Video shows De Niro rehearsing for show, not yelling at anti-Israel protesters | Fact check

Hannah Hudnall and Edward Segarra, USA TODAY
Updated ·2 min read

The claim: Video shows Robert De Niro yelling at anti-Israel protesters

A May 1 Instagram video (direct link, archive link) shows actor Robert De Niro yelling while surrounded by a group of people.

"This is not a movie," De Niro says. "This is real. Right now you've got to listen, you've got to work, you've got to get your job done."

The post's caption says, "Robert Deniro slams anti-Israel protesters in New York 'this is real this is not a movie.'"

The post garnered more than 9,000 likes in one day. Other versions of the claim were shared on Instagram, Facebook and X, formerly Twitter.

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Our rating: False

The video shows De Niro rehearsing his script for an upcoming TV show, not yelling at anti-Israel protesters.

Video shows De Niro rehearsing for Netflix show

The video of De Niro yelling is unrelated to the ongoing pro-Palestinian protests taking place on college campuses across the country.

Netflix spokesperson Rabia Ahmad told USA TODAY the video shows De Niro rehearsing for the Netflix miniseries "Zero Day," which he's set to star in, while on location in New York City on April 27.

Stan Rosenfield, a spokesperson for De Niro, said a bystander had captured the video during the show's production and misrepresented its contents on social media.

"The video was a small snippet from the Netflix series ‘Zero Day,’ where the character played by De Niro is screaming at a group (of) paid extras," Rosenfield told USA TODAY in an email. "This was 100% scripted."

More: Robert De Niro accused of berating pro-Palestinian protesters during filming for Netflix show

Fact check: Social media users falsely link 2023 photo to ongoing Columbia protest

Actress Mozhan Navabi shared a post on X in response to a now-deleted article published by the Israeli outlet Haaretz about the video.

"Robert Deniro is giving a speech as his character in the upcoming Netflix show Zero Day," the post reads. "I’m also in it and when I saw the clip I recognized the speech. It’s fiction."

Jesse Plemons, who's also set to star in the Netflix thriller, can be seen standing behind De Niro in the video.

USA TODAY reached out to the user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

The Associated Press and AFP also debunked the claim.

Our fact-check sources:

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: De Niro video falsely linked to pro-Palestinian protests | Fact check

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