Robert De Niro on continuing to act at 83 three years after birth of his seventh child
Robert De Niro may be 83 but with The Whisper Man releasing on Netflix and Focker-in-Law releasing later this year the legendary actor is showing no signs of slowing down.
De Niro has however spoken out about how he balances his busy career with being a father, with his seventh child being born just three years ago when he was 79.
Netflix's The Whisper Man has an all-star cast in Adam Scott, Michael Keaton, Michelle Monaghan, and Hamish Linklater, but it is undeniable that the Taxi Driver star is the biggest name of them all.
Whilst not uncommon for celebrity actors to continue working into their 80s many scale back the work they’re doing, and not many of them have young toddlers at home who they had when they were just shy of 80.
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In a new interview De Niro opened up about this and balancing these two busy aspects of his life.
De Niro admitted he was ‘a little guilty’ about struggling to be there for his child as often as he’d like
The Killers of the Flower Moon star opened up about this in an interview with People when he was asked what the secret was to how he balances parenthood and his career. His oldest child is 54, but his other six children are 49, 30, 30, 28, 14, and three.
De Niro answered frankly, saying: “I don’t know if there is a secret.
“It’s just managing it all. And there’s no way around not feeling a little guilty about not being there at times you should or you think you should.”
He called it a ‘new experience’, and said: “You just jump in and you have the child and you got to... That’s it.”
Speaking to Esquire about continuing to act he said: “I might like to do things that are more retiring. Like sit in a place and just look at the view. Take a nice walk. Have a coffee. But not retire. As long as I'm enjoying what I'm doing, why retire?”
The Whisper Man is largely about fatherhood, focusing on a grieving father, played by Adam Scott, whose son is abducted. He then turns to his own father, a retired police detective, where they discover a link to a decades old case of a serial killer, the Whisper Man.
The Whisper Man has gotten a mixed reaction from viewers, including around De Niro’s performance
The Whisper Man released on Netflix today but reviewers and fans are already weighing in on the movie, debuting to a 57% on Rotten Tomatoes.
One such review from Slate absolutely slams the film, questioning how it even got made, calling De Niro’s performance ‘phoned in’.
Variety were more positive in their review, saying: “If De Niro never seems overly at pains to inhabit the character of Jersey cop with a cross to bear, his crumpled autopilot paternalism is still a warm asset to the film.”
The LA Times had the most positive review of a major outlet, saying that Scott is ‘on fire’ in the movie and adding: “De Niro, who can convey emotional volumes with raised palm and a tightly closed mouth, gives him plenty of room to work.”
The Whisper Man is available to watch on Netflix now.
Topics: Robert De Niro, Netflix, Celebrity, TV and Film, Parenting
Michael Slavin