Longtime liberal actor Robert de Niro has hurled expletives and insults against President Trump and played Special Counsel Robert Mueller on NBC’s Saturday Night Live since April 14, so he’s obviously not a fan.
So Monday afternoon on CNN International, De Niro insisted that he’s not lowering our discourse, lashed out at the “nightmare” Trump presidency as “one of the worst that I have ever seen,” and even suggested that Brexit be overturned.
Host Hala Gorani also discussed the future of entertainment and movies, but the first portion of the interview focused on Trump. She began by telling de Niro that “we just live in a crazy world” in which De Niro is “playing a special prosecutor investigating the sitting President for possible collusion with Russia during a presidential campaign.”
De Niro responded that he “never thought in my lifetime” that he would see someone like Trump come along as he was talking to “my trainer the other day and I'm — we've seen horrible things over the years, but this was one of the worst that I have ever seen and that I ever, as I say, ever thought I would see, but it's real.”
Gorani lobbed a softball question wondering “why are you so vocal about it, though, at this stage in your career” and de Niro was more than happy to oblige (click “expand”):
I just — you know, I know what kind of person this guy is. He’s a New Yorker who I never would want to meet. Never want to meet him and now he’s President and the reason I wouldn't want to meet him is because of the kind of person he is as we all know now. There's nothing new. It's just — it's disgraceful, but we'll get past it. It'll be one of those things that'll be like a nightmare that you remember. I'll be with my trainer. We’ll be five years from now, saying, remember all that stuff how terrible it was? And at least I — I lived to see the time when this will all pass like any nightmare.
It was here that Gorani claimed that de Niro had “called him a national disaster,” “a bozo,” “an embarrassment,” and dropped an f-bomb at the Tony Awards. De Niro seemed perturbed, insisting that he was merely “quoting” Colin Powell that Trump was “a national disgrace” before the election even though he does now believe too that Trump’s “also a national disaster.”
“Yeah and do you think that possibly you're basically giving him what he wants by just keeping this — by kind of creating a feud with him where he then replies on Twitter and says you're a low IQ or whatever? You took too many blows in the head that in a way you're kind of playing his game,” Gorani asked in a follow-up.
De Niro expressed no regrets because Trump deserves it: “No because even his responses, his retorts, if you will, are inane and they’re kind of stupid. He doesn’t say anything that's even witty or smart. So it doesn't — it doesn't bother me. It's — it’s — it’s ridiculous.”
On how he became SNL’s Mueller, de Niro explained that “I think my wife had mentioned we were talking about what could I — could I do” to play a role in this anti-Trump torrent and she suggested Mueller, which De Niro then proposed to SNL boss Lorne Michaels.
Gorani then fretted that “all these ideas that come from the Trump administration that you don't like, we’re seeing some of them take hold in our part of the world” such as Brexit and other European countries being opposed to the E.U.
Showing some level of humility, de Niro emphasized that “I don't know fully what Brexit is,” but then asserted what he think should happen, which is that “working people...have to be a part of the equation of making things right” which, in his mind, means having a second Brexit vote “because maybe they'll change that and maybe that'll be better.”
To see the relevant transcript from CNN International’s Hala Gorani Tonight on December 17, click “expand.”
CNN International’s Hala Gorani Tonight
December 17, 2018HALA GORANI: The Godfather, Deer Hunter, Raging Bull, Taxi Driver, Goodfellas, I could on and on, incredible movies that made Robert De Niro one of the best-known people on the planet and, of course, the legendary actor that he is. He’s still movies, but in recent times. we’ve seen him bring politics to the fore more. The criticism of the President at the Tony awards was explicit. We all remember it and Mr. Trump hit back and now we're seeing a recurring role on Saturday Night Live as Robert Mueller.
[SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE CLIP]
GORANI: Let’s bring in the man himself, Robert de Niro joining me live from New York. Thanks so much for being with us. I think if two years ago, someone had told me you'll be interviewing Robert De Niro, first of all, I would have been thrilled full stop, but you'll be interviewing Robert De Niro who's playing a special prosecutor investigating the sitting President for possible collusion with Russia during a presidential campaign. We live in a — we just live in a crazy world.
DE NIRO: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I never thought in my lifetime and I've seen a lot in my lifetime I never thought I was working out with my trainer the other day and I'm — we've seen horrible things over the years, but this was one of the worst that I have ever seen and that I ever, as I say, ever thought I would see, but it's real.
GORANI: But — why are you so vocal about it, though, at this stage in your career? Because you've been very outspoken against the President.
DE NIRO: I just — you know, I know what kind of person this guy is. He’s a New Yorker who I never would want to meet. Never want to meet him and now he’s President and the reason I wouldn't want to meet him is because of the kind of person he is as we all know now. There's nothing new. It's just — it's disgraceful, but we'll get past it. It'll be one of those things that'll be like a nightmare that you remember. I'll be with my trainer. We’ll be five years from now, saying, remember all that stuff how terrible it was? And at least I — I lived to see the time when this will all pass like any nightmare.
GORANI: But so you've called him stuff like — that you've called him a national disaster. You said F-Trump at the Tonys,
DE NIRO: I meant a national —
GORANI: You called him a bozo. You says that he's an embarrassment — yes.
DE NIRO: I'm sorry. I'm sorry to interrupt you.
GORANI: No, no. I was just going — go ahead.
DE NIRO: I was quoting someone — I’m just having a block on the name. He — calling him a national disgrace.
GORANI: Right.
DE NIRO: Not a national. He is also a national disaster, too, but he was — it was a disgrace. When I said that, it was before he was elected.
GORANI: Is there — I mean, some people have criticized —
DE NIRO: It was Colin Powell who I quoted.
GORANI: Yeah and do you think that possibly you're basically giving him what he wants by just keeping this — by kind of creating a feud with him where he then replies on Twitter and says you're a low IQ or whatever? You took too many blows in the head that in a way you're kind of playing his game.
DE NIRO: No because even his responses, his retorts, if you will, are inane and they’re kind of stupid. He doesn’t say anything that's even witty or smart. So it doesn't — it doesn't bother me. It's — it’s — it’s ridiculous.
GORANI: But you're playing Mueller on SNL. I watch it every week and it's — whenever you come out on stage, you immediately get this incredible just round of applause. What made you — how did that come about, playing Mueller on SNL?
DE NIRO: I — I think it was — I think my wife had mentioned we were talking about what could I — could I do? What character could I play in all of this? And I think she said, “well, what about Mueller?” And I called Lorne Michaels. I said, “Lorne, what about playing Mueller?” I think that's how it happened, so they came up with stuff.
GORANI: Is this something you're having fun with?
DE NIRO: Yes. I'm having fun with it, yes. I mean, I love SNL. So it's — that part of it is always fun to do.
GORANI: So all these ideas that come from the Trump administration that you don't like, we’re seeing some of them take hold in our part of the world. So we’re seeing, for instance, with Brexit or just now I interviewed the Hungarian government spokesperson, these kind of populist ideas. Is that something you think about at all, like, what’s happening outside the U.S.? This — this kind of ideological wave outside of the U.S. and what do you make of something like Brexit, for instance?
DE NIRO: Well, you know, I’m — I don't know fully what Brexit is but I have a sense of what it is and what've been told and what I've read and so on and people are dissatisfied with certain things. The working people, the people who are getting — not benefiting from like the rich in this country who would — Trump with his tax breaks and so on. It all boils down to giving the rich a break and I think that happens and now the working people on both sides, right and left, are concerned and angry and they have to be — they have to be part of the equation of making things right. I mean, it's easier said than done but it has to be and I think that's what it is, but I hope they have a referendum in England. That's my feeling because maybe they'll change that and maybe that'll be better. I don't know all the things so I'm not really qualified to speak.
GORANI: It looks like it could be heading that way.
