Original subtitles

Every generation of actors is defined by one or two individuals.

Looking back, we know that in the 19th century, Keane, Salvini, and Duse

the art of acting for their time and forever.

We can identify the actors like Olivier and Brando who have changed the rules

and raised the stakes for their generation.

And now, as the 20th century draws to a close, it's becoming apparent

that that pioneering list includes the name of tonight's guest,

Robert De Niro.

Until tonight, the guest who grew up closest to the new school, where we are

at this moment, was Whoopi Goldberg, who started her life in Chelsea, about

eight blocks north of here. But I think the record now belongs to you.

Where were you born, Bob?

I was born in a village, and I was raised a few blocks from here, actually.

What was the address?

Well, you know the address. I asked for a particular reason.

No, I don't know the address. You know it.

I don't remember.

I know the building, but I didn't know the address. It's not part of the Little

Red Schoolhouse. Yes, it is. The address is 200 Bleecker Street.

Our graduating students are in repertory at the Circle and Square downtown at

159 Bleecker Street.

Greenwich Village was then and is again today a cultural hotbed.

And of all our guests, Bob comes from one of the most

interesting intellectual backgrounds.

Both of your parents were working painters, were they not? Right, yes.

Where did they meet? I think they met in an art school, did they not?

I think they met at Hans Hoffman. And your mother's name was, she had a great

name. Virginia.

Admiral.

Virginia Admiral.

She was a very, very good painter, wasn't she? She had an opportunity to

in Paris.

One of her paintings was bought by the Museum of Modern Art, was it not?

By Peggy Guggenheim. And the modern art, I'm not sure, but that could be true.

And your father also was a very serious painter.

Yes, my father was very serious. What kind of career did he have? What kind of

paintings did he do, for example?

Abstract, expressionist.

figurative. And he was, I mean, I love his stuff, and I put it in the

restaurants that I've been involved with.

Do you have any recollections of life in the village?

Well, it was a lot different, you know.

Soho was a lot different.

How so?

It was just a totally industrial area that nobody thought of

as a place to live.

warehouses, I guess factories, stuff like that, and he would live in these

that were really, they were real lofts.

What was your first experience with acting? I think it was in a... Well, I

to the dramatic workshop when I was 10.

Were you in The Wizard of Oz?

That's the first thing I did there on Saturday. Oh, was it there? Yeah, it was

there, yeah.

This university in the 1930s rescued 400 artists and scholars from Europe, among

them was Viscata.

And he started the dramatic workshop here at the New School, and it was on

stage. Was it on this stage? On this stage where you're sitting now.

But by the time you went, he had gone back, had he not? He had gone back to

Germany after the war.

And I went to see him once.

I must have, you know, it was about 1918, 1919, I went to East Berlin and

saw him.

Just to say hello, because I knew his wife.

How did you know his wife? My mother worked for her, and that's how I got

the dramatic workshop.

And she would type for her and do proofreading.

And so in payment for that, that's how I got the lessons on Saturday.

And how old were you?

Ten.

Then I, for a few years, I wasn't interested. Then when I was about 15,

got interested again and started again.

Where? At the dramatic workshop. I was 16.

And then I had stopped for about six months, and then I started again when I

18.

And that was with Stella Adler.

When Harvey Keitel was here, we talked about Stella big time.

Stella was my teacher.

Stella was, without question, for me, the greatest influence on my life.

She could be inspirational as a teacher.

with me, and what she did very, very well, that she was always sort of, not

attacking, but kind of like putting down the actor's studio, was that this is,

you know, the method thing, as opposed to the conservatory of acting,

Stanislavski, building a character, and I think that that was

really, really important for, I thought it was important for any actor, I

couldn't see how you wouldn't be made aware of that.

there was a bit of pomp and splendor with her, you know, and all that stuff,

she, at the end of the day... Plenty of pomp and splendor.

She was very, you know, she really was good, a good teacher, very good. I

give her credit for being, having a big influence on me and making, it's not

about neuroses or playing on your neuroses or whatever, it's about the

and about doing that first, the tasks of the character, and then you get, you

know,

without going about it as if it's all about you and how you would do it and

blah, blah, you know, instead of more about the character and being faithful

the text, the script.

Breakdown, for example, was something that I had not seen other than with her.

Script analysis, Breakdown, which is a really good class in terms of just

something for what it is.

from photographs into a text, a play, or whatever, and just breaking that down,

and not fictionalizing, but just taking whatever you get from that and making

your choices based on what you pick up from that.

She said something to us, I remember when I was studying with her, that I've

never forgotten. I wonder if she said it to you, and that was, the talent is

in... Right, in your choice.

In the choice.

That had a profound influence on me, I must say.

That had a profound influence on me. No, that was it.

What do you mean when you say that you feel, maybe it's

related to what you just said, that you feel that you have to earn the right to

play a character?

Well, in terms of...

Well, you can make it your own and feel comfortable in doing it. So you either

by researching the character or that, of course, the whole as much as you can,

learn as much as you can. When you feel comfortable, it's an ideal situation. It

doesn't always work that way where you try to be as

close to that character or to your own interpretation of what

it is.

that will give you, even in moments of uncertainty, like

if you're ad -libbing or improvising something, you always kind of know how

character will react.

And that's the ideal, the best of all possible worlds, if you could do that.

Do you think that formal training is important for young people who want to

I think it's important, yeah.

I mean, let's put it this way. If you don't have it, you're missing something.

I've always felt.

Unless you have great instincts and you're very... You can have great

but the formal training just sort of gives you an overview of things.

The kind of way you fit and what you want.

It's important to have that.

When should it begin, do you think?

I think acting can start when you're a little kid, if you wanted to, because

don't have the experience, but technique is not really...

in a way, the way I see it, connected to experience.

A question of great interest to the 206 actors and writers and directors out

here in the audience earning their master's degree at the Actors Studio

What took you to the studio? They really want to know the answer to that

question. Well, I wound up at the Actors Studio because I had a friend, Alan

Garfield.

Alan Gurwitz, Alan Garfield, I changed his name and went back to, we did a

from a movie that I did called either Greetings or Hi Mom with

Brian De Palma.

Yeah.

And Alan was, we needed somebody as a porno filmmaker.

Hi Mom.

Hi Mom, was it? Yeah.

So.

Count on it.

So Alan came up to the Whitney Museum and we improvised a scene.

And, you know, there was, to me, a clear example of somebody with an action.

Alan had an action like to sell me something or whatever, and I was just

reacting to him, you know, to his whole shtick.

And that was one of my favorite scenes in that movie.

Anyway, he was involved in the actor's studio and he got me involved.

there and coming in as an observer and then I met Shelly Winters

and I did a they were casting at that time or somewhere around that time they

were casting Bloody Mama and Shelly was in it and she had me meet Roger Corman

so that was we did that and then Shelly wrote a play She told us about it when

she sat in that chair. Did she? Yeah.

She's rather proud of you, and she feels that she had some influence when you

were at the studio and she was at the studio.

Yeah, she did. She was... Shelley cares a lot about... and cared a lot about the

studio and still does.

Did you ever audition for the studio? Did you ever actually audition for the

studio? I don't think I did, but they... I think it was a time of Shelley's play

and so on, and I was... You're a maid.

As you say so often in your movies, you're a maid studio. Right, right,

Same thing. And I think it's only fair to tell you now that it's blood in,

out. Yeah.

What did you take from Strasberg?

Strasberg was,

to me, it was beneficial and helpful.

What I felt was better.

was when a director would come up and have a session, because a director had a

mixture of experience and practical doing.

A director would get up and say, well, we'll do this and we'll go. At the end

the day, you've got to get up and do it.

And the sooner you get to knowing that you've got to get up and do it, the

quicker you'll do it.

And you can...

Like Stella would say, pitsy caca around and all of whatever, for an hour or

two. And there were a lot of things. I mean, not to be critical. It's just that

I had this problem, too, where I was afraid to make a move to, you know,

have to feel it and I have to do this.

And sometimes, you know, sometimes, and there was a teacher that I had that

actually, it's Stella's, who was a sight -reading teacher named Charles Karshan.

And he would just say, you know, You got to sometimes jump in.

And that was true because if I just jumped in and did it and took the leap,

that you would arrive at that place where you thought you had to go through

kinds of like, you know, you just arrived there and you'd be there,

or not.

I had learned something. So that it's not to pamper yourself so much. You've

to get out at the end of the day and you've got to do it.

And if you make a mistake, you do it again. You try and do it again.

How did you prepare for the role of Bruce Pearson in Bang the Drums Slowly?

That's a baseball player. I went to Georgia. He was from Georgia and had

time with people and had taped their...

Going over the script take their reading of the script and get a bunch of

different people to do it because then they would it would be I'd get the

variations of the of the Georgian accent.

So you weren't just hanging out with them. They knew you were an actor,

Yeah, I would always say what I'm doing. You showed them your cards. You said

I'm here for a reason, right? I always say that to be straight with people

because otherwise they always

I want to be very helpful and sometimes I'm more candid about things than if

you, you know, are not straight with them.

You referred to yourself in the film as doomeded.

Right.

He wasn't very smart, but I never got the impression for one second that you

were playing him dumb, that you were condescending to him at all.

No, no, no, I wouldn't have.

Well, that's the first lesson, you know, in acting. You never comment and

make...

put the character down, unless it's a character that likes to put himself

I understand.

But you have a reason for what you're doing, and you rationalize and justify

and that's the way most people are.

So that's the first thing. Like I was doing a thing with a wardrobe person

picking out clothes for this character. He was kind of like a, you know,

maybe an unsavory type chap, blah, blah. But I would say...

She was kind of making jokes about it. I said, nicely,

please don't keep saying that. I'm supposed to like this guy, and I don't

at it that way.

But I was getting a little slightly annoyed with her sort of making fun of

guy because that's not the best way to approach it.

I even think for the wardrobe costume designer, it's equally as important.

To respect the character. To respect the character, exactly.

In 1973, Bob began a collaboration with a director

that has no equal in the history of motion pictures.

Would you tell our students, how did you meet Martin Scorsese?

We met through a mutual friend, I guess, in the late...

I guess it was around 71 or 72.

1973. 73.

We met Jay Cox, who was a film critic at the time for Time Magazine.

And Marty and I had known each other as kids kind of in passing.

Both came from the same neighborhood, right? Well, I hung out in that

neighborhood. He was from the neighborhood. But I had seen Who's That

And I told him, I said, that's...

terrific movie, and it's right on, totally accurate, and so on.

And we started talking, and then he was, I guess a few months later, he was

going to do this movie, Mean Streets, and so we had, he said, would you want

play one of the parts? I said, of course.

So there were four parts, not Harvey Keitel, that was set.

I said to Harvey, you know, I really thought maybe I should have your part,

know, and I was honest with him, I was going, and he said, you know, the Johnny

Boy character you should do, and I said, yeah.

Did you rehearse the film?

We rehearsed, yes, we did rehearse, and we did improvise certain parts of it.

When you say you improvised certain parts of it, how would you improvise?

just take the script and then... Well, you improvise, I mean, you can improvise

in a lot of ways, but...

The way we did that is we would improvise a piece of it, and then you'd

set it.

You couldn't just improvise it each time, which you can do, but you have to

of set it and know the moments that you're going to hit.

Right. So you want some structure when you're improvising. You need structure.

Did Gorshazy encourage this improvisation? Yeah. He believes in it

doesn't he? He believes in it, and we've done, in the movies that we've worked

on, they've been different in every case.

I see.

I remember I was very startled when I first saw this film because the guy who

shot you at the end was Scorsese.

Marty, yeah. Yeah.

He decided he would wield the gun.

Yeah.

I forgot about that. Huh? I forgot. Yeah, you're right. He did.

In 1974, one year after Mean Streets.

Bob won the Academy Award as Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of

young Vito Corleone.

What you did in that film was remarkable for so many reasons.

First, you were completing a portrait.

That had been indelibly drawn by Brando in the first Godfather picture only two

years earlier I wasn't intimidated by it I just said it's a problem that I'm

gonna I kind of liked the fact that I had boundaries and I had to Connect it

something. It wasn't like I had to look for something. It was there. I just had

to continue it and So what I did was I got the Godfather one and in those days

You had these reel -to -reel kind of video cameras.

And we went into the theater, me and the producers, and held the camera toward

the screen. And I had this copy of the movie.

And then I would play it over and over, all the Brando stuff.

And that's what I did.

Studied it and studied it and connected it.

Another remarkable thing about your performance is, okay, you won the Oscar.

All but three lines in that part.

are in Italian.

Well, I went to Sicily for a few weeks, at least three, three and a half weeks,

and I just hung around with people, and I had a little bit of an advantage

because I told them that I was working on The Godfather 2, and they all knew

you know.

Another Godfather anomaly is the fact that three of its actors competed the

way it is in Hollywood for the Best Supporting Actor Oscar. Your competition

that. Included two people in the movie, including Lee Strasberg.

Right. That's right. I forgot about that.

When Bob won, Strasberg is quoted as saying, Bobby deserves it. You sure

as hell did.

It just keeps getting better, folks.

In 1976, Travis Bickle came into our lives like a grenade.

You're a talking taxi driver.

I know that you did some very interesting preparation for that role.

I drove a cab for a couple of weeks, yeah.

How much money did you make?

I don't remember.

I'm trying to find my hack license.

Did you get a hack license?

You had to have got a hack license.

I did. I can't find it. Is it true that once an actor got in and said, oh my

God, you won the Oscar and you're back to this?

Well, no, there were some people who recognized me.

From time to time, very little.

When I was with Stella, we did a lot of work with animals.

We used to do a lot of animals.

I've read that you talked in terms of an animal character.

I'm not sure if we talked about it, but I know that I thought of him as like a

crab in the sense he kind of worked sideways and kind of gawky.

What do you mean by sideways? You mean he wouldn't face you? Well, a crab kind

of, you know...

It seems that they kind of go at a certain, that image of going at an

like directly, but like this way.

Especially the scene with Harvey Keitel when he was in the doorway sport, you

know, and I say, which I always love this, because

they almost cut it out. I said, no, it's a great line.

He says, I say, I'm hip.

He said, funny you don't look hip.

Right, right.

So I said that you spent an unusual amount of time on that picture alone in

trailer.

True?

Well, I usually spend time in my trailer because I don't like to spend a lot of

energy out on the set. Just me. I mean, other people have other ways of doing

whatever they... I just like to stay, come back, go out, work, come back.

What do you do when you're in the trailer? Just absent yourself from the

are you still working?

Well, it depends. Every movie is different.

Sometimes if it's a certain type of part

and a situation that the character's in, I might want to just be by myself and

not have any distractions.

Otherwise it would be where I have my kids in the...

trailer with me. I sometimes don't mind just taking my mind off it and just

going in and doing it. I mean, whatever work I do, I do before and I'm not, you

know, if I can't get it then, I'm not going to get it. And the last thing I

to do is worry about it.

Because that creates, then your action is to be anxious and worrying about

something. How much of Travis's behavior was in the script? How much do you

think? you invented?

We did improvise. We did videotape scenes and rehearsals. I remember we

doing that.

And then setting certain scenes and rewriting them, improvising, and then

setting them.

I see.

Certain scenes.

To flush them out, fill them out. I understand.

Even though we liked the writing, there was a certain rhythm and style.

the terseness that Schrader had, still we were doing that. You know, we felt

it still needed something.

Was it always intended that Scorsese would be the passenger in the cab who

you look at his wife? No, no. Well, George Memoli was supposed to do it, and

had an accident.

He was shooting another movie, and so Marty did it.

He said, you know, that you gave him a great acting lesson that day. Would you

know what he was talking about? I forgot, but...

You know.

When he told you to put down the flag.

And?

You wouldn't do it. You told him, right?

I'll do it when you make me do it.

Marty has great respect for actors, which is very important to

get the best out of them, of course.

Is it true?

that one of the most memorable scenes in the last quarter of a century consists

in the script of nothing more than five words in a parenthesis, Travis looks

in the mirror.

There was no dialogue, right?

There might not have been. We improvised that, too. What did you add?

You know, that's the usual.

Are you going to say it?

No, I have like a thing where I'll never say it. I don't want to say anything.

Why? No, I just don't know.

You talking to me?

You talking to me?

You talking to me?

Who the hell else are you talking to? You talking to me?

Well, I'm the only one here.

Who the f*** do you think you're talking to?

Oh, yeah?

Huh?

Okay.

Listen, you f***ers, you screwheads.

Here is a man who would not take it anymore. Who would not let... Listen,

f***ers. You screwheads.

Here is a man who would not take it anymore. A man who stood up against the

scum, the dogs,

the filth, the shit. Here is someone who stood up.

Here he is.

In retrospect, how do you see Travis Tickle? Is he a demented villain? Is he

deluded hero?

Well, I just felt that it was something that people who are...

I mean, Paul Trader, Marty, myself, we all felt that we could relate to the

character, the loneliness, and so on. I mean, I was raised in New York City. I'm

in the middle of New York City, but I'm still alone in it, you know. And there

have been times in my life I've been very alone and felt isolated.

And we could identify with that.

They did.

You know, the talking in the mirror scene is something that a lot of people,

sure, do in one form or another, and they can relate to that.

The last scene is very ambiguous when he picks Sybil Shepherd up in the car, in

the cab.

He's very polite to her, won't take her money, and drives away with this faint

smile on his face.

Do you think he's at peace at the end of the movie? I could never figure it out.

Well, I don't know. That's an interesting thing. I wonder, you know, I

know if I ever thought of this, of doing a movie of him 20, 30 years later.

Oh, boy. I'd like to see that. It'd be kind of interesting.

I don't know if we ever talked about that.

But it would be, it's an interesting idea.

Travis, 30 years later.

Wouldn't that be interesting?

That picture won the Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival.

De Niro was honored as the best actor by the New York film critics, also by the

Los Angeles critics and the National Society of Film Critics.

And you were off and running.

When America's film critics polled themselves,

to select the best motion picture of the 1980s, they chose Raging Bull,

which reunited you

and Marty Scorsese.

Was Raging Bull your idea or his?

I had read a book while I was doing 1900, and I said, I was reading this

and I said, you know, this is interesting, and I told Marty, I said,

it's not well written, but it's got a lot of heart.

And I said, I've always...

I've been interested in playing a fighter.

And I said, this is, you know, and this guy, like, goes to pieces and gains all

this weight and his obsession with weight. You know, which actually with

fighters happens.

Sure. He's breaking the weight down.

And, you know, in his whole life he lost, he had to gain and lose 2 ,000

or whatever.

I thought it would be interesting to see how somebody could fall apart

graphically just by gaining this weight, you know, and just like.

Just getting totally out of shape.

Did you work with LaMotta?

I worked a lot with him, yeah.

How?

We would always be trying to get more to what he was about, what he was about.

Because, you know, it's very hard to ask people about themselves

and let them be honest about it and candid. So finally at one point I

that Jake was trying to be as honest as he could be.

And I thought he did a pretty good job.

And then at the end of the day, we had to make it our own.

This is what LaMotta said about Bob after he trained him as a fighter.

Anytime he wants to quit acting, I could easily make him into a champion.

He's just saying it was just going to be nice.

But he also charged a lot of money for some dental work and a busted rib.

Jake? Yeah, that's what he said.

I don't remember.

really tough, and he said, go ahead, hit me, hit me, you know, and I didn't want

to hit him. He had no guard on or nothing, no, you know, head guard.

So maybe you did break a rib.

No, no, I didn't. I didn't.

Well, I don't know.

Joe Pesci, I, but it's very easy. Has he got a broken rib? Yes, because, but

that, we were so concerned about somebody getting hurt.

Was it?

Pesci, who recommended the 16 -year -old Cathy Moriarty to play... Joe, yeah,

recommended Cathy.

He knew her from someplace in the Bronx.

She said she learned... It was Bobby who taught me to always listen.

How important is listening?

It's essential, you know, in acting.

It's a very simple thing, because actors feel... I know I had this...

problems sometimes. Well, you know, I'm not doing enough.

Some people just can't ever trust themselves that they don't have to do

more than that.

If there's nothing to do, then don't do anything the way you do in life. Right.

Just sit there and listen or answer or nod or whatever.

Of the many astonishing scenes in the book and the film, none is more gripping

than the scene in which you finally focus.

You, Jake, finally focus your jealous rage on your brother.

In that scene, I know that it was shot in a very small room because he wanted

everything to be real.

That means you couldn't use two cameras.

That means that if the two of you were improvising with each other, things

happen that wouldn't be recorded because the camera would be on you and not on

Pesci. When you were accusing him of sleeping with your wife.

he'd give you a tremendous response the first time, and when it came his turn,

the response was gone. Didn't you change it?

Yeah, I would do that, sure.

I don't remember what I said, but I would do that.

He was sleeping with his mother.

I might have said something that would really upset him. That did.

We see it forever. It's there on the screen.

Yeah.

Well, that was a very emotionally important scene, obviously.

You could have said anybody, but you said you and them.

You're going to let this girl ruin your life. Look at you. She really did some

job on you. How fucking nuts you are. Look what she did to you.

You fucked my wife.

What? You fucked my wife.

How could you ask me a question like that? How could you ask me? I'm your

brother.

You asked me that.

Where do you get your balls big enough to ask me that?

Just tell me.

I'm not answering you.

I'm not gonna answer that. Stupid.

You're very smart, Joey.

You give me all these answers, but you ain't give me the right answer.

I'll make sure you get it.

Did you or did you not?

Have you ever asked a partner to surprise you?

Yeah. You'll actually ask them to do it, huh? Well, I'll ask them, yeah, to

paraphrase, change it, do whatever you want, because I've heard the line so

often that I don't think they're really going to do much. And in order just to

get something for the director to have that's different, a choice,

I would ask whoever my partner is to do that.

I know you've told this story many, many times, but it is, as you said,

fundamental. You actually broke off in the middle of the film so that you could

gain the weight.

How did you gain it? I just ate big breakfast, big lunch, big dinner.

It was, you know, the first 15 pounds are okay, and it's fun, but after that

it's... How much did you gain? Because at the end you were immense.

I gained 60 pounds.

Remember what he looked like in the beginning of the film? You could see

muscle in his body.

And for the contrast, I kept myself in as good a shape as I could keep myself

that once I started the weight gain, that there would be a real contrast.

There is a contrast.

That contrast brought Bob the Academy Award as Best Actor that year and

also the Golden Globe Award.

You were there to accept that award, were you not? Yes. Whom did you thank?

was very interesting.

Oh, I think my mother and my father. I think you also thanked Amada and all his

wives. Oh, of course, yeah.

I thanked his brother even though he was suing us.

During a shoot, Bob, do you look at dailies?

I do a lot. Sometimes I don't because I just like to see how it's going to...

turn out and be more surprised.

There's some myth about it hurting actors and directors.

I don't know. I've never subscribed to that. Do you vary a performance from

to take?

That's the whole great thing about movies. You can change or make choices.

Especially with Marty Scorsese, I would have a lot of fun because he was very

daring as far as that would just try anything, you know. You and Scorsese

the 80s with one masterwork, Raging Bull.

And you ended it with another called Goodfellas.

Why are we as an audience so fascinated by bad guys like Jimmy Conway?

Well, I guess because they're outside the law, beyond the law, and they defy

law. I think that's what...

To use another movie like The Godfather, I think at the time especially, it was

an organization that was in defiance of authority but also had more principles.

You know, it was a romanticized version of it, yes, but still there was

something about it with family and all that.

That to me seemed one of the appeals of the movie.

Here's a film that I am very, very fond of.

Cape Fear.

It marked your seventh collaboration with Scorsese, and it's time to ask.

Now, you two talk a lot on the set. I'm not going to ask you what you say to

each other, but I am asking you, what is it that you give each other that is

clearly unique?

I think I'm very fortunate to have found a person that I could work with so many

times and have a good time. And when you have that, it's a great thing, because

we just had a...

and have a great sort of we just understand each other and speak in

What shorthand do you speak in?

Well, the same sensibility about something. I don't know, you look at

and say, look, well, this is what I think about this. I mean, you know, it's

like that situation we had the other day or two years ago. Remember, I was

telling you about this thing that happened and so on. You have to be very

with each other, first of all, about how you feel about things. That's the first

thing. And you don't talk with other people. You say, well, this is how that

was. Well, that's how I was feeling. So let's try and maybe get... That's what

that's really about.

And that's what this scene, to me, is about. So how can we transfer that? And

did this or that, or I felt this or that. So how do we put that here in this

scene? Because that's what it's about.

And that's where you make it specific and make it your own and more personal

give it that personal thing.

And he's very...

He goes, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's great, that's great, let's do it.

He has said the most important words that he ever exchanges with you are,

does it feel right?

And if it doesn't, two of you go digging.

Exactly, what's the scene about?

What is it, what's the purpose? How does it further the story?

What's the purpose of the scene?

There's a scene in Cape Fear.

in which Max Cady poses as an acting coach to lure his enemy's 15 -year -old

daughter into an empty theater. I shiver when I think about it. Then she

realizes who he is, that she says, you're Max Cady, and he still

seduces her.

I told Martin, let me try something, or because we wanted to

surprise her.

Surprises again, eh?

Do you mind if I put my arm around you?

It's okay.

No, I don't mind.

In nearly every one of these evenings, there is a surprise.

This time, the surprise was very, very big.

It's a beautifully written, acted, and directed motion picture called A Bronx

Tale.

With this film, you took what seemed to be an inevitable step. You directed a

movie.

What made you decide that the time had come to direct?

Well, I've always wanted to direct, and I finally figured if I'm not going to do

it, and I'll never do it, so I saw Chaz Palminteri do his one -man show, and he

was terrific in it. You gave him a role no one could have played better.

Well, I felt he was good, and I would be great in it, but I also felt that I

didn't want to... Even if I played that part, it would be more demanding on me

as a first -time...

having to have that double thing going.

At least the father was a smaller part. I would keep it, be there,

do it. It would help get the money for the film, but I wouldn't have to carry

the thing.

At the end of the film, the father and son finally understand each other

in the most interesting, delicate, sensitive way.

As they walk away, the film ends, and then I was really caught by it. What

it say on the screen?

Yeah, well, it's a dedication to my father.

I don't know if that's what you're referring to.

Yeah, you bet. You bet.

Suddenly, there it is, a dedication to your father, to the artist.

Was he still alive?

He had passed away.

When? Oh, a few months earlier, so he hadn't had another chance to see the...

Even a rough cut.

So you were sending a message, eh?

We end each evening with the Bernard Pivot questionnaire

from Apostrophe and Bouillon de Couture.

And it gives me great pleasure to ask you, Bob, what's your

favorite word?

Refinement.

You heard that interesting response.

Your least favorite word?

Boorish.

What's your favorite curse word?

That's a hard one to answer.

I mean, I know what I use a lot. That's what I want to know.

Well, you use a motherfucker or whatever.

Are those your favorites? A tole or whatever.

We seem to be getting something.

Pretty standard.

What profession other than yours would you like to try someday?

Oh, maybe singing or something, or music, or... I thought of that.

What profession would you definitely not like to participate in?

Well, something that's more mundane.

Anything nine to five?

Probably something like that, yeah.

If heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say?

when you arise.

Well, if heaven exists, he's got a lot of explaining to do.

Look,

Foucault defined film as truth 24 times a second.

Multiply that 24 by the number of frames.

that contain the work of Robert De Niro.

And perhaps you'll begin to get some idea of his value to the art of film and

his value to us tonight. Thank you very much.

Hi, my name is Carrie Lovelace. I'm on the playwriting track, and I was

wondering if, you know, looking at us, if you were to advise us, you know, what

to do, how to develop our craft.

The only thing I would say is to try and make whatever you're doing, especially

at this stage of the game because you have nothing to lose, is to make it as

personal as you can in terms of what you feel about something.

That'll make it more interesting.

Just not to be afraid to take the chance.

Not to do it because of what people... I mean, some people are very good at

doing things that people want to see.

And they know how to work that.

And that's okay.

And then other people don't even know how to do that. They don't even know

to begin.

And I think to...

It's always more interesting to do something that's genuinely, no matter

you might think, the reaction is going to be as long as you feel that you've

done the best you can with that, no matter how crazy it might seem or

or off the wall, just follow it anyway.

Follow that instinct.

Because that will distinguish you from other people.

Hello, Mr.

De Niro. My name is Yvette Brooks. I'm on the acting track.

How do you start a project? Do you start them all sort of differently? Do you

start them the same?

They're all different. Every one will be different.

I mean, I've rehearsed differently. Some directors don't rehearse very much.

They don't really know what it is. I mean, I sort of came out of a period

the directors were from the theater, and in the theater you have to rehearse.

You work with a director like Kazan, you know, he does it all the traditional

way, which is a great way.

Some other directors haven't had that kind of training, don't come out of that

tradition, but they're very sensitive to actors and trying to get wonderful or

great performances out of them so they'll really give you a lot of support

they'll go the distance with you.

It's all different. I mean, every situation is different. Some I might

from a physical standpoint or another I might...

say well, I mean usually my things are physical and then they work backwards.

The whole thing about rehearsal is discovery.

You're discovering things and that's what's important about rehearsal, you

discover literally, you know, and if you don't have that time you don't ever get

to that point.

My name is Coy Middlebrook. I'm a directing student here at the school

I'm very interested in knowing in those days where you have to film the scene

and as an artist you stumble across a creative block.

What is it in that craft grab bag that you find you always grab hold of? When

you're in the situation, you will find the answers moment to moment, second by

second, day by day. You'll find the answers and you'll deal with it. It's

dealing with any big situation in your life. You're into a situation, personal

situation.

Day by day, you deal with those problems, and you work your way through

better or for worse, but you work your way to the end.

There's always a solution and a way of dealing with a problem.

Especially with Scorsese, I would say, well, to myself, well, you know, I have

this idea that I have to do it this way, but you know what?

Let's do it the opposite, just for the sake of doing it the opposite.

Conversely, you'd say, well, that's the only choice, and you've got to go for it

and do it, and that's it, and there's no way around it.

So make the leap and just do it.