Robert De Niro reportedly walked out of an interview with Radio Times journalist Emma Brockes this week, after the actor accused her of being too “negative” with her questions.
A rumored difficult person to interview, De Niro was out promoting his new movie The Intern, when he agreed to have a conversation with Brockes, who also writes for The Guardian.
Brockes documented the encounter Tuesday, writing the Goodfellas star became annoyed at her questions, and asked her to stop recording the interview.
De Niro was said to be peeved with Brockes after she suggested Tribeca had been taken over by bankers, and asked him a question about how he avoids going into “autopilot” on movie sets.
(De Niro co-founded the Tribeca Film Festival after 9/11)
After Brockes stopped recording, De Niro reportedly paced “madly” around the room before ending the interview over the “negative inference” of her asking about bankers and his acting methods.
“What, about the bankers?!” Brockes asked him.
De Niro responded: “All the way through. Negative inference… The whole way through and I’m not doing it. I’m not doing it, darling.”
Brockes said De Niro then stuck his head out of the door to find someone to “take him out of the room,” reports Guardian.
Later, Brockes recounted how she asked De Niro to explain where he felt she was being negative.
He responded: “The question about being on autopilot – negative inference.”
Brockes then said, “Wait, but I asked that question to establish how it is you manage not to be on autopilot.”
He reiterated, “There’s a negative inference.”
“I have to say, now that you’re going on about it, it makes me think you were on autopilot and you’re super-sensitive about it,” she said.
“I think you’re very condescending,” Brockes said she told the actor, to which he replied, “Oh, you think ‘darling’ is condescending?”
The reporter said after she “felt sympathy” for the 72-year-old, who had been sitting through interviews all day.
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