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De Niro says anti-Trump remarks omitted from speech at Gotham Awards; Apple denies 'censorship' [1]
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Date: 2023-11-28
Are you censoring me? Actor Robert De Niro wasn’t about to let anyone remove critical remarks about disgraced former President Donald Trump and Hollywood icon John Wayne from his speech at the Gotham Awards on Monday night in New York.
De Niro came to the stage to introduce a Gotham historical icon and creator award to the Martin Scorsese-directed film “Killers of the Flower Moon.” De Niro plays a villain in the film, which tells the story of a series of murders of Osage Nation people after oil is discovered on their land in Oklahoma in the 1920s.
And then the first major awards show since the actors strike ended took an unusual turn. After reading off the teleprompter for a little over a minute, De Niro realized something was amiss.
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As USA Today reported: “De Niro appeared flustered as he read his remarks from a teleprompter, which scrolled back and forth as he attempted to find his place. After a short video played, the actor insisted that part of his introduction was removed without notice.”
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And at the 1:18 mark of the video, De Niro remarked: “The beginning of my speech was edited, cut out. I didn’t know about it. And I want to read it,” he said to the crowd gathered at Cipriani Wall Street for the event that kicks off the awards season leading to the Academy Awards.
De Niro, who is known for his blistering criticism of Trump, then read the missing section of his speech from his cell phone: “History isn’t history anymore. Truth is not truth. Even facts are being replaced by alternative facts and driven by conspiracy theories and ugliness,” he said.
He referenced changes to Florida’s African American studies curriculum adopted this summer that put a positive spin on slavery: “In Florida, young students are taught that slaves develop skills which can be applied for their personal benefit.”
And the 80-year-old actor criticized an icon of Hollywood Westerns for his views on Native Americans: “The entertainment industry isn’t immune to this festering disease. The Duke, John Wayne, famously said of Native Americans, ‘I don’t feel we did wrong in taking this great country away from them. There were great numbers of people who needed new land and the Indians were selfishly trying to keep it for themselves.’”
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De Niro then focused on Trump: “Lying has become just another tool in the charlatan’s arsenal. The former president lied to us more than 30,000 times during his four years in office, and he’s keeping up the pace in his current campaign of retribution. But with all his lies, he can’t hide his soul. He attacks the weak, destroys the gifts of nature, and shows disrespect—for example by using ‘Pocahontas’ as a slur.”
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The Oscar-winning actor was referring to Trump’s use of “Pocahontas” to taunt Oklahoma-born Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who has claimed partial Native American ancestry.
He then picked up the rest of his speech. But he did go off-script again when it came to thanking Apple, which produced “Killers of the Flower Moon.” “So I’m going to say these things—to Apple and thank them, all that. Gothams. ... But I don’t really feel like thanking them at all for what they did. How dare they do that, actually.”
Variety, citing an unnamed source, reported that the speech De Niro planned to give had been altered at the behest of Apple, which was “responding to feedback from the filmmaking team that wanted the actor’s remarks to be centered on the movie.” Variety reported:
A revised version of the speech was delivered to the teleprompter less than ten minutes before the event started, according to sources with knowledge of the show. A woman who told the teleprompter operator to upload a new speech was overheard identifying herself as an Apple employee. At 6:54 p.m., the teleprompter company was sent an email from two Apple employees with the new text, which omitted explicit references to Trump. It instead had De Niro reference how “watching the news today” makes it clear that “we actually are living in a post-truth society.” Variety has reviewed a copy of that email. The Gothams, an annual celebration of film and television, had nothing to do with the cuts to the “Killers of the Flower Moon” star’s remarks, according to insiders. A spokesperson for De Niro said that the actor did not see the changes. A source close to the film denied that there was any censorship involved and said that the incident was a miscommunication. There had been multiple versions of De Niro’s speech and there was a desire to focus solely on the moviemakers and their artistry, according to the source. Apple and the filmmakers were unaware that De Niro hadn’t signed off on the final draft, the insider added.
Variety added that spokespeople for the Gotham Awards and Apple declined to comment.
The Guardian reported that De Niro has a long history of verbally attacking Trump:
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