“Unflattering and untrue stereotypes”: when Italy refused to recognise Robert De Niro as one of its own
Some of the greatest actors in cinema history, including Robert De Niro, have Italian blood, and given their stature and global fame, you’d think the motherland would embrace them with open arms.
The two-time Academy Award-winning legend may have been born, bred, raised, and still resides in New York City, as did his father and his grandfather, but a generation beforehand, the first wave of De Niros emigrated from Ferrazzano and settled in the United States, so he wasn’t too far removed.
And yet, when it was announced that the star was going to be granted honorary citizenship, there was swift and instant backlash. Why? Because De Niro, who’d delivered some of his greatest performances playing organised crime figures, was accused of perpetuating negative Italian stereotypes.
Obviously, separating the artist from their art shouldn’t be difficult, but what made things even stranger was that there was one particular film that rankled with The Order of the Sons of Italy in America, who were so incensed with the impending accolade that they made a direct appeal to then-prime minister and renowned shagger, Silvio Berlusconi, begging him to rescind the offer.
Was it one of his bloody and brutal crime flicks that proved a step too far for the organisation? Was it fuck, it was Shark Tale, an animated feature aimed largely at children that saw De Niro and Martin Scorsese trade on their reputations by voicing anthropomorphised sea-life.
Railing against how he’d “made a career of playing gangsters of Italian descent,” the Order was infuriated that the DreamWorks picture was deeply offensive to the country, and could potentially convince its young demographic that everyone of Italian or Italian-American origin is part of the mafia, which is every bit as ludicrous as it sounds.
Executive producer Steven Spielberg was also drawn into the firing line, with the group’s executive director alleging that Shark Tale “is going to introduce unflattering and untrue stereotypes of Italian-Americans as gangsters to millions of children,” with De Niro being held personally responsible “for considerably damaging the collective reputations of both Italians and Italian-Americans.”
In what might be the funniest counter-statement ever provided for an international outcry, DreamWorks told it like it was: “It’s an animated movie about colourful fish; I can’t see how that can offend anyone.” Honing in on the minutia, and making things exponentially more hilarious as a result, the statement also added that “at no point in the film does any fish say, ‘I’m Italian.'”
Ultimately, and as ludicrous as it sounds, Shark Tale did not derail De Niro’s path toward Italian citizenship, which was eventually granted in 2006.
