Robert De Niro doesn't just take Trump to task
The fact that Robert De Niro is no friend of Donald Trump is nothing new. The real uproar at an award show in the USA is therefore not the fact that he took a swipe at the former US president in his speech. Rather, it is scandalous that he should apparently be prevented from doing so.
Robert De Niro does not allow himself to be banned from speaking. The actor proved this at the Gotham Awards, where he accepted an award. When he wanted to deliver his prepared acceptance speech at the award ceremony for independent films, the 80-year-old apparently realized that crucial parts were missing.
"The beginning of my speech was edited, cut out, and I didn't know about it," said De Niro, according to US media reports. "And I want to read it," he added. The Oscar winner went back to his seat and picked up his cell phone, from which he then read the original version of his speech.
In his speech, De Niro referred to his film "Killers of the Flower Moon", which deals with the murder of Native Americans for greed. He also made a link to the present day. "History is no longer history. The truth is not the truth. Even facts are being replaced by alternative facts and driven by conspiracy theories and ugliness," said the Hollywood star. The allusion to former US President Donald Trump and his supporters was impossible to miss.
"Lied to 30,000 times"
The actor then addressed Trump explicitly: "The former president lied to us more than 30,000 times during his four years in office. And in his current campaign of retaliation, he is keeping up the pace". The Republican, who wants to return to the White House in 2024, is attacking the weak and "destroying the gifts of nature", said De Niro.
Trump had also shown disrespect for Native Americans by using the name of a chief's daughter as an insult for Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren. This brought De Niro back full circle to "Killers of the Flower Moon".
At this point, it was probably time for the actual acceptance speech, as it appeared on the teleprompter. But De Niro had apparently lost the desire to do so. He wanted to thank the streaming service Apple TV+, which had produced the film, later in a small circle, said De Niro. However, he wanted to exclude the organizer of the award ceremony from his praise. "Gotham, blah blah blah, but I don't feel like thanking them at all for what they did," De Niro explained, adding: "How dare they do that."
De Niro's critique of Trump extended beyond the Gotham Awards, as he mentioned the former president's lies and attacks on the weak in a movie-themed event. At another event, a Hollywood gala, De Niro performed a stand-up routine where he joked about Trump, saying, "I just want to say, fk Trump. It's great to be here in Hollywood, home of entertainment, where freedom of speech is cherished, unlike that fking insane asylum in Washington."
Source: www.ntv.de
