“There is this image which has been built up”: why Robert De Niro doesn’t consider himself an acting legend
Plenty of actors have welcomed legendary status with open arms, and it’s completely fair for any thespian to acknowledge the plaudits when they’ve earned it. However, don’t expect Robert De Niro to follow suit.
In much the same way he was inspired by the transformative style of Marlon Brando, there are generations of performers who hold De Niro on a pedestal as one of the finest talents to grace the silver screen, which is fair enough because that’s exactly what he is.
His Academy Award-winning performance in Raging Bull is, without a doubt, one of the greatest examples of immersive film acting there’s ever going to be, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. He’s pulled his weight in a handful of all-time classics, earning plenty of acclaim along the way.
He won an Oscar at the first attempt when The Godfather Part II earned him a ‘Best Supporting Actor’ statue, while he was subsequently nominated for Taxi Driver, The Deer Hunter, Awakenings, Cape Fear, Silver Linings Playbook, and Killers of the Flower Moon.
That doesn’t even cover Martin Scorsese’s Mean Streets, The King of Comedy, Goodfellas or Casino, never mind buddy caper Midnight Run, Sergio Leone’s elegiac Once Upon a Time in America, Michael Mann’s Heat, his comedic masterclass in Meet the Parents, or a de-aged turn in his most famous collaborator’s long-gestating The Irishman.
Quite simply, it’s a legendary body of work, and the people who do legendary things tend to be regarded as legends. Just don’t say it to his face, though, with De Niro turning his nose up at the mere mention of such deified status and blaming it all on the mythology that’s continued to build up around him over the years.
“There is this image which has been built up. Invented, more like,” he explained to Bafta. “And there’s me, living the life. I do not consider myself some sort of acting legend, but just an actor doing his best with the material that is there at the time.”
An admirable approach to his own livelihood, but claiming that it’s all down to the material doesn’t hold much water when considering the sheer volume of shite latter-stage De Niro has popped up in. The ill-advised re-teaming with Al Pacino in Righteous Kill, execrable comedies like The War with Grandpa and Dirty Grandpa, supernatural turd Godsend, and the diminishing quality of the Meet the Parents sequels are not the work of a man enticed solely by a top-tier screenplay.
As much as it clearly pains him to admit it, De Niro is an acting legend. He has been for quite some time, too, but the notoriously publicity-shy star isn’t of the mind to buy into such well-earned hype.
