens of roles in the more hilarious spaces of Hollywood. The $1.2billion Fockers franchise is perhaps the most obvious example, but he has also had roles in the truly awful Dirty Grandpa, the much better Analyze This and the actually great Brazil. However, none represent his funniest moment on screen, according to the man himself.
De Niro’s best moment in a comedic vehicle is undoubtedly his portrayal of LA bounty hunter Jack Walsh in 1988 flick, Midnight Run. Starring alongside Charles Grodin as a runaway accountant Jonatahn Mardukas, the two men are forced to make a cross-country journey while being pursued by all manner of heinous chasers including the mob, the FBI and a rival bounty hunter.
While it might require you to dig as deep as an archaeologist to find the movie’s funny bone, the comedic brilliance of De Niro’s sweetly sensitive yet stoic Walsh is near perfection. Far removed from the pastiches he would regularly peddle out for his 21st-century comedic outings, De Niro is a perfect foil in the picture, and, perhaps knowingly, he sees it as the container of the funniest scene of his career.
When speaking with AARP, De Niro opened up about his then-new role in The Killers of the Flower Moon and his new child. But with a career as esteemed as his, soon enough, the actor started to talk about his previous work and reflected on Midnight Run. A conversation soon picks up about how De Niro’s signature intensity is a perfect compliment to comedic movies, and it leads De Niro to unusually shed praise on his work.
“You know, there’s this moment I’m very proud of as a comedic actor,” he shared. “In Midnight Run. This scene with Charles Grodin where I’m in a phone booth yelling at his bail bondsman, telling him I’m gonna leave him on the hook for half a million dollars by killing Grodin. I’m going, ‘I will shoot him, and I will dump him in a f ucking swamp!’ And Chuck’s standing right there, so I do this quick little thing,” notes De Niro, flashing an apparently comforting squirm of a smile, “To reassure him.”
It’s a wonderfully balanced moment in the movie that comforts not only Grodin’s character but also us as an audience, as the relationship they once shared is now becoming less fractured. But, above all else, it is a signifier of De Niro’s unique facial dexterity. While he is able to mean mug a silverback gorilla into handing over his bananas, he can also make us laugh with the same flash of his visage.
