WEBVTT 00:00:01.520 --> 00:00:06.419 So, how does a painfully shy, pale kid from Manhattan, 00:00:06.620 --> 00:00:09.160 like a kid whose neighborhood nickname was literally 00:00:09.160 --> 00:00:11.939 Bobby Milk, how does he grow up to become the 00:00:11.939 --> 00:00:15.019 most terrifying, violent mobster in American 00:00:15.019 --> 00:00:17.120 cinematic history? It is quite the pivot, yeah. 00:00:17.399 --> 00:00:20.239 Today on The Deep Dive, our mission is to unpack 00:00:20.239 --> 00:00:24.839 this massive, incredibly chaotic, and surprisingly 00:00:24.839 --> 00:00:27.739 contradictory legacy of one of cinema's most 00:00:27.739 --> 00:00:30.129 towering figures. We're talking about Robert 00:00:30.129 --> 00:00:33.560 De Niro. And we're looking at a profoundly extensive 00:00:33.560 --> 00:00:36.539 stack of source material today for you. The records 00:00:36.539 --> 00:00:39.000 we're pulling from include detailed biographies, 00:00:39.420 --> 00:00:42.240 his sprawling filmography, and his exhaustively 00:00:42.240 --> 00:00:44.579 updated Wikipedia files, which are current through 00:00:44.579 --> 00:00:46.880 early 2026, which is a lot of ground to cover. 00:00:46.939 --> 00:00:48.840 It really is. I mean, this covers a trajectory 00:00:48.840 --> 00:00:51.679 that starts in the Bohemian enclaves of 1940s 00:00:51.679 --> 00:00:54.859 New York, and it stretches all the way to him 00:00:54.859 --> 00:00:57.259 standing on stage to receive the honorary Palme 00:00:57.259 --> 00:00:59.939 d 'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in May of 2025. 00:00:59.920 --> 00:01:01.859 Okay, let's unpack this, because if we just look 00:01:01.859 --> 00:01:03.460 at the bullet points here, it honestly doesn't 00:01:03.460 --> 00:01:05.400 make logical sense. No, it really doesn't. You 00:01:05.400 --> 00:01:08.959 have a guy known for playing these hyper -masculine, 00:01:09.159 --> 00:01:12.780 explosive sociopaths, right, who then completely 00:01:12.780 --> 00:01:16.700 pivots to playing a hilariously neurotic, comedic 00:01:16.700 --> 00:01:20.359 father -in -law, all while simultaneously building 00:01:20.359 --> 00:01:23.709 this massive global hospitality empire. And, 00:01:23.709 --> 00:01:26.109 you know, still making global headlines. Exactly. 00:01:26.450 --> 00:01:28.930 Having his seventh child at the age of 79, I 00:01:28.930 --> 00:01:31.370 mean, it is a staggering life to try and summarize 00:01:31.370 --> 00:01:34.590 for you guys today. It reads less like one biography 00:01:34.590 --> 00:01:38.620 and more like, uh... three or four distinct lifetimes 00:01:38.620 --> 00:01:41.599 just crammed into a single existence. To really 00:01:41.599 --> 00:01:43.640 understand the mechanics of how he operates today, 00:01:44.019 --> 00:01:46.480 the sources force us to look closely at the environment 00:01:46.480 --> 00:01:49.359 that forged him. We have to go back to 1943, 00:01:49.459 --> 00:01:52.140 to a very specific kind of unconventional household 00:01:52.140 --> 00:01:54.140 in Greenwich Village. His parents were both painters, 00:01:54.299 --> 00:01:57.060 right? They were, yeah. Virginia Admiral and 00:01:57.060 --> 00:01:59.379 Robert De Niro Sr. met in a painting class, but 00:01:59.379 --> 00:02:02.140 this wasn't your standard mid -century nuclear 00:02:02.140 --> 00:02:04.739 family. No, not at all. They separated when De 00:02:04.739 --> 00:02:06.519 Niro was just two years old because his father 00:02:06.519 --> 00:02:08.979 actually announced he was gay. Right. And in 00:02:08.979 --> 00:02:11.939 the mid -1940s, that was a profoundly complex 00:02:11.939 --> 00:02:14.599 dynamic to navigate, both socially and personally. 00:02:15.599 --> 00:02:17.800 So De Niro was raised primarily by his mother 00:02:17.800 --> 00:02:19.979 in Greenwich Village in Little Italy, though 00:02:19.979 --> 00:02:22.219 his father did remain a close fixture in his 00:02:22.219 --> 00:02:24.159 life. And from what I'm reading in these notes, 00:02:24.379 --> 00:02:26.759 the ideological whiplash he experienced as a 00:02:26.759 --> 00:02:29.900 kid was just intense. Oh, the contrasts are fascinating. 00:02:30.039 --> 00:02:32.219 I mean, his mother had been raised Presbyterian 00:02:32.219 --> 00:02:36.199 but became a staunch atheist. OK. And his father 00:02:36.199 --> 00:02:38.699 was a lapsed Catholic who had abandoned the church 00:02:38.699 --> 00:02:41.819 at age 12. So De Niro's day to day life was rooted 00:02:41.819 --> 00:02:46.030 in this. the secular, bohemian, artistic reality. 00:02:46.270 --> 00:02:48.349 But then while he was staying with his grandparents 00:02:48.349 --> 00:02:50.270 during his parents' divorce, they completely 00:02:50.270 --> 00:02:53.050 disregarded his parents' wishes and secretly 00:02:53.050 --> 00:02:54.909 baptized him into the Catholic Church. Wait, 00:02:54.909 --> 00:02:57.889 really? Secretly baptized? Yeah, completely under 00:02:57.889 --> 00:02:59.430 the radar. So before he even starts grade school, 00:02:59.430 --> 00:03:02.550 he is essentially living this double life. And 00:03:02.550 --> 00:03:04.930 out on the streets of Little Italy, he's incredibly 00:03:04.930 --> 00:03:07.270 withdrawn, right? He befriends the local street 00:03:07.270 --> 00:03:10.830 kids, but he is so pale and so quiet that they 00:03:10.830 --> 00:03:13.360 give him the nickname Bobby Milk. Bobby Milk, 00:03:13.520 --> 00:03:15.919 yeah. It just feels like such a massive leap 00:03:15.919 --> 00:03:18.460 from Bobby Milk to a career in public performance. 00:03:19.659 --> 00:03:21.460 The sources say he dropped out of high school 00:03:21.460 --> 00:03:25.280 at 16 to pursue acting but the reasoning is so 00:03:25.280 --> 00:03:28.500 remarkably cynical for a teenager. It really 00:03:28.500 --> 00:03:30.800 reveals a lot about his baseline psychology. 00:03:31.080 --> 00:03:33.240 He was reportedly watching a television show, 00:03:33.379 --> 00:03:36.800 just observing the actors on screen. And he concluded 00:03:36.800 --> 00:03:38.719 that if these people were managing to make a 00:03:38.719 --> 00:03:41.379 living at it, despite not being very good, well, 00:03:41.379 --> 00:03:44.199 he couldn't possibly do any worse. That is hilarious. 00:03:44.460 --> 00:03:47.719 Right. So he drops out and finds his way to the 00:03:47.719 --> 00:03:50.919 Stella Adler Conservatory and Lee Strasberg's 00:03:50.919 --> 00:03:53.319 Actors Studio, which is where he collides with 00:03:53.319 --> 00:03:55.560 the Stanislavski system, which is what we casually 00:03:55.560 --> 00:03:58.490 call method acting. Exactly. So here is my working 00:03:58.490 --> 00:04:01.370 theory on this, looking at his early life. For 00:04:01.370 --> 00:04:04.189 De Niro, acting wasn't just an artistic pursuit. 00:04:04.229 --> 00:04:06.430 It was an armored suit. Oh, I like that. Right. 00:04:06.550 --> 00:04:09.030 Like if you were this painfully shy kid, stepping 00:04:09.030 --> 00:04:11.310 into the Stanislavski method is a psychological 00:04:11.310 --> 00:04:14.069 tool. It gives you a way to safely explore a 00:04:14.069 --> 00:04:17.350 chaotic world by, you know, wearing someone else's 00:04:17.350 --> 00:04:19.310 skin. That makes a lot of sense. I mean, think 00:04:19.310 --> 00:04:21.730 about it. Have you ever put on a literal uniform 00:04:21.730 --> 00:04:25.660 at work? or adopted a highly formal professional 00:04:25.660 --> 00:04:28.399 persona for a presentation, just to project a 00:04:28.399 --> 00:04:30.899 certainty you don't actually feel inside. That 00:04:30.899 --> 00:04:33.199 is exactly what De Niro was doing, just on a 00:04:33.199 --> 00:04:36.529 historic cinematic scale. That framing really 00:04:36.529 --> 00:04:39.310 explains the underlying mechanism of why the 00:04:39.310 --> 00:04:42.269 Stanislavski method was the exact tool he needed. 00:04:42.649 --> 00:04:44.970 The technique isn't just about pretending, right? 00:04:45.089 --> 00:04:48.129 Right. It requires an actor to draw upon their 00:04:48.129 --> 00:04:51.310 own deeply buried inner emotions, their own traumas, 00:04:51.329 --> 00:04:54.250 and their own memories to construct a character's 00:04:54.250 --> 00:04:56.709 reality. So he's using all that childhood chaos. 00:04:57.029 --> 00:04:59.670 Exactly. Bridging the gap between his complex 00:04:59.670 --> 00:05:02.350 childhood, the secret baptisms, the fractured 00:05:02.350 --> 00:05:04.740 family, the tough streets of Little Italy, and 00:05:04.740 --> 00:05:07.279 the explosive characters he would play? Well, 00:05:07.360 --> 00:05:09.899 that required a rigid framework. The method gave 00:05:09.899 --> 00:05:12.160 him permission to channel his intense inner life 00:05:12.160 --> 00:05:14.839 into a vessel that was entirely safe, specifically 00:05:14.839 --> 00:05:16.980 because it was fictional. But as the timeline 00:05:16.980 --> 00:05:19.920 moves into the 1970s and 80s, that armor stops 00:05:19.920 --> 00:05:22.620 being purely emotional, right? It becomes aggressively, 00:05:23.040 --> 00:05:24.800 shockingly physical. Oh, completely. The pursuit 00:05:24.800 --> 00:05:26.699 of the perfect performance becomes something 00:05:26.699 --> 00:05:29.620 else entirely. It's no longer just about channeling 00:05:29.620 --> 00:05:32.579 childhood memories. He becomes an architect of 00:05:32.579 --> 00:05:35.779 extreme physical metamorphosis. And the level 00:05:35.779 --> 00:05:38.279 of dedication he introduces to American cinema 00:05:38.279 --> 00:05:41.240 was practically unprecedented. The sources point 00:05:41.240 --> 00:05:45.819 to 1973's Mean Streets with director Martin Scorsese 00:05:45.819 --> 00:05:49.060 as, like, the starting gun. Okay, yeah. He plays 00:05:49.060 --> 00:05:51.519 Johnny Boy, this reckless, self -destructive, 00:05:51.660 --> 00:05:54.519 small -time criminal. And to maintain the chaotic 00:05:54.519 --> 00:05:56.839 psychology of the character, he intentionally 00:05:56.839 --> 00:05:58.920 isolated himself from the rest of the cast and 00:05:58.920 --> 00:06:01.199 crew. He just refused to break the illusion. 00:06:01.279 --> 00:06:03.709 And the escalation from there is rapid. Very 00:06:03.709 --> 00:06:06.810 rapid. The very next year, 1974, he lands the 00:06:06.810 --> 00:06:09.750 role of young Vito Corleone in Francis Ford Coppola's 00:06:09.750 --> 00:06:12.189 The Godfather Part II. And he doesn't just read 00:06:12.189 --> 00:06:13.709 the lines with an accent. Oh, of course not. 00:06:13.769 --> 00:06:16.490 He travels to Sicily. He immerses himself to 00:06:16.490 --> 00:06:18.949 the point of learning multiple regional Sicilian 00:06:18.949 --> 00:06:21.670 dialects, fundamentally altering his speech patterns. 00:06:21.750 --> 00:06:25.329 Which is wild. It is. And it earns him the Academy 00:06:25.329 --> 00:06:28.279 Award for Best Supporting Actor. making cinematic 00:06:28.279 --> 00:06:31.000 history, as he and Marlon Brando become the first 00:06:31.000 --> 00:06:33.579 two actors to win Oscars for playing the exact 00:06:33.579 --> 00:06:36.040 same character. Which is incredible, but it's 00:06:36.040 --> 00:06:39.060 the preparation for 1976's Taxi Driver that really 00:06:39.060 --> 00:06:41.560 caught my eye. Oh, Travis Bickle. Yeah. He plays 00:06:41.560 --> 00:06:44.060 Travis Bickle, this lonely taxi driver descending 00:06:44.060 --> 00:06:46.519 into violent madness. To build this character, 00:06:46.680 --> 00:06:49.639 he loses 30 pounds. He spends time at a U .S. 00:06:49.720 --> 00:06:51.980 Army base just to study and absorb Midwestern 00:06:51.980 --> 00:06:54.870 mannerisms. He acquires a legitimate cab license 00:06:54.870 --> 00:06:57.550 and actually drives a taxi around New York City. 00:06:57.670 --> 00:07:00.529 He really put in the hours. And he famously improvises 00:07:00.529 --> 00:07:03.129 the you talking to me. Yeah. Mirror sequence. 00:07:04.189 --> 00:07:07.029 Then the next year, for the 1977 film New York, 00:07:07.050 --> 00:07:09.470 New York, he decides he can't just fake playing 00:07:09.470 --> 00:07:11.689 the saxophone for the cameras. So he actually 00:07:11.689 --> 00:07:14.209 learns to play the instrument. Yes. And all of 00:07:14.209 --> 00:07:17.269 that is merely a prelude to 1980s raging bull. 00:07:17.810 --> 00:07:20.509 To play middleweight boxer Jake LaMotta, he literally 00:07:20.509 --> 00:07:22.389 learns how to box to a professional standard. 00:07:22.560 --> 00:07:25.139 and wins the Oscar for best actor for that role. 00:07:25.519 --> 00:07:28.319 Right. But then to portray the older out of shape 00:07:28.319 --> 00:07:31.420 version of LaMotta, he embarks on this punishing, 00:07:31.459 --> 00:07:34.680 eating binge across Europe and gains 60 pounds. 00:07:35.120 --> 00:07:36.639 Now, here's where it gets really interesting, 00:07:36.680 --> 00:07:39.040 because I have to push back a bit on how Hollywood 00:07:39.040 --> 00:07:41.620 romanticizes this era. How do you mean? Well, 00:07:41.899 --> 00:07:44.160 we talk about gaining 60 pounds or driving a 00:07:44.160 --> 00:07:46.660 cab as dedication, but look at the biological 00:07:46.660 --> 00:07:50.040 and psychological toll. At what point does preparation 00:07:50.040 --> 00:07:53.060 cross the line into a dangerous obsession? That 00:07:53.060 --> 00:07:55.639 is a very valid question. It is like an Olympic 00:07:55.639 --> 00:07:58.100 athlete who is willing to permanently destroy 00:07:58.100 --> 00:08:00.959 their joints or risk their cardiovascular health 00:08:00.959 --> 00:08:05.100 for one single gold medal. I mean, Scorsese actually 00:08:05.100 --> 00:08:07.540 had to halt production on Raging Bull because 00:08:07.540 --> 00:08:09.720 he was terrified by De Niro's labored breathing. 00:08:09.959 --> 00:08:12.379 Wow. Is this brilliant art or is this just a 00:08:12.379 --> 00:08:15.120 man slowly destroying himself on camera? It forces 00:08:15.120 --> 00:08:17.519 us to question the boundaries of self -preservation 00:08:17.519 --> 00:08:20.660 in art, for sure. But looking at the ripple effect 00:08:20.660 --> 00:08:23.740 of those choices, De Niro was fundamentally rewriting 00:08:23.740 --> 00:08:27.399 audience expectations. Before this era, audiences 00:08:27.399 --> 00:08:30.459 accepted a distinct layer of theatricality in 00:08:30.459 --> 00:08:32.600 film acting. You always knew you were watching 00:08:32.600 --> 00:08:35.320 an actor. But De Niro discarded that. He erased 00:08:35.320 --> 00:08:37.340 the line. He did. He didn't just put on a mask. 00:08:37.480 --> 00:08:39.500 He essentially rewrote his own source code for 00:08:39.500 --> 00:08:43.220 every role. By blurring the line between documentary 00:08:43.220 --> 00:08:46.399 reality and cinematic fiction, he set an incredibly 00:08:46.399 --> 00:08:49.340 punishing standard. He really did. The intense, 00:08:49.500 --> 00:08:51.720 immersive actors of the modern era, you know, 00:08:51.820 --> 00:08:54.059 your Daniel Day -Lewises, your Christian Bales, 00:08:54.320 --> 00:08:56.159 they are all walking through a door that Robert 00:08:56.159 --> 00:08:59.080 De Niro kicked open. So he builds this towering... 00:08:59.129 --> 00:09:03.629 deeply intimidating legacy. He is Vito Corleone. 00:09:03.809 --> 00:09:06.690 He is Jake LaMotta. He is Travis Bickle. But 00:09:06.690 --> 00:09:10.070 when you have pushed dramatic hyper -masculine 00:09:10.070 --> 00:09:12.509 violent characters to their absolute physical 00:09:12.509 --> 00:09:15.190 and psychological limits, You literally have 00:09:15.190 --> 00:09:16.830 nowhere left to go in that direction without 00:09:16.830 --> 00:09:19.009 killing yourself. Exactly. So what is the survival 00:09:19.009 --> 00:09:21.409 mechanism there? You subvert the monster you've 00:09:21.409 --> 00:09:23.769 created. You take the terrifying cultural cachet 00:09:23.769 --> 00:09:26.389 you've spent two decades building and you weaponize 00:09:26.389 --> 00:09:29.250 it for laughs. He pivots to comedy. And it is 00:09:29.250 --> 00:09:32.909 a massive lucrative pivot. Huge. We see the early 00:09:32.909 --> 00:09:36.149 mechanics of it in 1988's Midnight Run. which 00:09:36.149 --> 00:09:39.629 is a brilliant buddy cop dynamic. Then in 1999, 00:09:40.049 --> 00:09:42.789 he tests the waters of self -parody in Daybrun. 00:09:43.029 --> 00:09:46.279 Analyze this. playing an insecure mob boss requiring 00:09:46.279 --> 00:09:49.139 a therapist. A classic. But the absolute juggernaut 00:09:49.139 --> 00:09:52.299 arrives in 2000 with Meet the Parents. He plays 00:09:52.299 --> 00:09:55.320 Jack Burns, the terrifying ex -CIA father -in 00:09:55.320 --> 00:09:59.019 -law. The film grosses $330 million worldwide 00:09:59.019 --> 00:10:01.720 and becomes a cultural touchstone. It really 00:10:01.720 --> 00:10:04.340 was everywhere. It was. But the source material 00:10:04.340 --> 00:10:06.539 notes that this era is also where the critical 00:10:06.539 --> 00:10:09.360 narrative sours. Ah, the infamous slump narrative. 00:10:09.500 --> 00:10:12.019 Right. Film critics throughout the 2000s and 00:10:12.019 --> 00:10:14.700 2010s began arguing loudly that he had lost his 00:10:14.700 --> 00:10:16.860 edge. They pointed to a string of critically 00:10:16.860 --> 00:10:20.019 panned projects. The 2004 thriller Godsend, for 00:10:20.019 --> 00:10:22.539 instance, holds a 4 % approval rating on Rotten 00:10:22.539 --> 00:10:25.340 Tomatoes. Ouch. 4%. Yeah, and they pointed to 00:10:25.340 --> 00:10:27.519 sequels like Little Fockers or the heavily criticized 00:10:27.519 --> 00:10:30.850 2016 comedy Dirty Grandpa. The pervasive critical 00:10:30.850 --> 00:10:32.870 consensus was that the greatest actor of the 00:10:32.870 --> 00:10:34.789 20th century was now just sleepwalking through 00:10:34.789 --> 00:10:36.750 terrible scripts strictly to collect a paycheck. 00:10:36.809 --> 00:10:38.330 You have to challenge the critics on this one. 00:10:38.850 --> 00:10:42.029 They are sitting there mourning the loss of the 00:10:42.029 --> 00:10:47.429 intense self -destructive 1970s dinero. But look 00:10:47.429 --> 00:10:49.730 at the actual mechanism of what he is doing here. 00:10:50.000 --> 00:10:53.580 He's making hundreds of millions of dollars doing 00:10:53.580 --> 00:10:56.159 comedies where he basically just gets to wink 00:10:56.159 --> 00:10:59.120 at his own mafia legacy. He doesn't have to risk 00:10:59.120 --> 00:11:01.779 his cardiovascular health or learn Sicilian. 00:11:01.960 --> 00:11:04.279 He just has to look at Ben Stiller and point 00:11:04.279 --> 00:11:07.299 two fingers at his own eyes. Is that a slump 00:11:07.299 --> 00:11:10.940 or is that just brilliant low -stress brand monetization 00:11:10.940 --> 00:11:12.879 by a guy who already proved he's the best in 00:11:12.879 --> 00:11:15.340 the world? The mechanism of those comedies is 00:11:15.340 --> 00:11:18.289 exactly why they are so lucrative. A role like 00:11:18.289 --> 00:11:20.590 Jack Byrne's only functions because of the 20 00:11:20.590 --> 00:11:23.049 years of Oscar -winning dramatic groundwork he 00:11:23.049 --> 00:11:25.049 laid beforehand. That makes total sense. The 00:11:25.049 --> 00:11:26.850 comedy doesn't come from the script alone. It 00:11:26.850 --> 00:11:29.330 comes from the audience's residual deep -seated 00:11:29.330 --> 00:11:32.289 fear of Jake LaMotta. Yes. If a traditional comedic 00:11:32.289 --> 00:11:33.990 actor played that father -in -law, it wouldn't 00:11:33.990 --> 00:11:36.610 be funny. It is funny entirely because we, the 00:11:36.610 --> 00:11:38.370 audience, look at the screen and actually believe 00:11:38.370 --> 00:11:40.929 Robert De Niro is capable of waterboarding Ben 00:11:40.929 --> 00:11:44.029 Stiller in his basement. Exactly. We're laughing 00:11:44.029 --> 00:11:46.309 as a defense mechanism because we're secretly 00:11:46.309 --> 00:11:50.220 terrified of him. It's genius. But while the 00:11:50.220 --> 00:11:52.600 film critics were busy debating whether his legacy 00:11:52.600 --> 00:11:55.039 was tarnished by Dirty Grandpa, the source material 00:11:55.039 --> 00:11:57.980 shows De Niro was entirely unbothered. Completely 00:11:57.980 --> 00:12:00.919 unbothered. Why? Because he was incredibly busy 00:12:00.919 --> 00:12:04.240 building a massive real world empire. His off 00:12:04.240 --> 00:12:06.799 -screen life is as complex and high stakes as 00:12:06.799 --> 00:12:09.580 any script he ever read. The sheer volume of 00:12:09.580 --> 00:12:12.179 his off -screen ventures is staggering. On the 00:12:12.179 --> 00:12:14.320 business front, he co -founded Tribeca Productions 00:12:14.320 --> 00:12:17.779 in 1989. Following the September 11 attacks, 00:12:18.000 --> 00:12:19.740 he and his partners founded the Trideca Film 00:12:19.740 --> 00:12:21.759 Festival to help economically and culturally 00:12:21.759 --> 00:12:24.080 revitalize lower Manhattan. Which was huge for 00:12:24.080 --> 00:12:26.340 the city. And it has since grown into a massive 00:12:26.340 --> 00:12:29.059 global entity. Simultaneously, he was building 00:12:29.059 --> 00:12:32.220 a hospitality empire. He co -owns the Nobu brand 00:12:32.220 --> 00:12:35.080 with chef Nobu Matsuhisa, which encompasses luxury 00:12:35.080 --> 00:12:37.340 restaurants and hotels across the globe from 00:12:37.340 --> 00:12:40.000 Las Vegas to Manila. But operating at that scale 00:12:40.000 --> 00:12:42.820 invites massive friction, right? The legal and 00:12:42.820 --> 00:12:44.620 financial realities detailed in these sources 00:12:44.620 --> 00:12:48.899 sounding The legal battles are dense. For example, 00:12:49.059 --> 00:12:51.100 he was sued by the accountants of the trust that 00:12:51.100 --> 00:12:53.399 owns his own garden or estate over a property 00:12:53.399 --> 00:12:55.960 tax dispute. The accountants filed the suit, 00:12:56.059 --> 00:12:58.559 citing fiduciary duty. Let's clarify what that 00:12:58.559 --> 00:13:00.320 means in this context for you guys, because it 00:13:00.320 --> 00:13:03.179 sounds absurd that his own team would sue him. 00:13:03.340 --> 00:13:05.539 It does sound crazy, but fiduciary duty means 00:13:05.539 --> 00:13:08.139 those accountants had a strict legal obligation 00:13:08.139 --> 00:13:10.500 to protect the financial assets of the trust 00:13:10.500 --> 00:13:13.620 above all else. even if it meant going to court 00:13:13.620 --> 00:13:15.960 against De Niro himself to prevent a financial 00:13:15.960 --> 00:13:18.840 misstep. Wow. He reportedly went bananas when 00:13:18.840 --> 00:13:20.860 he read about his own trust suing him in the 00:13:20.860 --> 00:13:23.360 paper and quickly settled the matter. I bet. 00:13:23.720 --> 00:13:26.360 And then there's the lawsuit from 2019, which 00:13:26.360 --> 00:13:28.779 honestly sounds like a rejected comedy script. 00:13:28.860 --> 00:13:31.659 Oh, this one. His production company sued a former 00:13:31.659 --> 00:13:34.980 employee for $6 million, alleging she breached 00:13:34.980 --> 00:13:40.039 her duties, misused corporate funds, and I literally 00:13:40.039 --> 00:13:42.960 cannot get over binge -watched 55 episodes of 00:13:42.960 --> 00:13:45.259 the show, friends, in four days while on the 00:13:45.259 --> 00:13:47.340 company clock. It was highly publicized, but 00:13:47.340 --> 00:13:50.299 it was a bitter, exhausting legal fight. The 00:13:50.299 --> 00:13:52.779 employee counter -sued for harassment and gender 00:13:52.779 --> 00:13:56.340 discrimination. Oh, wow. And by 2023, a jury 00:13:56.340 --> 00:13:59.019 found De Niro not personally liable for the discrimination, 00:13:59.519 --> 00:14:01.440 but his company was ordered to pay the former 00:14:01.440 --> 00:14:05.940 employee $1 .2 million in damages. If you think 00:14:05.940 --> 00:14:08.259 about your own career, imagine reaching your 00:14:08.259 --> 00:14:11.200 late 70s, a time when most people are prioritizing 00:14:11.200 --> 00:14:14.200 rest and retirement. And instead, you are dealing 00:14:14.200 --> 00:14:17.019 with multi -million dollar corporate lawsuits 00:14:17.019 --> 00:14:20.340 and running a global hotel brand. It's exhausting 00:14:20.340 --> 00:14:22.759 just to think about. And the stress bleeds heavily 00:14:22.759 --> 00:14:25.019 into his personal life. He has seven children 00:14:25.019 --> 00:14:28.100 across multiple relationships. During a 2021 00:14:28.100 --> 00:14:30.340 virtual divorce hearing, during a split from 00:14:30.340 --> 00:14:32.960 his second wife, Grace Hightower, De Niro's own 00:14:32.960 --> 00:14:35.240 lawyer argued in court that the actor was working 00:14:35.240 --> 00:14:37.840 at an unsustainable pace just to support his 00:14:37.840 --> 00:14:40.299 estranged wife and pay off massive back taxes. 00:14:40.559 --> 00:14:42.639 That phrase right there, unsustainable pace, 00:14:43.080 --> 00:14:45.460 recontextualizes the entire slump narrative we 00:14:45.460 --> 00:14:47.679 discussed earlier. It really does. De Niro's 00:14:47.679 --> 00:14:50.320 obsessive drive didn't vanish in the 2000s. It 00:14:50.320 --> 00:14:53.120 just migrated. It moved from his acting preparation 00:14:53.120 --> 00:14:55.919 into managing real estate, funding a sprawling 00:14:55.919 --> 00:14:58.690 family structure and navigating complex divorces. 00:14:58.950 --> 00:15:01.309 He wasn't losing his artistic edge. He was simply 00:15:01.309 --> 00:15:03.690 operating a massive financial machine that required 00:15:03.690 --> 00:15:05.750 constant fuel. The machine had to keep running. 00:15:06.110 --> 00:15:08.649 Exactly. And life continued to bring intense 00:15:08.649 --> 00:15:11.690 personal developments. In April 2023, at the 00:15:11.690 --> 00:15:14.929 age of 79, he welcomed his seventh child, a daughter 00:15:14.929 --> 00:15:17.870 named Gia, making him one of the oldest fathers 00:15:17.870 --> 00:15:20.970 on record. 79 years old. Right. Yet just months 00:15:20.970 --> 00:15:24.509 later, in July 2023, he endured a profound tragedy 00:15:24.509 --> 00:15:27.059 when his 19 -year -old grandson, Leandro, died 00:15:27.059 --> 00:15:29.960 from an accidental fentanyl overdose. The velocity 00:15:29.960 --> 00:15:32.639 of his life is just hard to comprehend. And amidst 00:15:32.639 --> 00:15:35.259 the acting, the empire, the lawsuits and the 00:15:35.259 --> 00:15:38.200 profound family tragedy, he is also heavily engaged 00:15:38.200 --> 00:15:40.480 in the political and cultural sphere. Very heavily. 00:15:40.600 --> 00:15:42.799 Looking at the records of his public life, he 00:15:42.799 --> 00:15:46.200 is undeniably polarizing. The sources detail 00:15:46.200 --> 00:15:49.179 his fierce political advocacy, including prominently 00:15:49.179 --> 00:15:51.519 backing the campaigns of Joe Biden and Kamala 00:15:51.519 --> 00:15:54.830 Harris. Conversely, He has been a highly vocal, 00:15:55.309 --> 00:15:57.990 uncompromising critic of Donald Trump, frequently 00:15:57.990 --> 00:16:00.970 comparing his politics to fascism. And looking 00:16:00.970 --> 00:16:03.690 impartially at the records, that level of outspoken 00:16:03.690 --> 00:16:06.850 advocacy generated severe real world consequences. 00:16:06.970 --> 00:16:10.149 Yes, it did. In October 2018, De Niro was one 00:16:10.149 --> 00:16:12.970 of several high profile political figures targeted 00:16:12.970 --> 00:16:15.250 by an explosive device sent through the mail 00:16:15.250 --> 00:16:18.350 to his Tribeca grill. Terrifying. And more recently, 00:16:18.389 --> 00:16:21.529 in 2024, the National Association of Broadcasters 00:16:21.529 --> 00:16:24.049 actually withdrew a prestigious leadership award 00:16:24.049 --> 00:16:26.970 they had planned to give him. Really? Yes. Explicitly 00:16:26.970 --> 00:16:29.549 citing his highly publicized vocal criticism. 00:16:29.389 --> 00:16:32.529 outside of Donald Trump's criminal trial in New 00:16:32.529 --> 00:16:34.929 York. The sources also highlight a major collision 00:16:34.929 --> 00:16:37.370 between his personal life and public health discourse 00:16:37.370 --> 00:16:40.289 back in 2016. De Niro initially defended the 00:16:40.289 --> 00:16:42.789 inclusion of a documentary called Vaxed at the 00:16:42.789 --> 00:16:44.950 Tribeca Film Festival. The film was directed 00:16:44.950 --> 00:16:47.830 by a discredited anti -vaccine activist. De Niro 00:16:47.830 --> 00:16:49.929 explained at the time that his interest wasn't 00:16:49.929 --> 00:16:52.210 inherently political, but stemmed from his own 00:16:52.210 --> 00:16:54.370 personal experience raising his autistic son, 00:16:54.649 --> 00:16:56.870 Elliot. But the pushback from the medical and 00:16:56.870 --> 00:16:59.509 scientific communities was immense and immediate, 00:16:59.809 --> 00:17:02.490 citing the fraudulent nature of the claims linking 00:17:02.490 --> 00:17:05.250 vaccines to autism. It was a huge controversy. 00:17:05.490 --> 00:17:08.329 Facing that intense scientific pressure, De Niro 00:17:08.329 --> 00:17:10.750 consulted with experts and festival organizers 00:17:10.750 --> 00:17:13.609 and ultimately with grew the film from the schedule. 00:17:14.250 --> 00:17:16.930 However, he later stated on television that while 00:17:16.930 --> 00:17:19.990 he wasn't strictly anti vaccination, he still 00:17:19.990 --> 00:17:22.349 felt people should see the film and question 00:17:22.349 --> 00:17:26.009 vaccine efficacy. a highly scrutinized chapter 00:17:26.009 --> 00:17:29.410 of his public life. So you have a man who is 00:17:29.410 --> 00:17:31.690 living out loud, constantly in the crosshairs 00:17:31.690 --> 00:17:33.630 of cultural, political, and financial battles. 00:17:34.210 --> 00:17:35.789 But just when the critics thought they had him 00:17:35.789 --> 00:17:37.990 entirely figured out, just when they assumed 00:17:37.990 --> 00:17:39.910 he was only stepping onto movie sets to fund 00:17:39.910 --> 00:17:42.890 the Nobu Empire or pay his taxes, he steps back 00:17:42.890 --> 00:17:44.990 into the ring with the Masters. He really does. 00:17:45.069 --> 00:17:47.569 The modern era of his career brings a stunning 00:17:47.569 --> 00:17:50.640 resurgence. He forcefully reminds the industry 00:17:50.640 --> 00:17:53.420 of his capabilities. We see the beginnings of 00:17:53.420 --> 00:17:55.599 this in his collaborations with director David 00:17:55.599 --> 00:17:58.380 O. Russell, particularly his deeply grounded 00:17:58.380 --> 00:18:01.579 emotional performance in 2012's Silver Linings 00:18:01.579 --> 00:18:03.799 Playbook, which earned him an Oscar nomination. 00:18:03.960 --> 00:18:05.740 Such a good performance. And he also takes a 00:18:05.740 --> 00:18:08.319 crucial supporting role in Todd Phillips' 2019 00:18:08.319 --> 00:18:11.380 cultural phenomenon, Joker. But the real magic 00:18:11.380 --> 00:18:14.420 like the reunion that cinephiles had been waiting 00:18:14.420 --> 00:18:18.890 decades for was the grand return. to Martin Scorsese. 00:18:19.190 --> 00:18:22.319 Yes. In 2019, they reunite for the sprawling 00:18:22.319 --> 00:18:25.140 epic The Irishman, their first feature collaboration 00:18:25.140 --> 00:18:29.440 since 1995. And then in 2023, he delivers what 00:18:29.440 --> 00:18:32.319 many consider a late career masterclass as the 00:18:32.319 --> 00:18:36.039 chilling, manipulative William King Hale in Scorsese's 00:18:36.039 --> 00:18:38.559 Killers of the Flower Moon. Oh, he was so unsettling 00:18:38.559 --> 00:18:40.599 in that. And that performance earns him yet another 00:18:40.599 --> 00:18:42.980 Academy Award nomination. He also proves he can 00:18:42.980 --> 00:18:45.279 adapt to the shifting industry landscape, right? 00:18:45.720 --> 00:18:48.400 Moving seamlessly into the streaming era by starring 00:18:48.400 --> 00:18:51.559 in the 25 Netflix political thriller series Zero 00:18:51.559 --> 00:18:54.940 Day. And all of this culminates in a massive 00:18:54.940 --> 00:18:59.160 crowning achievement. In May of 2025, he is awarded 00:18:59.160 --> 00:19:01.880 the honorary Palme d 'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, 00:19:02.359 --> 00:19:04.640 celebrating over five decades of cinema history. 00:19:05.539 --> 00:19:07.880 So what does this all mean? It's a great question. 00:19:08.019 --> 00:19:09.920 When you look at this late career resurgence 00:19:09.920 --> 00:19:12.420 from the Irishman, the Cannes, do you think this 00:19:12.420 --> 00:19:16.240 is a conscious, planned victory lap? Or is it 00:19:16.240 --> 00:19:18.660 simply that he only truly exerts effort when 00:19:18.660 --> 00:19:20.700 a director actually demands greatness from him? 00:19:21.000 --> 00:19:23.400 I think it suggests that his talent is not a 00:19:23.400 --> 00:19:25.700 fading commodity. It is a switch that he can 00:19:25.700 --> 00:19:27.920 still flip when the material warrants it. A switch, 00:19:28.079 --> 00:19:30.099 yeah. When he is paired with a filmmaker who 00:19:30.099 --> 00:19:32.930 truly challenges him. Someone like Scorsese who 00:19:32.930 --> 00:19:35.410 demands the absolute uncomfortable truth of a 00:19:35.410 --> 00:19:37.809 scene that old Bobby Milk dedication instantly 00:19:37.809 --> 00:19:39.589 returns. And the armor goes back on. The armor 00:19:39.589 --> 00:19:41.990 goes back on. Consider the scope of what he has 00:19:41.990 --> 00:19:44.750 achieved. He has successfully navigated the gritty 00:19:44.750 --> 00:19:47.730 independent cinema of the 1970s, the blockbuster 00:19:47.730 --> 00:19:50.490 comedies of the 2000s and the prestige streaming 00:19:50.490 --> 00:19:53.450 wars of the 2020s. Most actors do not survive 00:19:53.450 --> 00:19:55.630 one of those industry transitions, let alone 00:19:55.630 --> 00:19:59.460 three. It is an unparalleled run. And that brings 00:19:59.460 --> 00:20:02.579 us to the end of our deep dive today. We have 00:20:02.579 --> 00:20:05.660 journeyed from a shy, pale kid in Greenwich Village 00:20:05.660 --> 00:20:08.539 who used method acting as psychological armor, 00:20:09.259 --> 00:20:12.319 to a man who violently rewrote his own source 00:20:12.319 --> 00:20:16.569 code on screen, to a comedic icon winking at 00:20:16.569 --> 00:20:19.049 his own terrifying shadow. It's quite a journey. 00:20:19.329 --> 00:20:21.250 We've seen him navigate the relentless stress 00:20:21.250 --> 00:20:24.710 of global business, complex lawsuits, and profound 00:20:24.710 --> 00:20:28.230 personal tragedy, only to reemerge as an enduring 00:20:28.230 --> 00:20:31.170 cinematic titan. The sheer endurance is the takeaway 00:20:31.170 --> 00:20:33.170 here. If you are listening to this and thinking 00:20:33.170 --> 00:20:35.450 about your own trajectory, De Niro's story proves 00:20:35.450 --> 00:20:37.869 that reinventing yourself does not require erasing 00:20:37.869 --> 00:20:40.289 your past. Right? Whether he was playing a comedic 00:20:40.289 --> 00:20:42.630 father -in -law or building a real estate empire, 00:20:42.930 --> 00:20:46.130 he consistently used his past. his intense reputation, 00:20:46.309 --> 00:20:49.670 his history, as leverage for his next act, every 00:20:49.670 --> 00:20:52.329 era funded or informed the next. Leverage your 00:20:52.329 --> 00:20:54.150 past, don't run from it. But as we wrap up, I 00:20:54.150 --> 00:20:57.170 want to leave you, the listener, with one final 00:20:57.170 --> 00:20:59.450 lingering thought. We talked early on about how 00:20:59.450 --> 00:21:01.490 he built this armor, how he wore the skins of 00:21:01.490 --> 00:21:04.069 these intense, often violent men as a way to 00:21:04.069 --> 00:21:06.170 safely interact with the world. When a human 00:21:06.170 --> 00:21:09.650 being spends 60 years aggressively adopting the 00:21:09.650 --> 00:21:12.029 psychologies, the physicalities, and the absolute 00:21:12.029 --> 00:21:15.160 darkest impulses of hundreds of different people. 00:21:15.940 --> 00:21:18.440 At what point does the character end and the 00:21:18.440 --> 00:21:20.759 real person begin? That is the million dollar 00:21:20.759 --> 00:21:23.059 question. After a lifetime of housing the minds 00:21:23.059 --> 00:21:25.640 of Travis Bickle and Jake LaMotta and Vito Corleone, 00:21:25.980 --> 00:21:28.700 is there even a boundary left? Or does the actor 00:21:28.700 --> 00:21:31.099 just eventually become a human mosaic of everyone 00:21:31.099 --> 00:21:33.700 they've ever pretended to be? Keep digging, keep 00:21:33.700 --> 00:21:36.019 questioning, and we'll see you on the next Deep 00:21:36.019 --> 00:21:36.380 Dive.