MSNBC released an interview with acclaimed actor Robert DeNiro on Friday, and the Taxi Driver star was characteristically outspoken in his political views—even going so far as to say that he could “understand” people who lived under Nazi Germany as he reckoned with the political phenomenon of former President Donald Trump.
During the conversation with Stephanie Ruhle, DeNiro, known for his intense, psychologically nuanced portrayals of criminals and con-men, revealed that he
The conversation began with Ruhle noting that DeNiro, as a fellow New Yorker, had witnessed Trump’s “BS” (in her parlance) for many years, and asked what the Casino actor thought of Trump’s ongoing “hush money” trial nearby in New York.
“I think of how absurd it is,” DeNiro replied, “and this might be the one case where that could be it for him. It’s a state case. It’s the least important in many ways, and yet it’s the one that could be tried and finished in a well enough time for people to just take that in.
“You’ve played a lot of bad guys. Would you ever play Donald Trump?” asked Ruhle later in the interview.
“Never,” DeNiro responded, “there’s nothing about him—there’s not one redeeming thing in him that I can see, ever… He actually became President; he could have done good things. Instead, he just had to do it all wrong, he’s so, as we all know, so narcissistic, so self-centered.
Later in the interview, DeNiro makes perhaps his most radical claims yet, saying that he had begun to understand the perspectives of people who lived in Europe during the mid-twentieth century and implicitly drawing a comparison between former President Trump and former German Chancellor Adolf Hitler, the Austrian-born painter who helmed the German state from 1933 to 1945.
“I think that other people are gonna have to stand up, and just, because it’s either that, or you’re gonna find yourself in a situation that’s so terrifying,” DeNiro said. “We always hear about people from Eastern Europe, the Jews from other parts of Eastern Europe, from Western Europe coming over—look what happened in France, with the Nazis and so on, and they come over, and you hear these—when I was a kid, they’d say, ‘you don’t really appreciate this country… We know from experience.’ Imagine what those people went through. I’m just starting to see it. You know as a kid I said Hitler’s a nightmare that would never happen, but now I see that it’s possible, but those people—sometimes I run into some people who are close to my age from Eastern Europe, European countries or Nazi Germany, you know, they, you understand it.”
Robert De Niro, an American actor, producer, and director, began his acting career in 1963 with the film The Wedding Party, directed by Brian De Palma. However, his breakthrough role came in 1973 with the film Mean Streets, directed by Martin Scorsese, marking the start of a long-standing collaboration between De Niro and Scorsese. De Niro’s portrayal of the young Italian-American Johnny Boy established his reputation as a powerful actor capable of intense and dynamic performances. This role paved the way for his Academy Award-winning performance in The Godfather Part II in 1974, a sequel directed by Francis Ford Coppola, in which DeNiro filled the shoes of the acclaimed Marlon Brando as a younger version of mafia boss Vito Corleone.
De Niro continued to build his career with a series of successful and critically acclaimed films throughout the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. He won his second Oscar for his role as boxer Jake LaMotta in Raging Bull (1980), another collaboration with Scorsese. His ability to immerse himself deeply into varied characters is exemplified in films like Taxi Driver (1976), Cape Fear (1991), and Casino (1995). De Niro’s versatility is also evident in his comedic roles, such as his performances in Meet the Parents (2000) and Meet the Fockers (2004). Throughout his career, De Niro has been known for his method acting techniques, often altering his body physically and delving deep into the psychology of his roles, establishing himself as one of the most formidable and influential actors in the history of cinema.
The post Robert DeNiro Says That He Can ‘Relate’ to People Living Under Nazi Germany Because of Trump appeared first on Resist the Mainstream.
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Author: Nicholas Dolinger
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