Robert De Niro Explains Who Really Helped Him Prepare for Comedian Role

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Robert De Niro shared a clip from the highly anticipated movie, The Comedian, on Wednesday night on Kimmel. He plays Jackie Burke, a veteran comedian who was very well known because he played a wholesome character on a family sitcom, but really, he was a “hardcore, dirty, rough comedian” as Kimmel explains, who is trying to make a comeback years later.

The genesis of the movie, De Niro told Kimmel, was simply that he thought it would be fun to play a comedian. Over a period of about eight years, he was playing with different script versions and different directors until finally settling on the movie coming out next month. “It was fun to do. I love comedians,” De Niro said, “I have very good dear comedian friends and it’s not easy. Stand up is not easy. What I worked on was hard.” Although there’s been a lot said about how much Jeff Ross worked with Robert to help him prepare for the role, he actually credited writer Lewis Friedman and New York comedian Jessica Kirson for helping him most. “Jeff Ross too, but more those two guys,” he said. “More those two– sorry Jeff, sorry Jeff.”  Kimmel pointed out that Ross told him that he helped De Niro a lot.  “Yeahhh…I know,” the actor said, smiling. “Just a little bit.”

The comedian opens on December 2nd and stars Robert De Niro, Leslie Mann, Cloris Leachman, Danny DeVito, Harvey Keitel, Edie Falco, with Hannibal Buress, Gilbert Gottfried, Brett Butler, Jimmie Walker, Jim Norton, Dov Davidoff, Nick Di Paolo, Jessica Kirson, Greer Barnes, Aida Rodriguez, Sheng Wang, and Estee Adoram.

 

 

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