The 2001 scene Robert De Niro called the most stressful of his career: “I was terribly anxious”
Robert De Niro is not the kind of person you would ever expect to be anxious about making a movie, not in terms of his character, or the fact that he’s been at it since the mid-1960s, and his first role was in an uncredited performance in a French production called Three Rooms in Manhattan.
And of course, in some of his most famous performances, such as Jimmy Conway in Goodfellas, Sam Rothstein in Casino, and Max Cady in Cape Fear, De Niro has displayed the kind of cocksure confidence that we’d all like to channel if we were capable of it, a total self-assuredness that makes him utterly captivating to watch on the big screen.
But what if you put him up against possibly the greatest actor in the history of all cinema? Well, then that’s when even De Niro will admit to a few butterflies in the stomach. It happened back in 2001, when the late Marlon Brando was cast in what would turn out to be his final movie, the Frank Oz-directed heist thriller The Score, co-starring Edward Norton.
Telling a well-trodden story of an ageing criminal being tempted back to do one last big job with a life-changing payday, The Score is a slick film with an embarrassing array of acting talent, adding Oscar-nominated Angela Bassett to Brando, De Niro and Norton. As one might imagine, though, especially where Brando was concerned, there were some egos at play on set, with confrontations between the stars.
De Niro, who at that point had directed one movie, 1993’s A Bronx Tale, was being roped in by Oz to direct a scene, due to Brando being upset with the director. In fact, he took it so far as to constantly refer to him as ‘Miss Piggy’ due to Oz having voiced the diva muppet for several years. Brando was so annoyed at him that he would also refuse to appear wearing anything other than his underwear, and it was this situation that De Niro was being asked to referee.
De Niro recalled being asked to direct the five-page scene in which he was also appearing: “Marlon was upset with the director, and he wanted me to direct a scene. I was terribly anxious before we started shooting it, and then it was fine.”
To be fair to Oz, he would later take responsibility for the falling out, saying he tended to be confrontational while filming and describing Brando as sweet, gracious and childlike. He would admit, “We had a difference in creative interpretation of the role. He felt one way, quite sincerely and earnestly, and I felt the other, and the producers backed me, which I’m grateful for, and Marlon did come around to my side.”
The Score was a hit on release, making almost double its budget of $68million, much of which went on the actors’ salaries. Despite the acting talent on show, however, it missed out on any major awards, Bassett being the only one to collect industry nominations for her performance.
Brando died almost exactly three years later at the age of 80 after a career in which he collected eight Academy Award nominations, winning two, for On the Waterfront and The Godfather. De Niro currently has the same amount of wins, but one additional nomination, last featuring with a ‘Best Supporting Actor’ nod for long-time collaborator Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon.
