Enlarge image
Actor De Niro at the Gotham Awards in New York
Photo: Dimitrios Kambouris / Getty Images
Who removed passages in which Robert De Niro sharply criticizes former President Donald Trump from his laudation? This question has been on the table since Monday evening. At the Gotham Awards in New York City, De Niro was supposed to give a speech in honor of his longtime collaborator Martin Scorsese, with whom he recently made the film "Killers of the Flower Moon".
But after De Niro began his speech, according to the Hollywood Reporter and Variety, the Oscar winner became increasingly irritated. His manuscript had apparently been edited, De Niro said, and the entry had been changed without consulting him. After a clip starring Scorsese was shown, he continued the speech in the version in which he had originally planned to give it.
De Niro then attacked Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, among others, for interfering with school plans, but above all he criticized Donald Trump. "The ex-president lied to us more than 30,000 times during his time in office, and he continues to keep up the pace during his current revenge campaign," the Hollywood Reporter quotes from De Niro's speech. In the face of all his lies, he can't hide his soul."
At the end of his criticism of Trump, De Niro addressed the audience of the Gotham Awards and said that it would now proceed as in the manuscript handed to him. In fact, De Niro followed up with freehand criticism of the technology company Apple, whose production division produced »Killers of the Flower Moon«. » I'm going to say these things now, but to Apple and I'm going to thank them and everything," De Niro said. Gotham, blah, blah, blah – but I don't feel like thanking them even a little bit for what they've done. How dare they do such a thing?"
To what extent De Niro's laudatory speech was actually censored and whether Apple is behind it is still unclear. The company has not yet responded to media inquiries.
HPI