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Robert De Niro Ends ‘Negative’ Interview, Walks Out On Journalist

By Niki Cruz
Published on: 06:29 PST, Sep 22, 2015

Anyone in the industry will tell you that actor Robert De Niro isn’t the easiest person to interview. While I’ve had limited interaction with De Niro via press conferences, it’s worth noting the actor is very reserved in his answers and isn’t much for giving sound bytes about his films.

Others in the industry have gone on to say that the notoriously shy actor won’t give a journalist an inch and that interviewing the private star is like pulling teeth. One journalist experienced this version of Robert De Niro when she sat down to interview him for his latest film The Intern, a Nancy Myers comedy that squares De Niro off with Anne Hathaway.

While promoting the film, he left one particular journalist puzzled as he ended the interview early, reportedly claiming that the interview was too “negative” to continue on. De Niro was speaking with Radio Times when he was asked about how he resists going into “autopilot mode on set” and also what he thought about bankers taking over New York’s Tribeca district.

According to the Wrap, the line of questioning was decidedly more than De Niro wanted to discuss, and he completely turned on reporter Emma Brockes, as he asked her to pause her tape recorder.

The journalist said of the odd interview, “He then pops out of his chair, starts pacing madly and says he’s cutting short the interview because of ‘negative inference’ of what I just said.”

When the reporter asked for clarification, De Niro said, “All the way through. Negative inference. The whole way through, and I’m not doing it, darling. You’re probably not even aware that you’re doing it, the negative inference.”

To that, Brockes said that she found De Niro “very condescending,” which the actor replied with, “Oh, you think ‘darling’ is condescending?”

The reporter also notes that during a round-table interview with several journalists, his co-star Anne Hathaway started to cry when asked what it was like to work with De Niro. Saying it was an honor, Hathaway became emotional, to which De Niro, who was also in the room, was said to look “baffled and vaguely appalled” by Anne’s display.

Here’s a few reactions on Twitter about the incident.

[Photo by Grant Lamos IV/Getty Images]

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