Robert De Niro has revealed that he regrets starring in a film from 2008.
Righteous Kill, a police thriller in which De Niro plays Detective Thomas opposite Al Pacino (Detective David Fisk), was universally panned by critics at the time.
It was the third film that De Niro starred in alongside Pacino following The Godfather: Part II (1974) and Heat (1995) – and it’s one that he isn’t particularly enthusiastic about.
In a recent interview with Variety the actor recalled when he and Pacino were in Rome for a premiere of Righteous Kill and were greeted by hundreds of excitable fans.
“I said: ‘This is a great reaction, but it would be nice if they were here for a movie that we really feel proud about. Next time we’ll do one we like,'” De Niro recalled of the moment, which suggested how deflated he felt despite the fans’ reception.
De Niro and Pacino join forces again for Martin Scorsese’s upcoming gangster epic The Irishman, which is shown in selected UK cinemas on November 8 before reaching Netflix on November 27.
The film is based on the book I Heard You Paint Houses by Charles Brandt, which tells the true-crime story of Frank ‘The Irishman’ Sheeran, a self-confessed hitman for a mob.