In ‘Irishman,’ De Niro is one for the ages
Robert De Niro is unamused by reports that President Donald Trump screened his new movie “Joker” at the White House and enjoyed it. ❚ “This administration is a joke,” says the actor, one of Trump’s most vocal critics, who plays a pivotal role in the divisive Batman villain origin story starring Joaquin Phoenix. “We’ve hopefully got to get past it and out of it. It’s not good.”
Otherwise, star of the “Raging two-time Bull” Oscarwinning and “The Godfather: Part II” has little interest in discussing politics. After all, he’s getting some of the best reviews of his nearly six-decade career for mob epic “The Irishman,” streaming on Netflix, that reunites him with longtime collaborators Martin Scorsese (“Taxi Driver”), Al Pacino (“Heat”) and Joe Pesci (“Goodfellas”).
“Irishman” is something of passion project for De Niro, 76. The sprawling 3 1⁄2-hour drama is based on Charles Brandt’s 2004 nonfiction book “I Heard You Paint Houses” about Frank Sheeran, a truck driverturned-hit man who worked closely for decades with mobster Russell Bufalino (Pesci) and Teamster Jimmy Hoffa (Pacino). De Niro read the book in 2007 and was immediately drawn to Frank, a quiet, mostly reactive character in the film, who keeps his head down and follows orders. But his criminal career ultimately costs him his family and friends, and Frank is left feeling regretful and alone as an old man. “All that was in the book: the descriptions Frank had given, the situations, the circumstances,” De Niro says. “The dialogue was all very real to me. There are some people who
have said, ‘Well, that didn’t really happen (in real life).’ That’s fine, because as Marty said, it’s a movie and this is the story we are telling.”
Pacino recently told USA TODAY that making “Irishman” brought up bittersweet feelings about his own aging and legacy, which De Niro echoes.
“Sure, how could it not?” he says. “That’s part of the attraction of the story: getting older, life going on and everything that happens.”
“Irishman” follows Frank over roughly 60 years, from his mid-20s to early 80s, which required costly deaging techology to give De Niro and his co-stars the appearances of younger men. At one point, producers discussed using younger actors in the movie’s first hour, but Scorsese and De Niro were adamant about wanting the film to be as ambitious as it was entertaining and emotional.
“We were all excited about doing this de-aging thing because we could play the characters throughout, from beginning to end, and that was good,” De Niro says. To achieve it, the visual effects team “asked me to do a test of a scene I did in ‘Goodfellas,’ and they were comparing and going off that to (model) how I would look.”
After “Irishman” was dropped by Paramount in 2017 because of its hefty price tag, Netflix bought the rights and financed its $150 million budget, and De Niro helped convince friends Pacino and Pesci to co-star.
“I don’t think it would’ve gotten made without Bob’s persistence,” producer Jane Rosenthal says. “Every time he would be promoting another movie (and journalists would ask), ‘Will you and Marty Scorsese ever work together again?’ – he would bring up this project.”
His tenacity will likely pay off: On awards site Gold Derby, De Niro is near-unanimously predicted to receive his sixth best actor Oscar nomination for the performance, which was praised by USA TODAY movie critic Brian Truitt for its “quiet vulnerability.”
Netflix has launched a splashy theatrical run and robust awards campaign for “Irishman,” which has a strong shot at becoming the streaming service’s first best picture Oscar winner after Alfonso Cuaron’s “Roma” came close earlier this year. Working in this movie’s favor are its familiar genre, rapturous reviews (96% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes), and beloved roster of Oscar-winning talent in front of and behind the camera.