Describe Robert De Niro in one word
Unfortunately, the game was dead in the water before it was released, but no one seems too broken up about the truly weird experience. “For us it was just this funny nostalgic time when we got to do this crazy thing in this tiny warehouse in San Francisco,” said Hays.
“We had such a good time making this thing that at the end of the day, it kind of didn’t matter whether people loved it or not.”
Bobby Loves Disguises
Bobby Loves Disguises
Photo: Warner Bros.
Move over Austin Powers, Robert De Niro is the real international man of mystery. According to Sally Kirkland, who you’ve seen in everything from Bruce Almighty to JFK and hundreds of TV shows, when De Niro was first auditioning in New York City he, “had this composite he’d carry around with him to auditions—25 pictures of himself in various disguises. In one he was like an IBM executive, in another a professor with glasses and a goatee…”
But his disguises didn’t end there. In Illeana Douglas’ memoir I Blame Dennis Hopper: And Other Stories From a Life Lived In and Out of the Movies, she says the first time she met the notoriously shy actor was when she went to a meeting with Martin Scorsese, to discuss her role in Goodfellas. But there was something off about him.
“[W]ho did I see coming the other way but Robert De Niro. There was no official word that Robert De Niro was in the movie, or even considering being in the movie, so I got a secret little thrill that maybe that’s why he was leaving Marty’s.
I smiled politely at him as I passed by and respectfully and quietly said, ‘Hello.’ He politely nodded back, said, ‘Hello,’ and we both kept walking. I did notice that he was wearing large horn-rimmed glasses. Marty opened the door for me, and I said, ‘I just said hello to Robert De Niro. Does that mean he’s going to be in the movie?’And Marty looked a little concerned and said, ‘You recognized him?’
I laughed, and said, ‘Of course. He’s Robert De Niro!’ And he said, ‘But he was wearing a disguise.’ And I said, ‘Marty, he was wearing glasses.'”
He Doesn’t Want To Talk To You
He Doesn’t Want To Talk To You
Photo: Warner Bros
Like some other great actors, De Niro suffers the contradiction of loving an art that gets him worldwide exposure while seriously disliking worldwide exposure. For a 1987 Vanity Fair profile, De Niro’s former secretary, Trixie Bourne, who also worked for Steve McQueen and Jack Nicholson, explained various ways she diverted those looking to speak to the actor (including the reporter).
