Robert de Niro

**Robert Anthony De Niro Jr.** is an American actor, producer, and director. In *Extras*, he portrays a fictionalised version of himself in the second season episode 'Jonathan Ross'.

De Niro is particularly known for his nine collaborations with filmmaker Martin Scorsese, and is the recipient of various accolades, including two Academy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, the Cecil B. DeMille Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award. In 2009, he received the Kennedy Center Honor, and received a Presidential Medal of Freedom from U.S. President Barack Obama in 2016.

Born in Manhattan in New York City, De Niro studied acting at HB Studio, Stella Adler Conservatory, and Lee Strasberg's Actors Studio. His first major role was in *Greetings* (1968), and gained recognition with his role as a baseball player in the sports drama *Bang the Drum Slowly* (1973). His first collaboration with Scorsese was *Mean Streets* (1973), where he played small-time criminal "Johnny Boy". Stardom followed with his role as young Vito Corleone in Francis Ford Coppola's crime epic *The Godfather Part II* (1974), which won De Niro the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. For his portrayal of Travis Bickle in *Taxi Driver* (1976) and a soldier in the Vietnam War drama *The Deer Hunter* (1978), he earned two nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actor.

De Niro portrayed Jake LaMotta in Scorsese's biographical drama *Raging Bull* (1980), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor, his first in this category. He diversified to other roles, playing a stand-up comic in *The King of Comedy* (1982), and gained further recognition for his performances in Bernardo Bertolucci's epic *1900* (1976), Sergio Leone's crime epic *Once Upon a Time in America* (1984), Terry Gilliam's dystopian satire *Brazil* (1985), the religious epic *The Mission* (1986), and the comedy *Midnight Run* (1988)*.* De Niro portrayed gangster Jimmy Conway in *Goodfellas* (1990), a catatonic patient in the drama *Awakenings* (1990), and a criminal in the psychological thriller *Cape Fear* (1991). All three films received praise for De Niro's performances. He then starred in *This Boy's Life* (1993), and directed his first feature film with 1993's *A Bronx Tale.* His other critical successes include the crime films *Heat* (1995) and *Casino* (1995).

He is also known for his comic roles in *Wag the Dog* (1997), *Analyze This* (1999), and *Meet the Parents* (2000). After appearing in several critically panned and commercially unsuccessful films, he earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in David O. Russell's 2012 romantic comedy *Silver Linings Playbook*. In 2017, De Niro portrayed Bernie Madoff in *The Wizard of Lies*, earning a Primetime Emmy Award nomination. He then starred in the psychological thriller *Joker* (2019) and Scorsese's crime epic *The Irishman* (2019).

De Niro and producer Jane Rosenthal founded the film and television production company TriBeCa Productions in 1989, which has produced several films alongside his own. Also with Rosenthal, he founded the Tribeca Film Festival in 2002. Six of De Niro's films have been inducted into the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

## Personality

Andy cites Robert De Niro as the main role model of his at various points throughout the duration of *Extras*. Towards the end of the second season, Darren's role as Andy's manager is in jeopardy for various reasons; most recently due to Andy walking in on Darren masturbating to a pornographic pen belonging to Barry. Andy gives Darren an ultimatum: Get him a meeting with Robert De Niro, or get fired. Darren, desperate to keep his job as manager of a rising star, pulls strings behind the scenes and manages to arrange a meeting with De Niro.

On the day of the planned meeting, Andy is invited to visit Joe, a terminally-ill child whom is a big fan of Andy's and whom he had hesitantly agreed to support. Due to the meeting, Andy originally sends Maggie to visit Joe alone; however, Andy turns up at the hospital anyway, revealing that he had purposely missed his meeting to spend time with his friend and be true to his word for Joe.

Meanwhile, Darren and Robert De Niro awkwardly sit awaiting Andy's arrival. He is unreasonably late, and De Niro is showing signs of frustration. To distract him and avoid his premature departure after small talk fails, Darren shows De Niro the pornographic pen. De Niro is fascinated by the pen, playing with it and turning it upside down a number of times to hide and reveal the naked woman's body. This salvages the meeting, and Darren invites De Niro out to a bar for drinks. Andy gets a call from Darren updating him on the new arrangement, and after he and Maggie have finished their duties at the hospital, they both go out to the bar to join De Niro.

In *Extras*, Robert De Niro is a quiet and composed man who refrains from complaining about Andy's tardiness, despite the unreasonable expectation for De Niro to wait around for Andy. He is also easily amused by the pornographic pen, which could say several things about his personality, including that he is lascivious and immature. De Niro's willingness to meet with a lesser-known star from another country like Andy is probably a reference to how De Niro's career experienced somewhat of a decline in the mid- to late-2000s, with his roles in several comedies and romantic comedies being panned by critics.

## Gallery

Robert De Niro admiring Barry's pornographic pen