Interview with Robert de Niro What does this Donostia Award represent for you? It's always an honor to receive such a prize. I was asked a year ago by the directors of the festival, but I was working an d couldn't make it. Then I met them again in New York and they invited me again, and I said "I'll try to make it this time." I am very appreciative of being given this award and that's why I'm here. What are the main differences between acting and directing? When you are the director, you have to be the first one and the last one there. You don't have to do what actors are asked to do, you know, get out in a cold night in the rain, wallow in the mud. You tell the actor: "Do it again, please! Let's just try it one more time!" But you have to make a commitment, there is nothing else but the directing, I enjoyed it a lot and would want to do it again. What kind of director were you for your first film: tough or understanding? The one thing that I'm pretty sure of, is that when a film is directed by an actor, you get good performances of other actors. In my case I worked with a lot of non-professionals because the whole point was making a story about kids trying to be men. So I got teenagers, 12, 13, 14 years old, who had no experience, but I had to find the best of these kids, and I gave them as much freedom as I could. And they were terrific. And I could not have done it any other way. I couldn't have used actors, child actors other than the real kids that I used. So you have to give a lot of leeway, you have to take them feel comfortable, which any director should do in any situation because you always get the best out of people that way. What kind of experiences were The Deer Hunter and The Mission? The Deer Hunter was a hard film to do. It was a long shooting, especially in Thailand where we shot the war stuff, Vietnam section. The mission was actually easier. There were both good to work on, hard movies. And good directors. 1900 was a very polemical film on account of its political contents. Did it make you a communist in the United States? No. That was Bernardo's movie what he wanted to say in this film. I was not that involved with the subject matter. Was it on purpose that Al Pacino and you never appeared together in any shot of Heat? That was the what the movie was. We didn't want to get another scene into it. But actually he whole point of the story was that we were just sort of tracking each other, so when we did have the one scene, we made it in this sense. How far do you think you can influence people on the set of a film? I have just worked with a producer and a director who you might say didn't have a lot of experience but they were terrific, smart. The one thing you don't want to do is to take control of anybody's project. I am the actor and the tool and I have to support them - I need a director. If I sign on to be in a project then I have to sign on to be loyal. If I disagree, I can influence and convince in ways that are OK but never to the point where it comes to a struggle and it's not a harmonious process anymore. Each film is too tough and too long to go through any kind of nonsense, of power struggle. What were the most difficult roles of your career? Raging Bull was hard because I had to gain weight, physically it was very uncomfortable. The Deer Hunter was hard. All the roles have their own set of problems. What kind of director was Brian de Palma? Brian was a very good director, supportive. He had similarities to Scorcese but was totally different in terms of his enthusiasm, with actors and what they do, for creating things and then shaping it. What was it to act under Elia Kazan's direction in The Last Tycoon? He was great as a director, anybody who's ever worked with him will tell you. He's a great director, and there's no good reason for it, he just is. He makes it easy and simple, so that was terrific. There was a lot of controversy about giving him an award, but I felt that I wasn't going to think about that hard, and then just give it to him for what he had done. I think he had probably paid enough for what he had done. Can you tell what it was like to go back to the land of your ancestors for Novecento? It... was... grati... fying (laughs). But that's the north of Italy, you know, that's different from the south. That's where Bernardo is from, but my parents are from the south. You have done quite a few action films in recent years. What do you think of that kind of films which is so often maimed by the critics? Well, John Frankenheimer did a really good job of Ronin. He's more like a thinking man in action movies. What memories do you keep of Jodie Foster in Taxi Driver? She had been in another Scorcese movie called Alice doesn't Live Anymore, and she must have been about ten at that time. She was 12 when she did Taxi Driver. I thought she was terrific and she's done very well for herself. You have often played gangsters. Don't you miss playing the romantic guy who kisses the beautiful women? It's never too romantic when you are doing it in front of a whole crew. It's not what it's all cracked up to be. But I love to do romantic comedies... With such a long career behind you, how do you deal with fame? It's easier than before.