Five Things We Learned About 'A Bronx Tale' From Robert De Niro

Following our special 20th anniversary screening of A Bronx Tale last night at the Village East Cinema in NYC, which we teamed with First Time Fest in presenting, Robert De Niro sat with chief curator of the Museum of the Moving Image, David Schwartz, to discuss his directorial debut. Below are five highlights from the De Niro talk, including some acting knowledge he dropped on one aspiring actor.

Giving Palminteri His Big Break
A Bronx Tale is based on Chazz Palminteri's one-man stage play that De Niro saw and immediately wanted to make as his first directing effort. However, he wasn't the only one courting Palminteri. And the struggling actor was determined to play the part of Sonny in the film adaptation. De Niro said it took 5-6 years from when he saw the play to finally shooting the film, and what inevitably won over Palminteri was a promise De Niro gave him:

"I saw the stage play and I went to Chazz about making it into a film and he really wanted to play Sonny. I told him what's going to happen is if you finally get a studio to make it what they are going to do is come to me to play the role of Sonny. So let's eliminate the middle man, give me the rights, I'll make the movie, and I promise you that you will play Sonny. And that's what we did."

Taking The Director Reigns
Though De Niro has always been hands on with his directors in the films he's made, A Bronx Tale was different in that he was calling the shots. Here he gives a little insight on his directing style:

"Being a director is finding the director of photography, finding the different department heads of the film, and then going and moving forward and shooting the film. It's a big step and to me that's what I focused on."
 

Queens?
A Bronx Tale was actually shot in Queens. But as De Niro describes, it was the best spot to bring 1960s-era Bronx back to life (and by the time the film left De Niro had a sandwich named after him at the local deli, "The De Niro Hero"):

"There were abandoned stores on the block so we used them [to create the neighborhood] and it was almost like using a studio backlot, it was perfect. We were very fortunate to find that area."
 

No Inspiration Needed
Though you would assume that his collaboration with Martin Scorsese over the years would seep into De Niro's way of directing, he says he didn't think back on their work together while making A Bronx Tale:

"Marty does his movies, I do mine."
 

Acting Methods
The talk ended with a shy acting student wanting De Niro's opinion on method acting (he'll likely never forget the answer):

"At the end of the day you do what works for you in that moment to get you where you need to be. Think about your mother that died last week, you think about this, you think about that. Your imagination makes you alive for that moment in that scene. All the rest is bullshit."

[Top Photo (Left-Right): Robert De Niro and David Schwartz]