Robert De Niro Urges New Yorkers to Stay Home as He Quotes Meet the Parents : 'I'm Watching You'

Maria Pasquini
·3 min read

Robert De Niro is doing his part to make sure New York residents understand the importance of staying home amid the global coronavirus pandemic.

Over the weekend, the Academy Award-winning actor, 76, appeared in a PSA for the Empire State, which has been hit particularly hard by the virus.

“Hello, this is Robert De Niro. We all need to stay home. We need to stop the spread of this virus and we can only do it together. Not just to protect ourselves, but to protect others and all the other older people you love,” De Niro says in the video, which was shared online by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

Adding in a dose of levity, the actor concluded his video message with a reference to his popular film Meet the Parents. “I’m watching you,” he warned.

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Other celebrities who participated in the campaign include Danny DeVito, Ben Stiller and La La Anthony.

“I’m asking you from the bottom of my heart, all over the state of New York, stay home. I mean everybody. We got this virus, this pandemic — young people can get it and they can transmit it to old people and the next thing you know, I’m out of there,” DeVito, 75, said in his PSA. “So Gov. Cuomo asked me to ask you, please, do us a favor — all of us. Stay home, not spread this virus around.”

While encouraging younger adults to take the virus seriously, Stiller, 54, also jokingly shared that he was using his time at home to take up a unique new hobby.

“Take this as an opportunity to take a breath, maybe read some books, watch some movies, take up a hobby. I’ve always been interested in chainsaw art — never had the time to explore it,” he said. “Stay home and remember, we’re all New York tough.”

New York currently has the most confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the country, with at least 20,875.

New York City, which has been labeled as an epicenter of the virus, has over 12,000 confirmed cases, Gov. Cuomo confirmed during a press conference on Monday morning.

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