New York Governor Andrew Cuomo gushed over the idea of “genius” actor Robert De Niro playing him in any film about the Chinese coronavirus pandemic.
In an interview with Late Show host Stephen Colbert, the host asked Cuomo: “In the movie of this, when it’s finally made, who do you want to have play you?”
“De Niro, I am a big De Niro fan,” Cuomo responded. “He is just phenomenal. The breadth of his ability, I mean, just look at all the roles he’s played. He can do anything, right? Deer Hunter, Cape Fear, he can do comedy… how ’bout Taxi Driver?”
Despite the fact that the two men were born and raised in New York and both are of Italian heritage, De Niro remains 14 years Cuomo’s senior. The 62-year-old then attempted to create recreate a famous scene from De Niro’s Oscar-nominated performance as Travis Bickle in the 1976 film Taxi Driver.
“I’m going to do Taxi Driver. The next press conference, when a reporter asks me a question. ‘You talkin’ to me?'”, he said, imitating De Niro. “Oh, boy, that’d be a treat. I’m a big De Niro fan. He’s a genius.”
Cuomo made the remarks after De Niro confirmed during an appearance on the Late Show on Wednesday that he would like to play the New York Governor in any film made about the coronavirus, adding that he was “doing what any president should do” in these times of crisis.
Any factual dramatization of the coronavirus would have to include Cuomo’s disastrous handling of the pandemic, which has seen New York become one of the worst-hit cities in the world. As well as general criticism for being too slow in his response, Cuomo’s most egregious error was the issuing of a March 25th directive requiring nursing homes to accept coronavirus patients from hospitals, likely sending thousands of elderly to premature deaths.
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