Aubrey Plaza has revealed the awkward moment she had with legendary actor Robert De Niro while filming.
The American actress and comedian, who is perhaps best known for her role in Parks and Recreation, has built up something of a reputation for getting into some shenanigans on set.
After all, she nearly ended up married to her Scott Pilgrim vs the World co-star Michael Cera while they visited Vegas together, while she was asked by the director to actually masturbate while she filmed The To-Do List.
However, it was with one of the most influential actors of a generation in De Niro where she took things perhaps a step too far, as the 82-year-old was left 'legitimately scared' of her while they filmed Dirty Grandpa together.
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If you haven't seen the 2016 film featuring Zac Efron, it essentially sees the Taxi Driver star play his grandfather as they get into all sorts of trouble, with Plaza playing De Niro's much-younger love interest.
But Plaza decided to fully commit to her role to the extent where it seemingly made De Niro feel a little uneasy, with a particularly awkward moment coming when she tried to 'suck on his nipples'.
Speaking in a 2016 interview with Jimmy Kimmel, she said: “I’d try to get in there and suck on his nipples, and he was like batting me away, and I didn’t know if it was in character or not.”
She quickly learned that ‘Bob does not like his nipple area paid attention to,’ and later joked: “Great, now he thinks that I wanted to do that.”
The two weren't spending all that much time together on set, meaning that his only real experiences with her were when she was in character and desperate to be intimate with him.
“I heard from my agent, who had spoken to his agent that he was legitimately scared of me,” she told Kimmel.
“Every time I was around him, it was right before we started shooting, so I would be all over him, and I think I really freaked him out.
“I didn’t have time to get to know him, he shows up in a puff of smoke and there’s no chatting at the water cooler.”
Unfortunately that's likely to be De Niro's lasting impression of Plaza, as she was almost always in character whenever he saw her, and clearly the nipple nonsense left him feeling a little nervous.
As she put it: “By the time he’d show up, I’m in character. My character had one goal: To have sex with him. I was acting totally insane as the character because we were about to shoot. I don’t think he understood that wasn’t me.
“You’d think he would because he’s an actor and an amazing one.”
Topics: Aubrey Plaza, Robert De Niro
James Moorhouse