De Niro’s real-life drama is much more difficult than his onscreen mob personas

During a 60-year movie profession, Robert De Niro has performed mobsters and hitmen, fraudsters and hustlers.

Now within the twilight of his profession, De Niro tends to oscillate between intellectual Martin Scorsese dramas and slapstick comedies.

Nevertheless it’s his mafioso roles which might be the double Oscar-winner’s most iconic – and that tough-guy persona, a brand new trial revealed, can be embraced in his private {and professional} lives.

A jury discovered on Thursday that De Niro was not liable in a gender discrimination lawsuit introduced by his former assistant Graham Chase Robinson, however discovered his firm Canal Productions liable and awarded her $1.2m in damages. The juicy two-week trial opened a window into the display legend’s difficult romantic relationships and old-school values.

Testimony from his workers and personal textual content messages proven in court docket revealed De Niro prized loyalty above all else, issued threats with a menacing undertone and made it clear that anybody who crossed him could be severely punished.

The 80-year-old world famous person surrounds himself with a small coterie of trusted attorneys, accountants and assistants, a lot of whom have been by his facet for many years. They know and discuss with him merely as “Bob”.

Ms Robinson claimed that in 11 years of working for De Niro, he subjected her to demeaning duties unbefitting her function as a $300,000-a-year vice-president of manufacturing and finance.

She claimed to be fearful of talking up out of worry of reprisal.

Listed below are 5 methods the trial revealed how De Niro’s tough-talking onscreen characters mirror his difficult offscreen life.

‘How dare you f***ing disrespect me?’

After launching her $12m lawsuit in 2019, Ms Robinson’s attorneys launched a 2012 voicemail from De Niro as proof of the “hostile, abusive, and intimidating method” through which he spoke to her.

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In a efficiency worthy of his Oscar-winning function in The Godfather 2, De Niro will be heard calling his former assistant a “spoilt brat”, saying, “how dare you f***ing disrespect me?”, and yelling, “you’re f***ing historical past”.

The actor was in Los Angeles on the time and threatened to fireside Ms Robinson whereas she was dwelling in Spain.

“How dare you. You might be completely fired, you’re f***ing historical past,” De Niro says within the leaked recording.

“How dare you with all the great stuff you do that is bulls*** after Christmas.

“F*** this, how dare you f***ing disrespect me how a lot you probably did. You need a f***ing one other place? You need one other place? Then change and go off someplace.

“Don’t f***ing get offended with me ’trigger I’m p***ed off trigger I didn’t get a easy factor I would like greater than proper now right here out in California when I’m right here for lower than 24 hours.

“You bought to be f***ing kidding me you spoiled brat, f*** you! So stop everytime you need, goddam ya, how are you going to f***ing… so that you don’t reply, you’re upset ’trigger you’re dwelling in Spain, you spoilt f***ing brat.”

De Niro’s explosive testimony

The actor grabbed headlines with an astonishing efficiency on the witness stand early on within the trial.

In his thick New York accent, De Niro admitted berating Ms Robinson and agreed he had known as her “petulant,” “snippy” and a “f***ing spoilt brat” underneath questioning from her legal professional Andrew Macurdy.

The actor maintained he had by no means raised his voice at her or been abusive, his anger slowly constructing because the legal professional continued to press him on his behaviour in the direction of Ms Robinson.

His claims to have by no means yelled had been considerably undercut when he shouted throughout the courtroom shortly afterwards: “Disgrace on you Chase Robinson!”

Realising he had misplaced his mood, De Niro apologised to the court docket.

Mr Macurdy then requested the actor about claims he had urinated whereas talking on the cellphone to Ms Robinson.

“That’s nonsense,” De Niro replied angrily. “You bought us all right here for this?”

De Niro denied he had sought publicity by suing Ms Robinson, telling the court docket: “It attracts consideration to me. It’s the very last thing I wished to do.”

‘Who the f*** does she assume she is?’

Ms Robinson’s fiery clashes with De Niro’s girlfriend, Tiffany Chen, had been a working theme of the trial.

Ms Chen testified that she was suspicious of the previous assistant’s “imagined intimacy” along with her boyfriend, and described her as “loopy” and a “psychotic single white feminine”, a reference to the 1992 psychological thriller.

Ms Robinson ultimately stop De Niro’s firm, Canal Productions, in April 2019.

In a July 2019 textual content change proven to the court docket, De Niro wrote to Ms Chen: “Are you able to imagine Chase? Who the f*** does she assume she is?”

“She thought she was your girlfriend. I noticed it from the start,” Ms Chen replied within the textual content.

“The balls. The nerve. The chutzpah. The sense of entitlement. How dare her,” De Niro continued.

That very same perspective seems to have rubbed off on Ms Chen.

In January 2019, she grew to become satisfied that Ms Robinson had intentionally “sabotaged” their four-hour flight house to New York from vacation in Antigua by non-public jet after telling flight attendants to not present any refreshments.

“If you happen to hold her you and I’ll ultimately have issues,” she texted De Niro that March.

Loyalty above all else

A number of of De Niro’s longtime confidantes took the stand at trial and delivered fascinating insights into the workings of his interior sanctum.

There was his private coach of 40 years Dan Harvey, whom De Niro sought out after struggling to lose the 35 kilos he placed on for his Oscar-winning efficiency as boxer Jake LaMotta in Raging Bull.

Mr Harvey instructed the court docket how he would put the actor via punishing near-daily weight and train routines that may last as long as seven hours. He grew to become a sounding board for De Niro to follow his film dialogue, and accompanied the actor on location all around the world.

“I like working for him as a result of he’s a really disciplined man who works laborious at his craft and I respect him very a lot,” Mr Harvey instructed the court docket.

De Niro may very well be a demanding taskmaster, and early on of their working relationship would usually lose his mood, Mr Harvey stated. His wage ultimately rose to $375,000 a yr.

Throughout a lean patch for the actor in 2008, Mr Harvey stated he was requested to take a 50 per cent pay minimize.

He stated he instructed De Niro that the wage discount “simply doesn’t make sense for me” as he had mortgages, automotive funds and a baby beginning non-public faculty.

“He stated: ‘Don’t fear about it, I’ll maintain it’,” testified Mr Harvey.

Dan Harvey’s brother, Tom Harvey, has been De Niro’s private legal professional for 30 years and likewise testified at trial.

Tom Harvey, who can be normal counsel at Canal Productions, was answerable for coping with Ms Robinson’s exit from the corporate.

An advanced love life

De Niro’s difficult romantic relationships weren’t spared from scrutiny. The general public timeline of his divorce from Grace Hightower and blossoming romance with Ms Chen appeared to have been compressed by a few years greater than was beforehand recognized in proof produced earlier than the court docket.

Ms Chen testified that the couple met on the set of the 2015 comedy The Intern, started relationship in 2017 and moved in collectively into a brand new townhouse in 2018.

The Intern filmmakers had sought out a martial arts skilled for the movie and approached Ms Chen’s father William, a extremely revered tai chi teacher.

Ms Chen, a former Golden Gloves champion and skilled martial artist in her personal proper, went on to seem within the movie, and the couple started relationship in 2017 whereas he was nonetheless married to his ex-wife Grace Hightower, the court docket heard throughout her testimony.

“You entered a relationship with Mr De Niro whereas he was nonetheless married, appropriate?” Ms Robinson’s legal professional Vince McKnight requested her.

“On paper, sure,” she replied.

Ms Chen instructed the court docket that they had initially hid the connection from De Niro’s household and workplace staff.

They moved right into a townhouse on Manhattan’s Higher East Aspect and had a child lady – the actor’s seventh baby – earlier this yr.

“We now have 15 canine and a human daughter,” Ms Chen stated.

De Niro publicly separated from Ms Hightower in November 2018, sparking a bitter divorce continuing.