Robert De Niro walks out of magazine interview after ‘autopilot’ question

There was another awkward celebrity interview to go in the books, but there’s no recording of it. A reporter for the U.K. magazine Radio Times claims that Oscar winner Robert De Niro walked out of an interview that was supposed to help promote his new film, Nancy Meyers’ The Intern.

Emma Brockes wrote about the interview, claiming that things got weird when she asked him if he tries to avoid going into autopilot mode while making a movie because he’s been in the business so long.

“You know – autopilot is not wrong. At times – I don't even look at it in that way,” De Niro told Brockes. “Because sometimes when you're acting, as people do in life, they're on autopilot, because of the nature of the situation. It's necessary for them to be on autopilot. That's the best thing they can do. It's very effective in the scene, because that's what it is.”

She then continued to stray away from The Intern and asked about De Niro’s successful Tribeca Film Festival. Brockes suggests that the area where the event is has been taken over by bankers. This wasn’t something de Niro wanted to talk about and then asked Brockes to stop her voice recorder.

Brockes claims that after she did as he asked, De Niro started pacing around the room and complained about the “negative interference” of her bankers comment. He also said that there was “negative interference” from the autopilot question.

At one point, De Niro called Brockes “darling.” She replied, “I think you're very condescending.”

“Oh, you think 'darling' is condescending?” De Niro said.

Brockes later told The Independent that De Nrio’s “combination of hostility and condescension” had annoyed her and did admit that she lost her cool. She also said that De Niro looked “depressed” on the day of the interview.

The Intern, which co-stars Anne Hathaway, hits theaters this weekend.

image courtesy of Kristin Callahan/ACE/INFphoto.com