Though acknowledging critic Dan Moldea as well-respected writer, the 'Joker' actor insists that he was not getting conned and the Martin Scorsese-directed film presents its own story.
- November 14, 2019
AceShowbiz - Robert De Niro is shooting down talk that crime drama "The Irishman" is inaccurate.
Martin Scorsese's new film is based on the book "I Heard You Paint Houses", which features an interview with former mob boss Frank Sheeran who claims to have murdered labour union chief Jimmy Hoffa, who vanished without a trace in 1975 and was declared dead in 1982.
However, a few critics, including Hoffa expert Dan Moldea, do not believe Sheeran's claim, which has prompted De Niro, who plays him, to defend the accuracy of the events depicted.
"Investigator Dan (Moldea) is a well-respected writer. I met him in (Washington) D.C. for a writers' thing where they get together every year. He said that we were getting conned. I wasn't getting conned," he told The Daily Beast.
The actor adds that while he welcomes differences of opinion regarding the story presented in the film, audiences should accept there were cinematic liberties taken.
"I have no problem with people disagreeing," he adds. "As Marty says, we're not saying we're telling the actual story, we're telling our story. I believed it."
"I know one thing - I know all the stuff that Frank said, the descriptions of the places he was at, the way he talked, that's all real," he adds of the book. "The way he describes what happened to Hoffa is a very plausible thing to me. I'd love to hear what actually happened to him. But this made a lot of sense to me."
"The Irishman" is now playing in select theatres before arriving on Netflix on November 27.
