Robert De Niro Reacts to Family Photos, 'The Godfather,' & His Oscar Win for 'Raging Bull' | PEOPLE

If it's a therapy session, that's one thing. But this is, you know... Bob De Niro, hi. This is my life in pictures. Me at that age, I don't know how old, probably about three or four, maybe, or two. Reminds me of my two youngest little girls. At that age, my youngest, I see a lot of similarity. And I see it also in one of my grandkids. Gia, the baby, always looks at my father's artwork. We all actually look at it. It's interesting. It was an okay childhood. I had good memories and others that I suppose like anybody would. I'm glad that I grew up in New York, was raised in New York. I'm glad that all my kids basically live here. Francis, he asked me to come to San Francisco to read or something like that. And then he called back a few days later or whatever. Just departures, just come out and we'll get to know each other and talk and blah, blah, blah. As I remember, I don't think we went over the script or anything. What's your name? My name is Vito Corleone. Vito Corleone. You obviously won an Oscar for that role. You were not at the ceremony. I was shooting 1900, Roberto Lucci in Italy. And so I was there for a long time during that period. They called me on a landline in those days. Marty had a friend who sadly passed away. He became a stuntman, but he was part of a ranger or I don't know. Something special force type thing where he went into certain other countries. These were called halo drops or whatever from high altitudes. He had Mohawk haircuts and we were just talking about what he did and so on. The idea of the Mohawk was of course an interesting one that we hadn't thought of. And so we decided that's what Travis will do. And it is time to let the people rule. I was going to shoot The Last Tycoon after where I needed hair. And kind of wavy hair like Irving Thalberg. So Marty and I, we realized that he liked the idea, he wanted me to do it. And we had this problem. We were having dinner one night and I said, well Dick Smith, let's see if we can. And we agreed, yeah, let's try Dick at the time. And he was a great makeup artist and he'd done Godfather 2 and 1. And so he took it upon himself to do it. We did a test, it looked good. Is it true your previous two Oscars are in storage somewhere? Yeah, I have them someplace. I have a lot of stuff at the University of Texas. They keep everything preserved. They're in their care, if you will. Well, the weight of course was difficult. After the first 15 pounds, it's just work. And a doctor was monitoring it, cholesterol and things like that. But it was hard. Especially the more weight, it was just hard. But that was the idea, to see how hard and how different physically. So we took a break of three or four months, I forget. And only shot one scene after we did the young stuff or the in shape part of the movie. And then we did one interim scene where I gained about 12 or 15 pounds. When he's out of shape and he's in Florida, we shot that scene. And then I just kept doing the hiatus, just gaining weight. We had a reading of the script. Art Lentzen, the producer, who brought the script to me. And I met Michael Caton-Jones. And then I like to have a reading a lot of times, so we had a reading. Leo was one of the other actors, but not playing the part that he eventually did play. And I said to Art Lentzen, the producer. I said, Art, that kid was really interesting. I didn't push it, I just said, that kid had something special. And then they turned around and wound up using Leo. What's going on here? I got this scholarship and you went nuts! He's crazy and I'm leaving! Then he told me, Leo, I remember, he said, I just knew I wasn't going to get in there, I wasn't going to be it. So I just didn't give a s**t about it. Or was less caring because he did not know. And I always tell young actors, when you're reading, assume you're not going to get the part so you can feel more free to take a chance. Because that'll be the interesting thing. Your choices, even if they're not right for the part you're reading for, they will draw people's attention. I would say I'm very lucky to have started working with Marty in my late 20s. And done all these projects together. We kind of knew each other like this, the way when we were teenagers. But 10, 12 years earlier or more. And so I knew, I was aware that he was doing something at NYU. And we had a mutual friend go back and forth to his group and mine. And then we finally met for a Christmas dinner years later. And I saw Who's That Knocking? And I said, that's a really terrific movie. And that's how it started. Then he said, I have the script. And Mean Speech was at that time called Season of the Witch. And so that's how it started. How often do people, quote, meet the parents to you? Well, you know, this thing they do. But I will be watching you, studying your every move. When you're putting on the TV and you're scrolling, do you ever come across your old movies and stop and maybe watch? Rarely, but if I do, sometimes I'll stop and see. Because it's as pure a moment as I can get of being objective. Not expecting and seeing it and seeing this thing, see how, you know, oh, not too bad or whatever, you know. I have nipples, Greg. Could you milk me? We had talked about doing a film festival, Jane, Rosenthal and I. Just, what about, you know? But then when 9-11 happened, we started talking seriously about doing it because of the neighbourhood and helping to bring it back and so on, so that's how it got started. We just had the first one and then the second one, and it just grew and grew. You do a table read about a week before, I think on the Monday before the Saturday, and then they start eliminating the skits and throwing them on the floor, literally, as I remember when I did. And then you get closer to what the ones that you actually start doing, and then those would get whittled away too. And then you do one performance earlier for an earlier audience and you have a meeting with Lorne Michaels and everybody sits in there, everyone, and they chip away at those and you come up with the final group of skits, if you will, to do. Don't push, don't push, I warn you, don't push. Oh, I am scared, I am scared. You want to be scared? Yeah. You want to be scared? Yeah. The best part was just that you have a certain type of freedom because you have so little time to do anything. You can't think and you just get used to reading those cue cards, so it's fun. I enjoy doing things, comedy, if you will, what type of comedy I can do because there's a certain type of freedom with it. Well, we've known each other a long time, and especially in The Irishman, that was going on for years and we had always wanted Al to play Jimmy Hoffa and it went on for a long time before finally it happened. Jimmy, I'm trying to tell you something. I know you are. You're telling me they're threatening me and I've got to do what they say, which is absolutely the threat. It's the bottom line. And he's great. We couldn't have been happier that he was doing that movie. We've always had a terrific relationship and I don't know if we'll do anything, you never know, again. I saw David O. Russell's The Fighter and I thought it was really terrific and everybody in it. So then this was coming along and David was thinking of using me for The Father and I read the book and then I read the script. I know you don't want to listen to your father, I didn't listen to mine. And I'm telling you, you've got to pay attention to Steins. The script was different than the book, a little different, but that always happens. It's like the director or writer-director makes it their own, personalizes it in some way, and so I was in. Jennifer Lawrence has been telling a story recently about you came to her wedding and she told you to leave her rehearsal dinner because you looked uncomfortable. No, I went. I wasn't... It was fine. I mean, I had... I only came for that part of it anyway and it was nice. It wasn't... It wasn't that long. Maybe I stayed an hour for that. Were you surprised when you announced that you had another child that it made so many headlines? No, I guess not. With such an adorable baby, she's so sweet. You just look at her and everything else goes away. So it's just a great joy and relief to just be with her in the moment. The kids all get a big kick out of her and the grandkids, even, who... She's their... their aunt and their, you know, their... I mean, about to be teenagers. I think they are happy about it, and I'm going to have them more and more with her because they're, you know, they're... The fact that they'd all be together is everything to me. Well, I was aware of the project that Marty and Leo wanted to do and we were trying to get the Irishman going and there was a moment where they were seeing if we would do this first. But I wanted to do Irishman first, but I committed to Killers of the Flower Moon. And then they were... Leo and Marty were telling me that there's another way they're going to do it. But I just waited for the script. But I was in no matter what. I knew whatever it was, it'd be good. And it was a great experience, especially shooting on the... actually where, the actual locations. Will these women die with how Osage suffered from illness? You have to make it, the head rats come to you. You see? And I always say this, he's good with everyone. He allows people to do what they can do best, and then he'll direct from there, but he said whether it be an actor, director of photography, costume designer, whatever, you know, that's his... And then he has very clear ideas, but knows not to impose anything and let the people just feel free enough to be expressed as much as they can through whatever they're doing. As an actor, as a costume designer, as a director of photography, and all the other departments, you know, it's important.