The Great Acting Blog: “Robert De Niro – You’re Always Lucky”
His myth was created during that run of films with Martin Scorsese in the 1970s, and augmented by Godfather Part II and later, Once Upon A Time In America. By the time he did Goodfellas in 1990, he was a fully fledged movie star. For some actors, it doesn’t matter whether you like their films or not. Their work goes beyond individual taste. It’s about their place within cultural mythology. Robert De Niro is such an actor.
In an interview De Niro said that he had been “lucky” to have the career he’s had. To wit the interviewer replied that it was not luck that he chose to work hard on his roles. De Niro then said that he had been lucky to possess the drive which enabled him to work hard, that somewhere along the line there’s luck. You’re always lucky he said.
Luck, to me, is something outside of our control which works in our favour. If a director happens to be sitting in the audience and they later offer you work because they liked your performance, then we might describe that as lucky. Few in the history of acting have had the same kind of towering career as De Niro, or even some portion of it. In fact, De Niro is arguably the yardstick for all auteur-actors. It is impossible however, to know the chain of events which would need to happen in order to create such a career. One imagines a young De Niro, working hard, putting it all in even though unsure about whether anyone would care about the results. No half measures, no distractions, he threw the kitchen sink at it. He could not have known that the culture would exalt him for his efforts in the way that it has, but the point is, he did the work anyway.
harp angel music/ 21.11.2023
harp angel music