Robert De Niro shares “the worst” experience of his movie career
The Tribeca Film Festival is celebrating its founder, Robert De Niro, this year and is hosting a series of events as part of the De Niro Con. In one of the first events of the convention, the esteemed actor had an intriguing discussion with Quentin Tarantino, who cast the actor in his 1997 classic Jackie Brown.
Jackie Brown was Tarantino’s third direction, and, following Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, it had a lot to live up to. The epic tale of cops, villains, and deceit failed to reach the same heights, but it is often regarded as an underappreciated gem in the Tarantino archives.
On Friday, June 14th, the convention held a screening of the movie using a 35mm print on loan from Martin Scorsese. In the movie, De Niro appeared in a supporting role as the recently released convict Louis Gara, alongside Pam Grier, Samuel L. Jackson, Robert Forster and Michael Keaton.
Following the screening, a round of applause abated to the sound of Tarantino’s enthusiastic voice. As the 40-minute post-movie discussion got underway, a famously loquacious Tarantino began to attack the 80-year-old actor with questions.
Early on, he praised De Niro’s ability to bring comedy to the role as he portrayed the “slow” ex-convict. By “slow”, the filmmaker alluded to the character’s primitive and ill-disciplined mindset following his release from prison and a few bong hits at Jackson’s abode.
Tarantino revealed that he has rewatched the movie on several occasions and is always impressed by De Niro’s stoned portrayal. “I’ve watched the movie with a lot of different audiences, and they always respond so much to how out of it and stoned you are when they’re trying to talk when they’re having the whole meeting about the money exchange,” Tarantino said.
De Niro was famously Scorsese’s King of Comedy but isn’t often linked to side-splitting roles. Thus, Tarantino and many viewers were surprised by his abilities. “You’re caught up in the phone cord, and you realise that was a comedy scene going on right inside of there,” the director continued. “You played it as a comedian. I think it was a situation where you just said, ‘Oh, I can do a little bit more here. I can have my own little bit going on while they’re doing the narrative.'”
Tarantino then picked up on the fact that director Mike Nichols fired De Niro from the abandoned project Bogart Slept Here because he didn’t suit the comedic role. The project was subsequently rejuvenated as 1977’s The Goodbye Girl, which earned star Richard Dreyfuss an Academy Award.
Reflecting on his dismissal, De Niro claimed that he lacked in experience at the time and that it was a form of comedy he wasn’t suited to. “I blame myself,” he said. “I didn’t know certain things. It was a certain type of comedy — Neil Simon — that had the timing that would be a certain way … It just wasn’t working. I shot for about two weeks. It was the worst … You know, I’ve had maybe three times in my life that I’ve ever had that experience with a director. You can’t make them happy, and they’re not happy, and you’re kind of feeling that. So this was one of them.”
As John Cleese once said, “There are some actors who can do funny and some very good actors who can’t, but I think all the very, very best comedians can act.”
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