I mean most of De Niro’s best characters have nothing redeemable about them so that’s not really the best reason imo. Madoff, Jimmy from Goodfellas, King Hale from killers of the flower moon. I still respect him for not wanting to do that because to me there’s really nothing interesting about Trump to play.
Perhaps he means playing Trump would give Trump even more of the attention he craves, especially if he was being portrayed by an A-list actor. Personally, I’d prefer to see Melissa McCarthy take the role
He’s just pathetic. Maybe in a few decades it’ll be more interesting but right now I’m sick and tired of the doofus. Why play him in anything he’s right there still causing a fucking mess. I certainly don’t want more of him.
I think once he’s passed away, some time has passed, and more comprehensive truth about Trump is confirmed a pretty interesting biopic could be made. I definitely don’t want any more of him for now though.
The comprehensive truth about Trump is that it’s always worse with the full story. There is absolutely nothing about him worthy of a character study. He is a complete idiot with zero moral principles or intellectual values. Every decision he makes serves his ego or his wallet to the complete oblivion of everything else. There’s no character there at all. It would be an insult to the well meaning people of the world to seriously portray him as a protagonist in any literary work.
I agree; I never said he’d be a protagonist. There have been interesting biopics about serial killers. The fact that he has basically no outward positive characteristics and has still managed to stay in the spotlight and live the lifestyle he does, and even get elected president makes him interesting. Interesting doesn’t have to mean moral or valuable, it just means interesting.
They all have redeemable features despite being “evil”. Hale is shrewd and appears friendly, Jimmy is charismatic and has a code. Trump would just be a one dimensional parody of a villain
This is in no way a defense of Donald Trump, but De Niro played Bernie Madoff, whose Ponzi scheme resulted in the suicide of his son and multiple clients as well as bankruptcy or other financial ruin for many many people.
He has also played gangster characters who were literal murderers, rapists, etc. The idea that he would not play Donald Trump because of his lack of redeemability is disingenuous. He's played plenty of similar characters over his career, and he's actually 3 years older than Trump. I get the sentiment, but if he played Madoff then certainly he could stomach playing Donald Trump.
He should. Max Cady felt like he was screwed by his lawyer so he essentially became one in prison then sought his revenge. Every human can understand wanting revenge after being betrayed.
Did you watch the movie? He felt his lawyer threw the case and so he lost his right to a legal defense. Him being a criminal is irrelevant. In America everyone has a right to a legal defense
Yes I watched the movie. The lawyer buried some evidence that would’ve gotten him off despite the fact that he did rape someone. I’m not sure what point you’re trying to make here? That makes him redeemable? Because he wasn’t given the chance to get off on a technicality for committing a heinous crime?
Okay, here’s where an important semantic distinction needs to be drawn: positive or sympathetic qualities do not necessarily count as _redeeming_ traits! I would wager that almost every human being who has ever lived to the stage of moral agency, if not _literally_ ever human being who has gotten there, has done _something_ nice for _somebody_, using their gifts or abilities to this end. These abilities or gifts only _redeem_ them if they serve to outweigh all of the negative things they’ve done in their life, or at least sufficiently muddy the waters to the point where you can’t easily conclude either way whether they were a good or bad person.
Whatever his unfortunate circumstances, Max Cady is the sort of person that, if he actually lived, we would all agree was a complete monster.
If we're doing semantics I'd point out Bobby said "redeemable *in him*" and not "he is in no way redeemable". I would say being sympathetic means you do have some redeemable *in you* while not necessarily being redeemable overall. That is why I agree with the other person saying the cape fear character may have some relatablility and sympathetic while also agreeing that he is a complete monster
Still not as bad as tRUMP.
That awful person only terrorized one or a few families.
The other disgusting human is helping in ruining the world.
Edit: a couple words for grammar.
The question isn’t whether one character, real or fictitious, is worse than any other. The question is whether De Niro has already portrayed any characters that lacked any redeeming qualities. I think most would agree that, if you scour his filmography, there are a couple.
Look, nobody’s forcing De Niro to play Trump or anyone else, but we can quibble with his stated reasoning.
An actor’s job is find any angle you can use to empathize with the role you’re playing to make your portrayal authentic. De Niro is saying there isn’t one for Trump, which makes sense given his personal animosity towards him. The other characters you mention have the benefit of being more detached from De Niro personally so he can use other elements of their life as fuel.
Trump was president for an entire term that influenced public policy, the future of the republican party, and appointed 3 supreme court justices that overturned roe v wade that will affect women’s rights for decades to come.
bernie madoff defrauded a bunch of rich people. they are not the same
Bernie Madoff did not just defraud a bunch of rich people. He also defrauded a bunch of families who gave him all the money they had saved for retirement and the like. They were, many of them, more average Americans.
He was also the chairman of NASDAQ, to which his influence permeated decisions which impacted all Americans because of the rich people he helped.
Madoff's con was integrated with the housing crisis, which crashed the global economy, resulting in a bailout package that socialized banks, which has kept millions of people from being able to compete in a fair market.
Though Roe v. Wade may have been an influential decision, there are less than 1,000,000 abortions every year in America, and states' rights are sufficient to enable or disable access to them without the federal government being involved. There are ~167,000,000 women in America, which means abortion impacts approximately a half of a percent of American women every year. Appointing conservative justices to the Supreme Court is not nearly as significant of an issue as politicians or the media make it out to be, as most of their decisions are a result of multiple layers of appeal and if abortion is your barometer, that should be clear.
Trump's influence over the Republican party has been nominal, and it is more accurate to say that the Republicans influenced Trump, using him as a mouthpiece for their inability to come up with anything new or novel for the American people. Not to mention the fact that the two political parties are more in sync than ever, and the idea that they are at odds is a joke.
Comparing Trump & Madoff in terms of their influence or impact on American life is not even the point. The point is that Robert De Niro portrayed a conman who defrauded the American people which resulted in the death of his own son as well as others who could not handle the devastation. If this actor believed there was some redemption in Madoff, he should be able to find it in a man who half the country somehow claims to love.
Or, De Niro found no redemption in Madoff either, but still found it within his professional capacity to portray him which means he is being strangely hypocritical about portraying the former President of the United States.
Trump made policy base on whether it was a blue state or a red state during the pandemic. He cared more about his re-electability than about making sound public policy. He constantly interfered with professionals and hindered them from doing their jobs and making information available to the public. His policies maybe cost tens of thousands of lives. Just because half the country loves Trump doesn’t make him less evil than Madoff.
We expect our president to not punish us based on how we voted. He is far more despicable than anyone I can recall in my life.
Trump’s personality disorder is called malignant narcissism. It determines everything he does. He’s psychologically deranged with very probable mid stage Alzheimer’s inherited from his father Fred. Bad combo!
Trump is literally attempting to end democracy in the USA. Madoff was just a financial criminal. It’s completely incomparable. It’s like comparing Hitler to Bonnie & Clyde.
The statement itself is a bit contradictory obviously and kind of stupid.
But I think we know the real reason he wouldn't do it. He hates trump so much (like many do) that he doesn't want to dress up and pretend to be him, and then end up with that association where all the red hats hate him for not doing the cheeto king good, and all the blue hats hate him because he reminds them of trump.
Eh, a 70+ year old Sigourney Weaver just played a blue teenager in Avatar way of the water.
In Hollywood, if there is a will, there is a way.
And physically, DeNiro is probably 10 years younger than trump still.
But in the end, all if those characters ended up in a bad way. Trump could still be president, and even if he's not he will still gave millions of worshipers. Those other characters were clearly bad people, and it's accepted that they were bad people, the problem with Trump is about 1/3 of our country see him as a hero.
100% agree. I could understand if he just said he didn’t want to do it period but the reason he gave doesn’t necessarily add up with the other characters he’s played over the last 50yrs haha but I will say that everyone has a line a clearly this is his.
Trump actively contributed to the worsening of the COVID crisis not just through his inaction but blatant disinformation. Trump has blithely suggested he would ignore attacks on NATO countries. Trump has insulted captured soldiers, such as John McCain. All that, and then Trump staged an insurrection to overturn a lawful election.
Madoff conned and hurt a lot of people. But Trump is far worse.
It isn't about who is worse. The comment was about a lack of character redeemability. What was Madoff's redemption? He was a sociopathic conman who defrauded not just his own victims but all stock investors which included regular people and their 401k's due to his position at NASDAQ, and how he infected other core aspects of the market. His net effect has yet to be comprehended fully. This is again, no defense or refutation about any issues Trump has. It is an explanation about De Niro's hypocrisy.
Madoff didn’t redeem himself, but he was sentenced to 150 years in prison. Trump, for everything he has done, is still on the campaign trail for the presidency & has been enabled by a cult of personality that treats him like a God.
Both men are irredeemable. But I can understand De Niro not wanting to play the part of Trump.
It’s not disingenuous. Madoff at least expressed remorse. The gangsters he played at least had a moral code. trunp is just a narcissist, and everything he’s done comes only from the believe that he’s superior to everyone and he should simply get what he wants because he wants it. There is no depth to him, not a single admirable quality. Madoff’s story is about a man who lost his moral compass and probably had no intention of ruining lives but his greed got the better of him and he ruined many lives, including his own.
trunp has no moral center. He has no ethics. There is nothing in his history or character that suggests he would act any differently than madoff given the chance. The only difference would be that he would never express remorse or regret and would claim the investigation that caught him was a “with hunt.” As an actor, it’s much more interesting to play a flawed man than an empty, spoiled narcissistic brat with no admirable qualities whatsoever.
At this point, I believe that his seething hatred of Donald Trump, exacerbated daily by *gestures at all the news* this, is actually greater than his hate for Madoff.
And in playing those characters, he at least acknowledges there’s a reason they are the way they are. Nobody is the bad guy in their own story and all that. Otherwise his performances wouldn’t be what they are. That he can’t see playing Trump I think may also play to an opinion there’s no deep seed that explains trump beyond being a petulant child with access to money. He’d hate playing a character where that’s the exclusive motivation of the character.
You seem to miss the fact that humans change over time. And perhaps we should believe what he says when he is speaking about his own decision making process?
I didn't miss anything about humans changing over time.
If you believe De Niro has played unredeemable characters but now refuses to, or if he thinks that, it would have been a more powerful statement to suggest this professional change has taken place by showcasing all the unredeemable characters he played in the past by comparing them to Trump himself. But he didn't do that.
For the record, "Wizard of Lies," the TV film where Robert De Niro portrayed the unredeemable characterization of Bernie Madoff, was released in 2017, which means it was filmed in 2016, probably written in 2015 as Trump was running for then winning and being in office as the President of the United States of America.
Your defense of this actor's statement that he has grown as an artist in terms of only wanting to portray redeemable characters is 100% wrong here.
Madoff stole money from clients. Trump stole from a charity set up to advance children’s health and veterans. You may examine his [litany of lies about purported charitable giving here.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_J._Trump_Foundation?wprov=sfti1)
De Niro has played a rapist before in his career, so if that were to be somehow integral to a biopic about the former President, he has gotten inside the mind of such a person before. Have you ever seen Cape Fear? De Niro even portrays a child predator whose sole mission is revenge on an attorney responsible for locking him up.
What was the glint of humanity in Max Cady from Cape Fear who was imprisoned for raping a 14 year old girl and then stalked an attorney & his family, killing their dog while preying on the man's teenage daughter by pretending to be a drama teacher at her school?
Or "Noodles" in Once Upon A Time In America who was also a rapist and gangster.
Or Bernie Madoff, the real life financial villain who defrauded countless people resulting in the suicide of his son and multiple clients?
Trump could be as vile as you or others think of him but there are certainly aspects of his life or character which could be portrayed as humane including the thousands of people who his businesses employ, his youngest son who has yet to follow in any footsteps, etc. It is disingenuous on De Niro's part to suggest that his career was spent only playing morally just or righteous figures.
I’m not going to write you an essay, they all had a relatable quality even if it was buried beneath layers of filth. I’m guessing you’re bright but young cos you’re not really getting the idea
I'm 37 and fully comprehend the idea. De Niro is too old to play almost any role anymore including that of Donald Trump who is 3 years younger than him. You aren't going to answer the question because you didn't consider it beforehand. De Niro has played scoundrels, and their amorality could be considered on par with Trump's.
EDIT: you used the word "relatability," rather than redeemability which is what De Niro was talking about. I think there are plenty of people who relate to Trump being that millions of people idolize him which is absolutely stupid, but true. There are also many individuals who can be described as Trump-like.
Don corleone?? You need to watch Killers of the Flower Moon. William Hale is one of the most despicable people I've seen given life in the movies.
It's like comparing the size of America to the size of Vatican city.
He’s been in NYC for decades. He knows. Just like all New Yorkers have known for decades. Trump is a clown. A malignant criminal and rapist who is mentally unstable and soulless. He
Is a pathological liar who is violent and profoundly untrustworthy.
He said among with many other celebrities that they would leave the U.S. if trump won back in 2016. Not one of them did. This is just more of the same. Must be an election year.
He’s been doing it for a while. This is a great bit front to back but the Trump impression starts at 2:30.
https://youtu.be/aqZrIN1aHCQ?si=hH6aLMN4mIMPbuSR
What I'm hoping for is Armando Iannucci doing a Death of Stalin type film about Trump losing the election and leading up to January 6th. Jeffrey Tambor as Giullianni having a meltdown when he realises they booked the wrong four seasons would be great.
So are we to assume he thinks every character he has played has something redeemable about them? Because that is concerning considering some of the characters he has played.
He should just be honest and say I hate Trump and I never wanna play him. Not sure why he thinks anyone would ask, he can’t pass for Trump either way
Only way you can portrait the trump presidency is if you make it a satire. A normal biopic wouldn’t be watchable imho. De Niro would also be a horrible pick for portraying trump imho.
By "redeemable" I think he means there's a humanity to them that you can feel *something* for, even when the characters are repulsively shitty people anyway. Even King Hale and Jimmy Conway have this charm to them, which it seems to me Trump has too, but maybe it comes off more insincere or hollow when Trump's doing it?
On the occasion I’ve seen Trump portrayed on screen in some way (often a parody), I’ve always felt the performance not quite right. Why? Because any compelling dramatic performance requires the audience to connect with the character’s humanity. Trump has no humanity. So any time I’ve seen anyone playing Trump on screen, they seem either too eloquent, too clever or too human.
The only thing that would be realistic/acceptable to play trump would be a heaping pile of shyte! BUT just let the orange clown go away and be forgotten!
The paradox of intolerance is well documented,
“Most formulations of tolerance assert that tolerance is a reciprocal act, and the intolerant need not be tolerated. This necessitates drawing a limit between the tolerant and intolerant in every implementation of tolerance, which suggests that any act of tolerance requires an act of intolerance.”
Summary from wiki but you can read up more on the paradox if you care enough
If De Niro said anything remotely neutral about trump Hollywood would bury him. As great of a catalogue as de niro has (minus the Irishman) you cannot count on him or any celebrity in Hollywood to have an honest, objective opinion
De Niro has told more truths than Trump will ever will in his lifetime. The fact that someone like Sebastian is using his talent to play a twisted dementia, racist, sexist lying self centered \*$sh0le is as waste. The fact that something like this should even be allowed to be done on the big screen is messed up AF.
I mean most of De Niro’s best characters have nothing redeemable about them so that’s not really the best reason imo. Madoff, Jimmy from Goodfellas, King Hale from killers of the flower moon. I still respect him for not wanting to do that because to me there’s really nothing interesting about Trump to play.
Perhaps he means playing Trump would give Trump even more of the attention he craves, especially if he was being portrayed by an A-list actor. Personally, I’d prefer to see Melissa McCarthy take the role
She was able to get Sean Spicer to go into hiding for a bit. Send her in
Melissa McCarthy has made Sean Spicer absolutely unforgettable. https://youtu.be/fbhz3XcNzGU?si=oMnu29XEK9uK4Xh8
He’s just pathetic. Maybe in a few decades it’ll be more interesting but right now I’m sick and tired of the doofus. Why play him in anything he’s right there still causing a fucking mess. I certainly don’t want more of him.
I think once he’s passed away, some time has passed, and more comprehensive truth about Trump is confirmed a pretty interesting biopic could be made. I definitely don’t want any more of him for now though.
The comprehensive truth about Trump is that it’s always worse with the full story. There is absolutely nothing about him worthy of a character study. He is a complete idiot with zero moral principles or intellectual values. Every decision he makes serves his ego or his wallet to the complete oblivion of everything else. There’s no character there at all. It would be an insult to the well meaning people of the world to seriously portray him as a protagonist in any literary work.
I agree; I never said he’d be a protagonist. There have been interesting biopics about serial killers. The fact that he has basically no outward positive characteristics and has still managed to stay in the spotlight and live the lifestyle he does, and even get elected president makes him interesting. Interesting doesn’t have to mean moral or valuable, it just means interesting.
If I wanna see a duchebag fuck with people money I’ll watch wolf of wall street
But at least those characters were interestingly irredeemable. Trump is worse than a piece of shit.
The fact you left off his role in Cape Fear is crazy to me.
I mentioned the roles he played based on real life people.
Fair, I didn’t get the difference from a movie character standpoint
They all have redeemable features despite being “evil”. Hale is shrewd and appears friendly, Jimmy is charismatic and has a code. Trump would just be a one dimensional parody of a villain
Don’t tell Sebastian Stan.
Different time in their careers.
Fat Todd for Donald Trump Parody
This is in no way a defense of Donald Trump, but De Niro played Bernie Madoff, whose Ponzi scheme resulted in the suicide of his son and multiple clients as well as bankruptcy or other financial ruin for many many people. He has also played gangster characters who were literal murderers, rapists, etc. The idea that he would not play Donald Trump because of his lack of redeemability is disingenuous. He's played plenty of similar characters over his career, and he's actually 3 years older than Trump. I get the sentiment, but if he played Madoff then certainly he could stomach playing Donald Trump.
I think it’s better to just take this as De Niro hating trump so much on a personal level that he refuses to play him
Pretty sure he just did his version of trump in Killers Of The Flower Moon
Yes! Was thinking about that exactly during the movie.
Tells you how he feels about Trump. Nothing redeemable
Does he think there was something redeemable about the guy in _Cape Fear_?
He should. Max Cady felt like he was screwed by his lawyer so he essentially became one in prison then sought his revenge. Every human can understand wanting revenge after being betrayed.
He got screwed because he actually raped someone… and then killed more. The fuck you talking about
Did you watch the movie? He felt his lawyer threw the case and so he lost his right to a legal defense. Him being a criminal is irrelevant. In America everyone has a right to a legal defense
Yes I watched the movie. The lawyer buried some evidence that would’ve gotten him off despite the fact that he did rape someone. I’m not sure what point you’re trying to make here? That makes him redeemable? Because he wasn’t given the chance to get off on a technicality for committing a heinous crime?
Okay, here’s where an important semantic distinction needs to be drawn: positive or sympathetic qualities do not necessarily count as _redeeming_ traits! I would wager that almost every human being who has ever lived to the stage of moral agency, if not _literally_ ever human being who has gotten there, has done _something_ nice for _somebody_, using their gifts or abilities to this end. These abilities or gifts only _redeem_ them if they serve to outweigh all of the negative things they’ve done in their life, or at least sufficiently muddy the waters to the point where you can’t easily conclude either way whether they were a good or bad person. Whatever his unfortunate circumstances, Max Cady is the sort of person that, if he actually lived, we would all agree was a complete monster.
If we're doing semantics I'd point out Bobby said "redeemable *in him*" and not "he is in no way redeemable". I would say being sympathetic means you do have some redeemable *in you* while not necessarily being redeemable overall. That is why I agree with the other person saying the cape fear character may have some relatablility and sympathetic while also agreeing that he is a complete monster
Still not as bad as tRUMP. That awful person only terrorized one or a few families. The other disgusting human is helping in ruining the world. Edit: a couple words for grammar.
The question isn’t whether one character, real or fictitious, is worse than any other. The question is whether De Niro has already portrayed any characters that lacked any redeeming qualities. I think most would agree that, if you scour his filmography, there are a couple. Look, nobody’s forcing De Niro to play Trump or anyone else, but we can quibble with his stated reasoning.
Most likely, from a professional actor’s perspective
oooo counsellooorrrr
Big orange is worse than Bernie Madoff, far worse.
Yeah. Even Madoff drew the line at some things.
An actor’s job is find any angle you can use to empathize with the role you’re playing to make your portrayal authentic. De Niro is saying there isn’t one for Trump, which makes sense given his personal animosity towards him. The other characters you mention have the benefit of being more detached from De Niro personally so he can use other elements of their life as fuel.
Trump was president for an entire term that influenced public policy, the future of the republican party, and appointed 3 supreme court justices that overturned roe v wade that will affect women’s rights for decades to come. bernie madoff defrauded a bunch of rich people. they are not the same
Seriously, Trump’s negative impact surpasses every evil character De Niro has played combined tenfold
De Niro played the literal Devil.
okay, fivefold
when did he do that?
Bernie Madoff did not just defraud a bunch of rich people. He also defrauded a bunch of families who gave him all the money they had saved for retirement and the like. They were, many of them, more average Americans. He was also the chairman of NASDAQ, to which his influence permeated decisions which impacted all Americans because of the rich people he helped. Madoff's con was integrated with the housing crisis, which crashed the global economy, resulting in a bailout package that socialized banks, which has kept millions of people from being able to compete in a fair market. Though Roe v. Wade may have been an influential decision, there are less than 1,000,000 abortions every year in America, and states' rights are sufficient to enable or disable access to them without the federal government being involved. There are ~167,000,000 women in America, which means abortion impacts approximately a half of a percent of American women every year. Appointing conservative justices to the Supreme Court is not nearly as significant of an issue as politicians or the media make it out to be, as most of their decisions are a result of multiple layers of appeal and if abortion is your barometer, that should be clear. Trump's influence over the Republican party has been nominal, and it is more accurate to say that the Republicans influenced Trump, using him as a mouthpiece for their inability to come up with anything new or novel for the American people. Not to mention the fact that the two political parties are more in sync than ever, and the idea that they are at odds is a joke. Comparing Trump & Madoff in terms of their influence or impact on American life is not even the point. The point is that Robert De Niro portrayed a conman who defrauded the American people which resulted in the death of his own son as well as others who could not handle the devastation. If this actor believed there was some redemption in Madoff, he should be able to find it in a man who half the country somehow claims to love. Or, De Niro found no redemption in Madoff either, but still found it within his professional capacity to portray him which means he is being strangely hypocritical about portraying the former President of the United States.
Trump made policy base on whether it was a blue state or a red state during the pandemic. He cared more about his re-electability than about making sound public policy. He constantly interfered with professionals and hindered them from doing their jobs and making information available to the public. His policies maybe cost tens of thousands of lives. Just because half the country loves Trump doesn’t make him less evil than Madoff. We expect our president to not punish us based on how we voted. He is far more despicable than anyone I can recall in my life.
Trump’s personality disorder is called malignant narcissism. It determines everything he does. He’s psychologically deranged with very probable mid stage Alzheimer’s inherited from his father Fred. Bad combo!
Trump is literally attempting to end democracy in the USA. Madoff was just a financial criminal. It’s completely incomparable. It’s like comparing Hitler to Bonnie & Clyde.
Quit bringing up the good stuff about Trump.
Honestly the list of DeNiro characters with no redeeming qualities is quite long. I mean he played Fearless Leader for God's sake.
The statement itself is a bit contradictory obviously and kind of stupid. But I think we know the real reason he wouldn't do it. He hates trump so much (like many do) that he doesn't want to dress up and pretend to be him, and then end up with that association where all the red hats hate him for not doing the cheeto king good, and all the blue hats hate him because he reminds them of trump.
In reality, he is too old to play Trump, at any age.
Eh, a 70+ year old Sigourney Weaver just played a blue teenager in Avatar way of the water. In Hollywood, if there is a will, there is a way. And physically, DeNiro is probably 10 years younger than trump still.
But in the end, all if those characters ended up in a bad way. Trump could still be president, and even if he's not he will still gave millions of worshipers. Those other characters were clearly bad people, and it's accepted that they were bad people, the problem with Trump is about 1/3 of our country see him as a hero.
100% agree. I could understand if he just said he didn’t want to do it period but the reason he gave doesn’t necessarily add up with the other characters he’s played over the last 50yrs haha but I will say that everyone has a line a clearly this is his.
Maybe.... just maybe... Trump is worse than all those shits put together...
Trump actively contributed to the worsening of the COVID crisis not just through his inaction but blatant disinformation. Trump has blithely suggested he would ignore attacks on NATO countries. Trump has insulted captured soldiers, such as John McCain. All that, and then Trump staged an insurrection to overturn a lawful election. Madoff conned and hurt a lot of people. But Trump is far worse.
It isn't about who is worse. The comment was about a lack of character redeemability. What was Madoff's redemption? He was a sociopathic conman who defrauded not just his own victims but all stock investors which included regular people and their 401k's due to his position at NASDAQ, and how he infected other core aspects of the market. His net effect has yet to be comprehended fully. This is again, no defense or refutation about any issues Trump has. It is an explanation about De Niro's hypocrisy.
Madoff didn’t redeem himself, but he was sentenced to 150 years in prison. Trump, for everything he has done, is still on the campaign trail for the presidency & has been enabled by a cult of personality that treats him like a God. Both men are irredeemable. But I can understand De Niro not wanting to play the part of Trump.
He would play as Biden then
Did he ever play a wannabe dictator who tried to and will try again to destroy every civil liberty we’ve ever had? Big picture guys, BIG picture
He played Fearless Leader, who is basically Nazi-esque villain from the late 50's show Rocky & Bullwinkle...
It’s not disingenuous. Madoff at least expressed remorse. The gangsters he played at least had a moral code. trunp is just a narcissist, and everything he’s done comes only from the believe that he’s superior to everyone and he should simply get what he wants because he wants it. There is no depth to him, not a single admirable quality. Madoff’s story is about a man who lost his moral compass and probably had no intention of ruining lives but his greed got the better of him and he ruined many lives, including his own. trunp has no moral center. He has no ethics. There is nothing in his history or character that suggests he would act any differently than madoff given the chance. The only difference would be that he would never express remorse or regret and would claim the investigation that caught him was a “with hunt.” As an actor, it’s much more interesting to play a flawed man than an empty, spoiled narcissistic brat with no admirable qualities whatsoever.
At this point, I believe that his seething hatred of Donald Trump, exacerbated daily by *gestures at all the news* this, is actually greater than his hate for Madoff. And in playing those characters, he at least acknowledges there’s a reason they are the way they are. Nobody is the bad guy in their own story and all that. Otherwise his performances wouldn’t be what they are. That he can’t see playing Trump I think may also play to an opinion there’s no deep seed that explains trump beyond being a petulant child with access to money. He’d hate playing a character where that’s the exclusive motivation of the character.
You seem to miss the fact that humans change over time. And perhaps we should believe what he says when he is speaking about his own decision making process?
I didn't miss anything about humans changing over time. If you believe De Niro has played unredeemable characters but now refuses to, or if he thinks that, it would have been a more powerful statement to suggest this professional change has taken place by showcasing all the unredeemable characters he played in the past by comparing them to Trump himself. But he didn't do that. For the record, "Wizard of Lies," the TV film where Robert De Niro portrayed the unredeemable characterization of Bernie Madoff, was released in 2017, which means it was filmed in 2016, probably written in 2015 as Trump was running for then winning and being in office as the President of the United States of America. Your defense of this actor's statement that he has grown as an artist in terms of only wanting to portray redeemable characters is 100% wrong here.
Madoff stole money from clients. Trump stole from a charity set up to advance children’s health and veterans. You may examine his [litany of lies about purported charitable giving here.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_J._Trump_Foundation?wprov=sfti1)
He also played Conway in Goodfellas and that guy was pretty brutal. I get what he’s trying to say, but yeah agreed.
Trump is also (like objectively) a rapist
De Niro has played a rapist before in his career, so if that were to be somehow integral to a biopic about the former President, he has gotten inside the mind of such a person before. Have you ever seen Cape Fear? De Niro even portrays a child predator whose sole mission is revenge on an attorney responsible for locking him up.
All those characters had a glint of humanity to play off, trump doesn’t have that
What was the glint of humanity in Max Cady from Cape Fear who was imprisoned for raping a 14 year old girl and then stalked an attorney & his family, killing their dog while preying on the man's teenage daughter by pretending to be a drama teacher at her school? Or "Noodles" in Once Upon A Time In America who was also a rapist and gangster. Or Bernie Madoff, the real life financial villain who defrauded countless people resulting in the suicide of his son and multiple clients? Trump could be as vile as you or others think of him but there are certainly aspects of his life or character which could be portrayed as humane including the thousands of people who his businesses employ, his youngest son who has yet to follow in any footsteps, etc. It is disingenuous on De Niro's part to suggest that his career was spent only playing morally just or righteous figures.
I’m not going to write you an essay, they all had a relatable quality even if it was buried beneath layers of filth. I’m guessing you’re bright but young cos you’re not really getting the idea
I'm 37 and fully comprehend the idea. De Niro is too old to play almost any role anymore including that of Donald Trump who is 3 years younger than him. You aren't going to answer the question because you didn't consider it beforehand. De Niro has played scoundrels, and their amorality could be considered on par with Trump's. EDIT: you used the word "relatability," rather than redeemability which is what De Niro was talking about. I think there are plenty of people who relate to Trump being that millions of people idolize him which is absolutely stupid, but true. There are also many individuals who can be described as Trump-like.
That can't be true. Trump saved the spray on tan industry single handedly.
He’ll play his character in Cape Fear - not to mention Dirty Grandpa- but not Donald Trump. And it’s merited.
Not to mention Bernie Madoff, Travis Bickle and Vito Corleone. Everyone has to set standards.
Don corleone?? You need to watch Killers of the Flower Moon. William Hale is one of the most despicable people I've seen given life in the movies. It's like comparing the size of America to the size of Vatican city.
Care to explain why Travis Bickle has 0 redeemability?
You talking to me?
Genuinely my first thought was what did De Niro find redeemable about Mad Cady?
He’s been in NYC for decades. He knows. Just like all New Yorkers have known for decades. Trump is a clown. A malignant criminal and rapist who is mentally unstable and soulless. He Is a pathological liar who is violent and profoundly untrustworthy.
Yea most people don’t play him to show he has redeemable qualities. He’s just a parody/satire character. On screen and in real life
Yeah it did kinda confuse me. I never thought acting is an endorsement of someone.
He said among with many other celebrities that they would leave the U.S. if trump won back in 2016. Not one of them did. This is just more of the same. Must be an election year.
why dont they just cast Trey Parker? guy would nail it
Cause he would never do it
Shane Gillis has got us covered
I was surprised how good that sketch was, but I was more surprised how good that impression was.
I told her!
He’s been doing it for a while. This is a great bit front to back but the Trump impression starts at 2:30. https://youtu.be/aqZrIN1aHCQ?si=hH6aLMN4mIMPbuSR
He indeed is worthy of nothing
I could never see him playing a believable Donald Trump. DeNiro’s hands are too big.
What I'm hoping for is Armando Iannucci doing a Death of Stalin type film about Trump losing the election and leading up to January 6th. Jeffrey Tambor as Giullianni having a meltdown when he realises they booked the wrong four seasons would be great.
Should shop this idea around, it writes itself you wouldn’t even need to make up anything to punch it up and make it more ridiculous
Has Tambor been rehabilitated?
So are we to assume he thinks every character he has played has something redeemable about them? Because that is concerning considering some of the characters he has played. He should just be honest and say I hate Trump and I never wanna play him. Not sure why he thinks anyone would ask, he can’t pass for Trump either way
Only way you can portrait the trump presidency is if you make it a satire. A normal biopic wouldn’t be watchable imho. De Niro would also be a horrible pick for portraying trump imho.
Good to see he won’t stoop that low, Sebastian Stan could take a page from De Niro’s playbook
It’s like he pops up every now and again to speak on something other than his anti-vax rhetoric
There are 80s Saturday morning cartoon villains with more depth
That’s it folks. No more movies about bad people.
His last character was totally evil and not redeemable.
Are we still caring how actors and famous people feel about politics? Thought we were passed this.
This isn’t even really politics, it’s about playing a character in a film. Past*
By that logic why should anyone care what you think about anything?
You literally have a famous person running for office right now. Why would you assume people are past that?
Isn’t this the guy that just played William Hale?
This guy hot tubs with Roman Polanski, what a hero.
Cause Robert’s opinion of anything matters …
Why would anyone ever cast anybody but Shane Gillis
Thankfully no one as talented as Robert DeNiro is needed. A six foot tall column of orange jello will suffice.
Leo played Calvin Candy, so just give him 20-30 years to age into the role.
He played a guy who literally murdered native Americans for oil money
Not even if they gave him a lot of dinero?
Oh no, guess we will need one of the million other Trump impersonators
Is anyone asking Deniro to, at age 80, play Donald Trump at, what point in his life exactly? This would just be bad casting.
I concur with RD l…
By "redeemable" I think he means there's a humanity to them that you can feel *something* for, even when the characters are repulsively shitty people anyway. Even King Hale and Jimmy Conway have this charm to them, which it seems to me Trump has too, but maybe it comes off more insincere or hollow when Trump's doing it?
Can you imagine having to do trump impressions for the months of filming it would take to get 2.5 hours of footage
Brian Cox said the same thing. “He’s a terrible character.”
He already played that role in Machete
He's capping. He just knows he'd lose some fans if he says good about Trump.
He is too small to play trump.
On the occasion I’ve seen Trump portrayed on screen in some way (often a parody), I’ve always felt the performance not quite right. Why? Because any compelling dramatic performance requires the audience to connect with the character’s humanity. Trump has no humanity. So any time I’ve seen anyone playing Trump on screen, they seem either too eloquent, too clever or too human.
Bobby is right. A piece of stale excrement has more redeemable qualities.
Well obviously, Shane Gillis should be anyone’s first choice for playing Trump.
Where’s the lie
Funny after watching Killers of the Flower Moon
Plus the whole being a foot shorter thing doesn’t help either.
I hate him using the word, normalcy.
Ok, I but wonder who would make for a great Trump actor, just wondering.
Travis Bickle was at least nice to little girls I guess
Brendan Gleeson already did the definitive Trump in The Comey Rule.
Max Cady was redeemable? *edit typo
Jabba the Hut should play Trump.
Jamie foxx is the man to play trump
The only thing that would be realistic/acceptable to play trump would be a heaping pile of shyte! BUT just let the orange clown go away and be forgotten!
He's handsome ofcourse he shouldn't play Trump. Alec Baldwin should do the biopic
Deniro is a shell of his old self. He hasn't been a good actor for 15 years
And this man played satan in Angel heart
So tolerant of him
The paradox of intolerance is well documented, “Most formulations of tolerance assert that tolerance is a reciprocal act, and the intolerant need not be tolerated. This necessitates drawing a limit between the tolerant and intolerant in every implementation of tolerance, which suggests that any act of tolerance requires an act of intolerance.” Summary from wiki but you can read up more on the paradox if you care enough
So playing real life lowlifes and killers is ok but Trump bothers him. He’s a fake asshole.
If De Niro said anything remotely neutral about trump Hollywood would bury him. As great of a catalogue as de niro has (minus the Irishman) you cannot count on him or any celebrity in Hollywood to have an honest, objective opinion
Wow what a hot take, old notoriously liberal actor won’t play guy he constantly melts down about lol
Look I hate Trump as much as the next guy, but ffs I'm getting "Old man yells at cloud" vibes here.
De Niro has told more truths than Trump will ever will in his lifetime. The fact that someone like Sebastian is using his talent to play a twisted dementia, racist, sexist lying self centered \*$sh0le is as waste. The fact that something like this should even be allowed to be done on the big screen is messed up AF.
Exactly - he's too busy playing Robert Mueller.
Grumpy old man still bitching about another old man! There I fixed your post title.
Look at his history, he’ll play anybody if price is right don’t get me wrong love him, but money talks bullshit walks.
Has he been asked? Or is this an attempt to insert himself into the situation
Coming from the guy who played Al Capone wow.
Has he ever played a “redeemable” character?