Robert De Niro clarifies why he thought his Gotham Awards speech was censored

Director Martin Scorsese explained that the incident was caused by miscommunication, not censorship.

Robert De Niro thought his speech at the Gotham Awards was censored — but now, he’s clarifying what went down behind the scenes.

In an interview with Rolling Stone, the Taxi Driver star said that he wasn’t kept in the loop about the contents of his speech. “What happened was I was working on the speech with a writer, Lewis Friedman, and he gave it to them, and then one of the consultants had put something in the speech about how kids in Oklahoma aren’t even able to read the book Killers of the Flower Moon,” the actor said. “And then I didn’t hear anything. They gave me the script, and I looked at the prompter, and I asked after, ‘What happened?’”

The actor went on to explain that director Martin Scorsese had texted him to sand off the rougher edges of the speech. “They assumed that I had spoken to Marty or somebody about it, but I hadn’t,” he said. “They assumed that I would be OK with it, and maybe I’m still getting it wrong, and I wasn’t. Marty and I spoke about it the next day and he said, ‘Yeah, I had sent you a text and [Apple] asked if you could dial it down, respectfully.’”

De Niro accepted the Historical Icon & Creator tribute on behalf of the cast and crew of Killers of the Flower Moon at the awards ceremony in November, and was surprised to discover that the speech on the teleprompter didn’t align with the one he’d prepared. “The beginning of my speech was edited, cut out, and I didn’t know about it. And I want to read it,” he said. "History isn’t history anymore. 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 were taught skills that could be applied for their personal benefit."

“So I’m going to say these things but to Apple and thank them and all that,” De Niro continued. “Gotham, blah blah blah, but I don’t really feel like thanking them at all for what they did. How dare they do that, actually. But now I will go to accepting the award."

Scorsese also chalked the whole incident up to miscommunication. In a statement provided to EW, the Goodfellas director explained that De Niro’s speech was shortened for time, not because of its contents. “The Gotham Awards honored the filmmakers and cast with The Historical Icon & Creator tribute, which recognizes significant moments in history and for bringing a story to life in an authentic way on screen,” the statement says. “We all wanted to make sure that in the limited time available, the acceptance speech had space to acknowledge our Osage collaborators on-stage and at home, as well as our entire cast and filmmaking team.”

“Apple has been a tremendous partner and there was no censorship,” the statement continues. “There was an unfortunate miscommunication regarding the final version of the speech. The event was a beautiful moment for our cast and collaborators to be reunited for the first time since the strikes. It was an incredible honor to receive this recognition.”

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Related content:

• Robert De Niro says his speech was censored at Gotham Awards — so he read it anyway: 'How dare they'

• Leonardo DiCaprio and Lily Gladstone on the 'grand betrayal' in Killers of the Flower Moon

• Yes, Robert De Niro really spanked Leonardo DiCaprio in that Killers of the Flower Moon scene

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