Why did Robert De Niro turn down ‘Apocalypse Now’ role?
The star of era-defining dramas such as Taxi Driver and Raging Bull, Robert De Niro made his name as director Martin Scorsese’s right-hand-man before before breaking into comedy in the 1990s. It was a surprising choice but by no means a foolish one. De Niro remains one of the most recognisable actors in the world. Here, he sets the record straight about his decision not to accept a role in Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocolypse Now.
By the mid-1970s, Robert De Niro was already an established name, having appeared in Martin Scorsese’s 1973 crime drama Mean Streets opposite Harvey Keitel. Featuring the actor as Johnny Boy Civello, a petty criminal navigating the crime-ridden streets of New York’s Little Italy, the film debuted at the Cannes Film Festival and won the actor a huge amount of praise from the likes of Roger Ebert.
Then came The Godfather Part II, in which De Niro was cast as the young Vito Corleone, having quit the first instalment of the Godfather series to make The Gang That Shouldn’t Shoot Straight with James Goldstone. It was not a wise choice, but De Niro emerged relatively unscathed. The film was hugely successful and received no less than 11 nominations at the 47th Academy Awards, winning six. It even earned De Niro his first Academy Award win for ‘Best Supporting Actor’.
The nomination unleashed a wave of new opportunities. Discussing the impact of the Godfather role on his career in an interview with Cigar Afficianado, De Niro said: “Getting the part changed my career, or revved it up, if you will. Then winning the Academy Award, you’re kind of guaranteed that you’re going to work again as an actor. The way I remember it, the movies that were becoming the blockbuster type films, Godfather part one was the first one that I remember in my lifetime as a young man. Then there was Jaws, then there was Godfather II, so these movies started coming out that were huge. The anticipation of Godfather II was really big. Luckily, Francis wanted me to do it.”
Doors that had once been locked to the actor were now thrust open left, right and centre. And yet, for the most part, De Niro continued to work with directors he knew well and trusted. Having secured the actor his award-winning role in The Godfather, Francis Ford Copolla assumed De Niro would jump at the chance of starring in his new film, Apocolyspe Now. Sadly, he was already committed to another project with – you guessed it – Martin Scorsese.
“The reason I couldn’t do that, as I remember it, I was with Michael Philips, and Randy Julia Philips and Marty in the Sherry Netherland Hotel,” De Niro began. “We were having dinner there one night. Francis called. As I remember, and I could have it wrong, I said, ‘Francis, I’m about to do Taxi Driver with Marty. I can’t.’ He wanted Al [Pacino], he couldn’t get him. That’s what it was—I couldn’t do it. I wasn’t inclined to do it, but if I had been in a situation where….ah, you never know. At that point I just couldn’t do it as I remember.”
The Godfather Part II would be De Niro and Coppola’s final film together, with the director going on to cast Martin Sheen as Captain Benjamin L. Willard. The role was no great loss to De Niro, who later appeared in 1976’s Taxi Driver before starring in Michael Cimino’s equally-revered war epic The Deer Hunter. You can revisit one of our favourite scenes from that film below.
