Robert De Niro clip misrepresented amid pro-Palestinian demonstrations

Social media accounts supportive of Israel are claiming a video shows Robert De Niro shouting down pro-Palestinian protesters in New York City. But the clip is being misrepresented; captured while the actor was shooting for an upcoming television series, it is unrelated to the anti-war demonstrations on college campuses across the United States.

"WATCH: Robert De Niro confronted anti-Israel protestors in NYC," said StandWithUS, an international nonprofit that supports Israel, in a since-deleted May 1, 2024 post on X.

The video shows the "Goodfellas" star shouting as subtitles read: "This is not a movie. This is not a movie. This is real. Right now, you gotta listen, you gotta work, you gotta get your job done. Stand by all of your support like you talking nonsense, then you gotta go home. They say they are going to do it again! (October 7th). Again! You don't want that. None of us want that. Come on. Let's all get serious."

Similar posts, including in French and Spanish, spread across X and other platforms as police cracked down at pro-Palestinian demonstrations on college campuses, including at Columbia University in New York, where they cleared out protesters occupying a building.

The Jerusalem Post and Israeli newspaper Haaretz also repeated the claims -- though the Jerusalem Post later issued a retraction, and Haaretz removed its article.

"Watch as Robert De Niro Confronts pro-Palestinian Protesters in New York," the Haaretz headline read.

But while De Niro has previously expressed support for Israel, the internet narrative about him yelling at pro-Palestinian demonstrators is "false," his publicist Stan Rosenfield told AFP.

Clip shows TV film set

Keyword searches revealed the video circulating online was first posted -- without any subtitles -- to TikTok on April 27 and then to X on April 28 (archived here and here).

The posts say it shows the actor shooting for "Zero Day," an upcoming, six-episode Netflix television series. According to an online synopsis, De Niro is playing the role of a former president who "comes out of retirement to lead a commission tasked with investigating a potential world crisis" (archived here).

Reached via direct message, the TikTok user told AFP: "I recorded this video. It was him on set of a movie down near Wall Street."

A Netflix spokesperson also confirmed that the video was "shot on location in NYC on April 27 during a rehearsal for Zero Day."

Co-star Jesse Plemons, known for his roles in the TV shows "Friday Night Lights" and "Breaking Bad," is standing behind De Niro in the clip, as is Melody Garcia of "Orange Is the New Black."

The filming took place on Wall Street, according to the captions on Getty Images photos, which show De Niro, Plemons and Garcia wearing the same outfits on set with other cast members and director Lesli Linka Glatter (archived here). The celebrity news website Splash News also captured footage from the shoot (archived here).

"That was a scene, a rehearsal scene, from his TV series 'Zero Day,' and he was speaking in character of the character he's playing," Rosenfield told AFP. "It was not meant toward any group."

"There were no protesters," he added.

"House of Cards" actress Mozhan Marno, who will appear alongside De Niro in "Zero Day," also said in a May 1 post on X that the clip shows De Niro acting out a scene (archived here).

"Robert Deniro is giving a speech as his character in the upcoming Netflix show Zero Day," Marno wrote in a reply to the author of the since-deleted Haaretz article. "I'm also in it, and when I saw the clip, I recognized the speech. It's fiction. Please verify before you publish."

The audio in the original video posted to TikTok and X is muffled. But despite the claims online, De Niro never mentions October 7  -- the day Hamas militants stormed Israel in an unprecedented attack.

Instead, he appears to say: "This is not a movie. This is not a movie. This is real. Right now, you got to let these people get to work and let them get their job done. Come on. Stand by, offer your support, your prayers, that's great. But do it from behind the barricades. If you want to keep talking nonsense, then you got to go home.

"Whoever did this, whoever is responsible for this attack, they mean it, they are dangerous and they say they are going to do it again! Again! We don't want that. You don't want that. None of us want that. Come on. Let's all get serious."

AFP reached out to the New York City authorities in charge of film productions in the city, but no responses were forthcoming.

AFP has previously debunked other misinformation about the Israel-Hamas was here.

May 6, 2024 This article was updated to add comments from the TikTok user who recorded and first posted the video of De Niro.