Robert De Niro on Working with Martin Scorsese and Being Jimmy's First Late Night Guest (Extended)

They love you. I love you. Welcome back to the show. You were actually on my very first... -"Tonight Show." -...yes. -...I had a --" I said, Hey, my friend, I had a $100 bet with my friend that you said I'd never host a... And look at me now. You owe me $100. And then you came out and threw $100 on my desk. Yeah. So that was good luck. That was good luck. Yeah. You actually were my first ever guest on late night back in the day, 15 years ago. I couldn't book the show because I was taking over for Conan O'Brien. I was brand new, and no one knew if I was going to be a hit or not. And so I remember we did a couple charity events or I did something with the Tribeca Festival. And I called you and said, Would you want to come on? And you're like, I have nothing to promote or talk about, but I will. And I go, I'll never forget that. You do Demi Lovato. That was awesome. That was really nice. Thank you. Congrats on your ninth Academy Award nomination, by the way. Not too shabby. Do you get excited when you get nominated for? Yeah, I mean, I don't get not excited. Yeah. No, it's nice. Yeah. And I feel like our interviews have gotten better throughout the years. But do you how do you act, though? Because you're up against Robert Downey Jr. So your name is pretty similar. Yeah, it was. And he was great in the movie. Oh, yeah. I didn't recognize him in the beginning. And I kept saying, Who's that? Who's that? And I realized it was him. Oh, he's amazing. And I saw him last summer. And I said, You were terrific. Really great. But when you're at the Academy Awards, And the winner is Robert. Yeah, that happened. I saw your face. I didn't go like this. A little bit. Yeah. I saw you act a little bit there. You're like, Then I got used to it after a few times. He just kept standing up and sitting down. Congratulations. Awesome. I saw this photo of you here on the Internet. I got the Internet buzzing here. It's a picture of you, Austin Butler and Snoop Dogg. Well, what was it? We a mutual friend had introduced us and that's why. So we were out in California. So that was it. We just hung out a little bit. So you're not not dropping an album or anything? Not at this point. Not at this point. No, no, no. I want to talk about I want to talk about the Tribeca Festival, because this is 23 years. You and Jane Rosenthal. Yes. Started this. I think I was at the first one with you. Were you? Yes. We did a bit together, but 23 years. Yeah, it's amazing what you've done. Was it was it always the plan to just keep doing it every year? No, I mean, we didn't know how it would turn out and every year would still be going strong. So we just kept doing it. But we had no idea that it would hopefully it would. But become part of the city, part of the fabric of the city. And so it did. Yeah, it's great. It started not too long after 9-11, right? Right. We got it together in a few months right after 9-11. Forgetting how many was four or five months. We whipped into shape, got it going. But you have now it's like now it's everything. It's TV shows, it's podcasts, it's video games. It's the biggest thing out there. And I think it's so cool that what you're doing for all these young directors, too, and all these new movies. And they owe a lot to you and Jane and what you guys have done for the city. Thank you very much. Congratulations. You're also doing this year. This year will be the 50th anniversary of Mean Streets. You and Martin Scorsese, 50 years. That sounds crazy. I know. I know. Do you remember signing up for this movie? Well, I remember Marty and I meeting about it at a friend's Christmas dinner. We weren't talking about the movie, but that came up. And Marty said, I have this thing if you want to look at it. So then we talked about it for the next couple of months. And you were friends already. I had known Marty from a distance as kids. We had a mutual friend to go back and forth between his group and mine. And so I knew him like that. And so when I saw Who's That Knocking when we met at this dinner, this Christmas dinner, I said, that's really a terrific movie. And, you know, that world so well, blah, blah, blah. And, you know, but, you know, we knew each other. We're aware of each other. We were kids. And he was like, I think I want you for Johnny Boy and Mean Streets. He offered me that. And it was one, two or three other parts, not Harvey Keitel's. This was a lead, but just and I was trying to decide which one I would play this one. That one. Finally, I did Johnny Boy. Yeah. Was there ever a time in your life where you didn't think you were going to make it as an actor? Do you have any side jobs? I was very positive about it. For a split second, it hit me when I was 27 or something, but I was doing OK even then. So, you know, not never really. Yeah, I was lucky. Yeah. Yeah, that's what I say about me. I'm lucky as well. Yeah. You don't have to say it. I'll say it. Yeah. Thank you. Well, we're both lucky. I think we're both lucky. Let's talk about your new film, Ezra. This is this is fantastic. And I love everyone involved with this. How did you how did you get hooked up with this? Well, I they had contacted me about doing it and being a part of it. And I wasn't sure in the beginning I asked for a reading, a table reading. I do a lot with a movie. I have a we sit around a table and some of the actors are already involved. And just a bunch of actors have gotten together who kind of is great. Yeah. And so we had the reading and then I was still apprehensive about certain things. I wasn't sure. And we talked about it and they made the adjusted those things and so on and so forth. And everybody was so nice, good spirit. People who had this have been involved in situations with their with their own kids, say the writer, Tony Spiridakis, myself and so on. We all had that thing together. And a child with autism. But it's it's it's a great story. And once again, you do a fantastic job. Here's Robert De Niro in the movie Ezra Taylor. You can't even say the word. Just a word. Autism. Yeah, whatever. Saying it out loud, it'll help as in his life. My, you know what? I don't I'm not sure about that. You got to be able to talk about this and not. OK, tell me, what do you want to talk about? I don't want to be hiding about it. I want to talk about it. I want to give it a name. I want to get I want to get all the help we can get. I want to get who's hiding. Nobody's hiding. Max is hiding him right now. He took him. He's hiding it. I'm afraid of taking him somewhere. Robert De Niro, everybody. Ezra is in theaters, May 31st. Check out Tribeca film dot com for tickets to the Tribeca Festival. You always show up. You always show up for me. I love you, bud. That's it. Come on back more tonight. Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey.