Robert De Niro on new comedy 'War With Grandpa' and why he never wants to retire: 'I'll go as long as a I can'
Legendary cinematic tough guy Robert De Niro, who has made a career of playing no-compromise characters in classics like Raging Bull, Goodfellas and Cape Fear, is not slowing down any time soon — even if some of his latest AARP-eligible movie titles might imply so.
After 2016’s Dirty Grandpa, the 77-year-old screen icon’s new comedy, The War With Grandpa, is his second movie over one presidential term in which he plays a titular grandparent.
“I always say, the next thing is grandfathers, then great-grandfathers, then great-great-great grandfathers, so who knows,” De Niro told Yahoo Entertainment when asked if fans have to him retiring at some point (watch above). “I’ll go as long as I can.”
In The War With Grandpa, De Niro plays a widower and feisty retiree who moves into the home of his daughter’s family and engages in a merciless battle of pranks with his grandson (Oakes Fegley) after co-opting his room.
The film, shot in 2017 but long delayed after it was sold by its troubled original distributor, The Weinstein Company’s Dimension Films, follows a banner year for De Niro, who in 2019 starred in two movies nominated for Oscar’s Best Picture: Joker and The Irishman.
“The projects are different but for me all good in different ways,” De Niro says. “This project, it’s fun. It’s easy in some ways, but not in others. You have to have a certain timing no matter what it is. But I had a good time.”
So did his costars, including Fegley, Laura Marano, Cheech Marin and Jane Seymour.
Playing De Niro’s granddaughter, “was just a dream come true, and very intimidating as well,” Marano (The Perfect Date, Austin & Ally) says.
“It’s like being invited to join the Beatles for a session,” adds Marin (of Cheech and Chong fame) of the film’s starry cast, which also includes Christopher Walken, Uma Thurman and Rob Riggle. “Everybody can play, and all have to do is listen to what they’re doing and step right in.
“I was just thrilled to be in a movie with Robert De Niro and I don’t get whacked.”
The War With Grandpa opens in theaters Friday.
Watch the trailer:
-Video produced by Gisselle Bances
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