Robert De Niro

About

Robert De Niro is a well-aged Parmigiano Reggiano, granular and sharp, with a deeply savoury quality that only improves with time. You can shave him thin or cut him into big chunks; the flavour is always distinct. Start with Mean Streets, where Johnny Boy is a firecracker in human form, always on the edge of exploding, and De Niro plays the chaos with a live wire intensity. The Godfather Part II showed his incredible control as a young Vito Corleone, every gesture measured, every word a promise. Watch him in Raging Bull, where Jake LaMotta is all muscle and rage, and the physicality is astonishing. He melts into the role completely. GoodFellas gave him Jimmy Conway, all cool menace and quiet authority, while Heat let him face off against another giant, every line a precision strike. Even in comedies like Meet the Parents, there is a hard, unyielding core to his performance as Jack Byrnes, a man who knows what he likes. De Niro has a serious rind, and it is built to last.