I’ve been around long enough to remember a time when Robert DeNiro was famously a curmudgeon who would barely mutter through a few interviews for his film promotions. Something has really shifted in recent years. Part of it seems to be Donald Trump and DeNiro’s extremely vocal hatred for all things Trump. I honestly think that energized DeNiro, it made him more eager to give interviews, because he could trash Trump whenever he felt like it. But there also seems to be a shift in DeNiro’s perspective towards promoting his work and family. He became a father again last year at the age of 79/80, he arguably gave one of his career-best performances in Killers of the Flower Moon, and he’s still committed to working as much as possible. Maybe he’s just loosened up. Anyway, here’s a sentence I never thought I’d write: Robert DeNiro gave a warm, light interview for this week’s second People Magazine cover story.

He’s forward-looking: “As things come, you don’t expect them. You got to be ready. I’m ready to take whatever life gives me.”

His new baby Gia: He welcomed his youngest child, Gia, last year, with his partner, martial arts instructor Tiffany Chen, 45, with whom he’s been linked romantically since 2021. “She’s such an adorable baby. So sweet,” he says of the smiley 10-month-old. “[When I] look at her, everything else goes away. So it’s a great joy and relief to just be with her in the moment.”

His other kids love Gia: De Niro’s other children, Drena, 56, and Raphael, 47 (with his first wife Diahnne Abbott), twins Julian and Aaron, 28 (with ex-girlfriend Toukie Smith) and Elliot, 25, and Helen, 12 (with ex-wife Grace Hightower), are proud older siblings. “The kids all get a big kick out of her,” he says of Gia. “The grandkids even. She’s their aunt— [and] they’re about to be teenagers!” (Raphael has three children; Drena’s son, Leandro De Niro Rodriguez, died at 19 last July.) A family man to his core, De Niro loves when they can all gather. “The fact that they’d all be together,” he says, “is everything to me.”

Where he was when he heard about his latest Oscar nomination: De Niro was on the set of his upcoming Netflix series Zero Day, a political thriller he’s also executive producing, when he heard the news of his latest nod. How does it feel to be recognized at this point in his career? “Great.” Did he savor the moment and pop some champagne? “No.”

Retirement: Asked about retirement, he says he’s isn’t ready: “Not at the moment.”

[From People]

LMAO, did AppleTV tell him to do a People interview as part of an Oscar campaign?? I think that’s exactly what it is and that’s so funny. Anyway, people aren’t ready to talk about this yet, but DeNiro acted circles around everyone in KOTFM and the only reason he isn’t the leading contender in the supporting actor race is because he basically hasn’t campaigned for it at all. This is the first time I’ve thought “oh, he’s really doing an Oscar campaign.” I mean, sure, Robert Downey Jr. was always going to be “the guy” but still. As for his 10-month-old baby Gia… it’s kind of sweet that he keeps talking about her in interviews too.

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Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, cover courtesy of People.