Moodfellas: Robert De Niro storms out of Radio Times interview
Robert De Niro ditched a Radio Times interview promoting comedy film ‘The Intern’ complaining about “negative inference” from reporter Emma Brockes.
An account from Radio Times writer Brockes claimed that a “depressed” De Niro answered questions on “autopilot”. De Niro then asked for the recording to be paused after Brockes mentioned that the Tribeca district in Lower Manhattan where the actor co-founded a film festival has been overrun by bankers.
Irked by the line of enquiry, Brockes claims that the Goodfellas star was “pacing madly” before finally cancelling the interview slot due to the “negative inference” of her Tribeca comment.
De Niro said: “All the way through. Negative inference. The whole way through and I’m not doing it. I’m not doing it, darling.”
On the walkout, Brockes told the Independent: “I have sympathy with De Niro because nobody wants to be there for these choreographed junket interviews.
“I was expecting him to be a little quiet but the combination of hostility and condescension irritated me and I ended up losing my cool.”
The incident is reminiscent of the viral interview where Channel 4’s Krishnan Guru-Murthy angered Avengers actor Robert Downey Jr with a line of questioning digging up his well-documented stint in prison in 2008.