Veteran actor Robert De Niro recently called out the Gotham Awards ceremony for removing parts of his original speech. De Niro appeared to be confused as he read his remarks from a teleprompter. The actor took the stage as a part of the Gotham historical icon and creator tribute for Martin Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon.
After being visibly confused, the 80-year-old, who has always been very vocal about his opinion, revealed to the crowd that parts of his speech were censored because of some anti-Trump comments, where he called out the ex-President on various levels. De Niro said to the crowd:
"The beginning of my speech was edited, cut out. I didn't know about it."
He went on to find the original speech on his phone and proceeded to read out the entirety of it, including the criticism that had been cut out.
What was the deleted part of Robert De Niro's speech at Gotham Awards?
Robert De Niro's speech was allegedly edited in a way to remove the anti-Trump comments that the veteran actor put in his speech. De Niro refused to back down and took out the speech on his phone and read it to the audience, the way he meant to originally do it. He said:
"History isn’t history any more. Truth is not truth. Even facts are being replaced by alternative facts and driven by conspiracy theories and ugliness. In Florida, young students are taught that slaves developed skills which can be applied for their personal benefit. 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."
He further added:
"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."
Following this rather awkward stance, which put the ceremony and the film’s backers in a difficult position, Robert De Niro shocked everyone when he said that he did not want to thank the film’s backers, Apple, or the award ceremony for removing the speech. He said:
"I don’t feel like thanking them at all for what they did. How dare they do that, actually."
Leaving behind Apple, De Niro ended his run by introducing his co-stars in Killers of the Flower Moon.
This is hardly the first time Robert De Niro has commented on something controversial. The actor was also known for his anti-Trump stance from much earlier.
Robert De Niro's speech has also caused a huge uproar on most social media platforms.