Robert De Niro is pulling double duty as two crime bosses in The Alto Knights. He and Debra Messing speak to Melissa Nathoo about the film and if in his eighties he's ready to retire. Report by Nathoom. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
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00:00What am I going to do?
00:01What am I going to play, golf?
00:04You know, I'm a theatre girl.
00:05I'm supposed to be changing all the time.
00:08It is a genuine honour to sit here with you both.
00:11I'm going to start with you, Mr. De Niro, sir.
00:13Because, honestly, when I first heard about the film,
00:16I thought you were going to be playing brothers when I heard you were playing both roles.
00:19And then to see you playing two childhood friends,
00:22how flattering is it that they want you to play
00:25two completely different characters in the same film?
00:28Well, my agent said he thought of the idea.
00:31And he told Erwin, and Erwin was then pushing it with me,
00:34about why don't you try and play both parts?
00:37And I said, let me think about that.
00:39It's interesting and it would be another reason to do it.
00:42Other than wanting to work with everybody again.
00:44But I've sort of done so many of these types of parts.
00:47And I said, let me try. It would be interesting.
00:50And working with Barry, knowing him, it would be good.
00:53So, that's how it was.
00:55Deborah, I have to say, I grew up with Will and Grace.
00:57So, I've seen you in a very different light for most of my life, I feel.
01:02So, did playing a mob wife come easy to you?
01:06Because this was something I hadn't really imagined for you.
01:09But you were great.
01:10Thank you. Thank you.
01:12I was absolutely thrilled to have the opportunity, honestly.
01:16Because it is such a departure.
01:19But, you know, I'm a theatre girl.
01:21I'm supposed to be changing all the time.
01:25And there was so much research.
01:28It was so inspiring that this was a real woman.
01:32So, to be able to read all the books and hear all the stories about their relationship.
01:38It was very fertile.
01:40And then, of course, to be able to work with Bob just made everything feel really, really safe and special.
01:51It's changing your demeanour for the two characters, for Frank and Vito.
01:56Did it take a lot of effort to switch between them?
02:00I mean, you are a legend of your craft.
02:02So, I feel like maybe not.
02:04No, I mean, I had to find...
02:07And Barry Levinson was concerned.
02:09Barry said to me, you know, to make sure we have enough of a difference between us.
02:15I said, I know, I know.
02:17I'm figuring that out now.
02:19And when we were doing the make-up test, because we did a lot of make-up tests.
02:26But, yeah, it was a thing that...
02:29And I studied a lot of the...
02:31As much as footage there was of the two characters, which there wasn't as much as I thought there was.
02:37We kept looking and looking. We just couldn't find it.
02:42But it was enough to help me a lot.
02:44And in here, Frank does toy with the idea of retirement at some point.
02:50Do you think about retiring? Are you very happy about going through?
02:53I'm okay, because what are you going to do? What am I going to do?
02:57What, am I going to play golf?
02:58We don't want him to retire.
03:00I mean, that's very true.
03:02But how about you? Do you think...
03:04Or do you want to carry on having a career like...
03:07I mean, if I can continue to have the opportunity to work with, you know, the top of the art, the craft,
03:16and to basically feel like a perpetual student by learning from people along the way,
03:22I can't imagine any other future for myself.
03:26And we're very happy that you haven't retired, because you are spoiling us right now with the amount of projects.
03:31And we're laughing it up. We're laughing it up.
03:34So, lovely to meet you both. And good luck with it.
03:37Thank you so much.