Robert De Nirotakes his work home with him.
In the new issue of PEOPLE, the actor opens up about his dedication to his latest film,Killers of the Flower Moon, which tells the harrowing true story of the Reign of Terror in 1920s Oklahoma.
De Niro plays William Hale, a seemingly benevolent White man who orchestrates the murders of several Indigenous Osage people to steal their oil-rich land.
As he’s done for decades in films likeRaging BullandTaxi Driver, De Niro threw himself into the role.
“When Bob commits, he starts digging in with research, questions about absolutely everything, from what the character wears to what he eats for breakfast,” director Martin Scorsese, who has worked with De Niro on 10 feature-length films, tells PEOPLE. “The search and the discoveries never stop.”
De Niro took pains to learn the Osage language. “He was spending every waking minute trying to get it right,” recalls costarLily Gladstone.
Asked about Chen overhearing him, De Niro confirms: “She heard me mumbling. I was constantly going over and over. I couldn’t stumble through that [onscreen]. You have to know it.”
Robert De Niro on the cover of PEOPLE.Michael Schwartz
Michael Schwartz
Fifty years ago, De Niro learned to speak Sicilian to play young Vito Corleone inThe Godfather Part II— and won his first Oscar for the role. But he says learning Osage was “more difficult.”
“I had some familiarity with Italian, not from any personal, just that I liked Italian. I had a feeling for it, but it was still a lot of work because it was Sicilian,” he says. “I went to Sicily for a few weeks, I was there tape recording people.”
For more on Robert De Niro, pick up the new issue ofPEOPLE.
source: people.com
