Before SAG-AFTRA went on strike, Robert DeNiro was in Cannes to promote Killers of the Flower Moon. He did a lot of press during the film festival, and one of those interviews was with the Guardian. The Guardian held the interview for months! The bulk of this piece isn’t even about DeNiro’s latest outing with Martin Scorsese, their tenth collaboration in fifty years. DeNiro and Marty basically have an understanding which goes beyond words – they love each other, they are friends, but DeNiro can’t even describe their relationship or this movie. He’d rather talk about how much he f–king despises Donald Trump. Relatable! He also talks about becoming a father again – his girlfriend Tiffany Chen welcomed DeNiro’s seventh child this year. He’s not super-involved with the baby stuff. Some highlights:

On Trump: “The political situation we’re in in my country, it is crazy and absurd – we lost control. I see the phenomenon of Trump, the phenomenon of people not standing up to him, people who ought to know better… They’re causing great concern in the country and a lot of anxiety. I feel like since he’s come on the scene – even after being president – it’s like when an abusive parent rules a household, only it’s not just one household it’s the whole country. We’re like, ‘What’s this guy going to do next? What’s he going to aggravate us about?’ Is he just doing this to aggravate people? To make people unhappy? Maybe he is.”

Trump’s lack of moral center: “He allowed more of it to come out” – the racism, the disregard. “One of the main tasks of being a leader, the responsibility, is to lead. Even when the masses are turning in a certain the direction, you have to show them the right way. And that comes down to personal integrity, what you know is right and what you know to be wrong, what you stand for.” Trump is “doing whatever he can to be the boss,” he goes on. “He just wants to be in charge. He has no moral centre.”

Trump upsets him as a New Yorker: “It upsets me so much that somebody like him could get so far in our political system. Many New Yorkers were on to what a fool he is, a joke. But when the country started buying it? I mean, he didn’t win by much. He didn’t win the popular vote. She won. But look what happened. What’s scary is it’s such a fragile thing, to swing like that. And the odd thing about Trump is that if he had any brains he could have become president again. But he doesn’t care. He did stupid things. He’s not somebody who should ever be allowed close to leadership in this country again.”

On child-rearing: “It doesn’t get easier. It is what it is. It’s OK. I mean, I don’t do the heavy lifting. I’m there, I support my girlfriend. But she does the work. And we have help, which is so important. [I enjoy] all of it! With a baby it’s different to with my 11-year-old. My adult children. My grandchildren. It’s all different.”

[From The Guardian]

The Guardian sort of claims that DeNiro was always reluctant to give interviews or talk about much of anything historically, but then the whole Trump thing suddenly made him open up. I sort of agree with that – while DeNiro has always given interviews, the Trump years have really brought out the best in DeNiro. To see him so openly furious that people fall for the dumbest f–king grifter ever, to see DeNiro talk about how Trump brings out the worst in America, it’s really great. He’s right – America is in a fragile state, made more so by the fact that Trump will likely be the Republican nominee again. As for what he says about not being that involved with the baby… it sounds like that was the arrangement he and Tiffany made from the start?

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.