The moment Burt Reynolds offended Robert De Niro: “I thought he would laugh”
There’s a lot to polarise people about Burt Reynolds. Firstly, his on-screen resume is delicately balanced between classic movies, like Boogie Nights and a hefty amount of unwatchable schlock – in fact, it is not that well balanced.
But what he lacked in supreme acting talent, he sure made up for in charisma. Oozing a brutish charm that seemed to woo the camera lens, Reynolds found himself in the spotlight for his roguish ways on more than one occasion, and not always for the right reasons. Even upsetting some of the greats.
Few Hollywood stars have been so universally revered for as long as Robert De Niro. The veteran actor, who rose to fame and fortune through the mid-1970s in seminal movies like Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver and Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather: Part II, will be remembered for his nurturing personality.
The actor, associated with tough gangster characters and other frightful crooks, was particularly instrumental in fostering Leonardo DiCaprio’s early talent. After sharing the screen with the actor in Michael Caton-Jones’ 1993 movie This Boy’s Life, De Niro introduced the aspiring young actor to his friend and longtime collaborator Martin Scorsese.
DiCaprio recalls his early collaboration with De Niro as one of his career highlights, but also remembers a father-son relationship of tough love that he both appreciated and feared. It transpires that, as seen on screen, De Niro has a dry wit with an incendiary temperament to match. It is a combination that has landed him with authenticity when taking on some of his most memorable characters, and it certainly left an impression on Reynolds as he tried to cosy up to the star.
Once, De Niro’s sense of humour was put through its paces in an altercation with the late acting legend Burt Reynolds. In a 2017 interview with The Observer just a year before his death, Reynolds reflected on his relationship with De Niro and recalled a time he “took a beating” from the actor.
“It’s hard to get the films that Bobby De Niro was offered because I don’t have enough New York in me, and I don’t have what he has,” Reynolds said, remembering how difficult it was to compete. It’s expected. De Niro is routinely considered the greatest actor of his, and Reynolds’ generation, meaning the latter’s chance of beating De Niro to many roles he wanted was slim. “He’s very special. And he’s a very kind man. I was surprised how nice he was. He has a sense of humour, which most people don’t think.”
After bringing up De Niro’s sense of humour, Reynolds remembered a time when he pushed it a little too far. “I was kidding him and, unfortunately, went over the line as I’ve always done,” Reynolds revealed. “I said, ‘Will you stop giving Joe Pesci advice?’ I thought he would laugh, and he just looked at me and said, ‘I don’t give him advice.’ I went, ‘Oh, excuse me. I thought you would think that was funny.’ He said, ‘It’s not funny, and I don’t give him advice.’”
“I was just taking a beating for a while, and then I finally, finally made him smile. He’s a tough audience, you know,” Reynolds concluded, ostensibly referring to a verbal beating rather than anything too gory.
But perhaps what is most pleasing about this quote, aside from imagining just how quickly De Niro’s faced turned from a smile to a straight glare, is knowing that just like Jimmy Conway, Jake LaMotta, Lorenzo Anello or any other of De Niro’s roles, the actor does not suffer fools making fun of his friends.
