De Niro draws on experience to play disgruntled dad

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Maple pictures Robert De Niro sets off on a journey to reconnect with his three children in Everybody�s Fine.

That includes his latest movie, Everybody's Fine, which opens Dec. 4. In the Kirk Jones-directed film, De Niro portrays a working-class New Yorker who tries to reconnect with his grown-up children living in various cities throughout the U.S.

When the father travels to see his kids -- played by Sam Rockwell, Drew Barrymore and Kate Beckinsale -- he realizes each of them falls short of his dearly departed wife's expectations.

Part drama and part comedy, the film is Jones' English-language version of the 1990 Giuseppe Tornatore film Stanno tutti bene, starring Marcello Mastroianni as the perplexed father on his solemn mission of family and self-discovery.

At a downtown Manhattan hotel recently, the 66-year-old De Niro says he responded to many things about the Jones production.

He was inspired by the commitment from Jones, the director who had made only two previous films, Nanny McPhee and Waking Ned Devine.

He also confessed that Mastroianni was one of his favourite actors growing up. And he admits that the father theme reminded him of his past relationship with his painter-sculptor father, Robert De Niro Sr.

In fact, it was his father who encouraged De Niro to follow his dream to become an actor in the 1960s, when opportunities were few. After years of frustration, Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets gave De Niro the break and the recognition he needed.

He parlayed that talent into a celebrated career in which he also directs and produces some of his own films, not to mention TV productions.

Here are some more thoughts from De Niro, the actor, capable of moving us with his portrayal of a young Vito Corleone in The Godfather Part II, or of making us laugh as the stern but silly Jack Byrnes in Meet the Fockers.

Q: Did you watch Stanno tutti bene, the original Italian movie starring Marcello Matroianni as the father?

A: I only saw it once.

Q: And what did you think?

A: It was just a different type of movie. I love Mastroianni. Since I was a kid, I always watched his movies. He's been in great films; part of the great Italian tradition, obviously. But Kirk (Jones) made it his own.

Q: Do you relate to the father in Everybody's Fine?

A: You draw on whatever's relevant to the part you're playing. There was a lot there, of course: I have five children, two grandchildren. But also going back to Kirk being the director and caring -- that's the anchor of the whole thing.

Q: How was your artist father, compared to your father in Everybody's Fine?

A: Yeah, he was pretty easy on me about what I wanted to do. My grandfather's more old-school, old-time Italian. My father certainly came from that (strictness), but he came to New York to get away from certain things and they raised me kind of easily.

Q: And how are you as a father?

A: I try not to be too strict, but there are certain things they have to do. At the same time, I don't want them to get away with anything. But I think I try to rationalize with them, and argue, 'Now look, I'm very good with you about certain things unless you do this. You have to now do this.'

Q: Does it work?

A: Of course, there are times when that stuff doesn't work. I'm not all-knowing, all-seeing. But I think, in general, it works pretty good.

Q: So do you prefer indie productions (such as Everybody's Fine) or studio pictures such as the Meet the Parents series?

A: Well, the difference is, you have more time with studio movies, and you have a lot more people on the set, a lot more trucks. I always wonder, when I walk around a big movie. I see all these trucks and I think, 'Just to get this, you've got to get all this.'

Q: Speaking of Meet the Parents, are you doing a third in the series?

A: We're doing a third (grins sheepishly): Meet the Little Fockers.

Q: You can play tough guys and funny guys and, sometimes, both at the same time.

A: I play off that image because you can make fun of it in certain movies, like in Meet the Little Fockers. (De Niro smiles again.) It's also titled Or The Godfocker.

Q: Is humour how you deal with adversity?

A: What adversity are you talking about?

Q: Adversity, in general.

A: I'm here, aren't I?

-- Canwest News Service

Movie Preview

Everybody's Fine

Starring Robert De Niro

Opens Friday

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition December 1, 2009 D3