Katie Couric Talks With Robert De Niro About Discovering the Secrets of His Father

At age 70, Robert De Niro is looking back.

In a new HBO documentary, Remembering the Artist: Robert De Niro Sr., the iconic actor has revisited the career and life of his late father – a painter who struggled throughout not only in his career, but also with his sexuality and with depression.

In one of the intensely private star’s rare intimate conversations on camera,Yahoo’s Katie Couric sat down with De Niro Jr. at the Aspen Ideas Festival to talk about the new film. For De Niro the son, his journey as an immensely successful actor and a public figure has involved constantly living with the shadow of his father, an artist who never achieved great recognition in his lifetime.

Now the father of six himself – ranging from 3 years old to mid 40s -  the emotions are painfully raw as De Niro speaks of his attempt to understand his own father, whose sexuality remained hidden from his son throughout his life during more cloistered times.

“I should’ve done the documentary years earlier. I should’ve done it with him in it,” he tells Couric. “But I didn’t.”

Watch the whole interview here on Yahoo News.