De Niro on set of The Good Shepherd
Interview: Robert De Niro on The Good Shepherd
"Some things you don’t talk about and you do talk about,"
said De Niro. "We all know, it's understood. The directing, the way
I was looking at it, you take broads strokes, you talk about it but basically
it's moment to moment. Scene by scene. Every set up that you do, the camera's
here, the camera's there. Everything is precisely modulated and raised and
lowered."
De Niro has been with the project for eight years as other directors tried
to get it made. Throughout all the research, he's not sure if he ever really
learned about the CIA.
"I don’t know if I learned anything other than just that people
in the intelligence world are very smart. And very interesting people. And
the nature of it, the other part, the deception which you always hear about
and it’s been seen in other movies, like La Carre, is fascinating.
All I know is what we did in this movie and that I tried to make it as believable
as possible. And sometimes I wasn't sure because there was also this mythology
that I was supporting. It’s not literally what it was but it’s
a kind of a thing so I'm trying to have that as real as possible, as credible
and believable as possible."
Such a mythic look was achieved in collaboration
with cinematographer Bob Richardson. "I'd say, 'How about if we do
this?' and he'd say, 'Well, let's do this and try that. How about that?'
I'd say, 'Yeah, that sounds good, let's do that.' And that’s how we
did the whole film, just coming up with stuff. If something felt wrong I’d
say, 'This doesn't feel right. Let's do this or come over here or how about
over there.' It was a very collaborative process."
Though he's always a well researched actor, when it comes to filmmaking,
De Niro goes improv. "We story boarded some of it, but I’ve always
had a problem. I think its great and you should do it and if you're doing
like action things and certain things you need the precision, then absolutely.
I feel more comfortable just doing it there. We talk about scenes, we rehearse
them, not that you don't do that but things always change on the set and
at the last minute someone will come up with an idea. When [screenwriter]
Eric Roth was on the set, he'd come up with an idea. That might mean we
have to change something here. The actors will come up with something different.
Bob Richardson will come up with another idea. I’ll come up with another
idea. It always needs that kind of, you're going in this direction, all
of a sudden you've got to go this way. You're still going in that direction
but you have to kind of make a little right turn and continue that way.
And have the flexibility to do that."
The Good Shepherd is out in theatres now.
For movie stills, trailer, full synopsis, review and more movie info, head
over to the The
Good Shepherd Movie Page.
Stay tuned for updates.
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