Robert De Niro Picks His Favorite De Niro Movie, Talks Meet the Parents 4 with Ariana Grande

The one and only. Welcome back to the show. We love you. They love you, clearly. We love you, too. Welcome back, and thank you for being here. I also want to thank you. I always bring it up, but you were my first guest ever on late night, and I'll never forget that you did that, and you've been very great to us and loyal. We appreciate you coming back. The first time we did a bit together was back in 2000 on Weekend Update. Look, it's me and you. Oh, boy. So, we've been doing bits for 25 years. And then we ended up doing Saturday Night Live 50th anniversary together. Here's us in the Debbie Downer sketch with Ayo Edebri, Drew Barrymore, you, and Rachel Dratch, Debbie Downer. Did you get nervous when you were doing that live? You didn't seem nervous. No, I mean, it's fun, and doing SNL, you have to do it so you don't have time to think. So, you're forced to say, I'll just enjoy it, go with it, and even if I make a mistake, it's okay. Yeah. When did you realize that you were funny? Oh. Well, even when my mother told me I was funny when I was a kid. So, that's about when you knew it was it? Yeah. Was it like Midnight Run or something? What was the first? Yeah, Midnight Run was – I read the script. I said, this is great. I'd love to do it. It would be a lot of fun. And I had a lot of fun doing it. So, I guess that's the first, other than King of Comedy, the first movie, comedy, whatever. Yeah. Do you approach it the same way you approach drama? In some ways, it's the same. I mean, the thing is, even with the Debbie Downer thing, if you don't – I mean, I laughed during rehearsal because it was very funny, and watching her, she was great. But then when you do it, you got to do it straight because the humor is how serious you are. Yeah. That'll get the laugh. That's the thing that – If you play it straight, man. Yeah. Like, here's you and Ben Stiller here. This lie detector test that you did in the film was not in the original script. No, no. It was a – I had some friends who were in the CIA, and they told me they had to go through the lie detector thing and how uncomfortable it made them feel. And so I said, well, I would understand. You know, of course it would be. But them telling me somehow just made an impact on me, and I thought, well, what about if we do that in the movie to Jay Roach? And they liked it, so. And it became a classic scene, yeah. I know you guys just had a reunion at the Tribeca Festival this past weekend. Congrats, by the way. The Tribeca Festival, by the way, it's going on now. Get tickets at TribecaFilm.com. But this is going on for 24 years. Yeah. That's amazing. Congratulations. That's amazing. And so now there's talk of you're doing another Meet the Parents, or you and Ben Stiller signed on to do another Meet the Parents, which we're all psyched about. And rumor is that Ariana Grande is going to be in the film as well. That's true. That's right. Yeah. Do you know Ariana? No, but I did SNL with her years ago, seven, eight years ago. I can't remember. And I met her. I didn't do something with her, but she was on the same show. Yeah. And we talked, and I introduced her. One of my kids wanted to meet her, so set that up and meet her. Yeah, definitely. That'll be great together. You also, if you go to this festival, which, by the way, I think I was at the first one with you. We might have done a bit together. But you and Jane Rosenthal put on this giant festival. It's so great for the city. And thank you so much for doing what you're doing. There's also a talk, you were talking about Casino, which has been out. How many years has Casino been out? This is 30th anniversary of Casino. Look at this guy. Yeah. So, you were talking about this, and you talked with Scorsese, and you've done, I think, eight films with Martin Scorsese. Ten. Ten films with him? Ten with movie, yeah. What was the best one he ever directed you in, do you think, was the best direction? They were always terrific. I always had good times with Marty. He just has a special way of working that makes it easy and not afraid to take a chance or try something. And if it doesn't work, it doesn't work, or he cuts it out or whatever. It's never, it's always been great. I wish we could do a few more together, hopefully at least one, maybe two, who knows. Yeah, you got it. Yeah, no. Yeah, I mean, we also, our audience really want to know, if they, tonight, if they're watching, they want to go to bed after our show, you know, midnight, 1230. They want to watch a Robert De Niro movie. What movie should they watch? And I thought this could be kind of interesting if we go through all of your movies. Sure. And you just select and help the audience decide what Robert De Niro movie they should watch tonight. Okay. All right, you ready to do this? Yeah. All right, out of these two, Dirty Grandpa or Goodfellas? They're all good. They're all good films. You're asking me? Yes, I'm asking you. Yes, I'm talking to you. Yes. I don't know. Thank you. They're two different things. Yeah, thanks for laughing. Which one? What do you think? You're asking the audience? No, I'm asking you. No, okay. I don't know. I know. You got to choose. There's going to be more than these. Well, it depends on what you're looking for. Yeah. Goodfellas is a mob movie. Yep. That's, I don't, I don't know. All right, so let's say Goodfellas. So for this round, Goodfellas makes the round. Okay, Goodfellas is in. Now, this one, this is a toughie. This is a toughie. Taxi Driver or Raging Bull? I don't know. You have to make a decision. You mean what I would recommend? Yeah, to the audience watching tonight. Well, I'd probably have to take a kind of a consensus and ask. Oh my God. We don't have time. We don't have time to take a consensus of the audience. How about this? Someone who's just, how about someone who's brand new to Robert De Niro? They don't know Robert De Niro. Which one should they? Well, I'd have to know what kind of person they are. They're a nice, a nice person. Really into, they're into, they're into cinema. They love good cinema. Oh, God. Well, I, you know, they're both, I don't want to say. Yes, they're both really good. Yes. We have to choose one. We're at the. I mean, I know that if I was mad at one of my kids, I could threaten them with showing them Cape Fear. No, but that's not one of the movies. They don't behave. No, no. This is Raging Bull and Taxi Driver. That movie's not on the list. So this is, these are the two. We get to choose one. They're all great and everyone wins. Can you do a double bill like they used to do? No, no, no. Cause then we're going to narrow it down further from these two. This, this was your first debut, right? That big one. Let's just say Taxi Driver. Okay. Is this, is this right? All right, here we go. We have Meet the Parents versus Casino. This is tough. Yeah, they're two different types of films. But yet, but yet we can only choose one to enjoy this evening with you. Oh yeah. Maybe they're watching it with you. How about that? We make the, change the contest. No, that'd make me feel worse. All right, so let's not do that. Sorry. So they're not watching with you, but they're thinking of you. Well, Meet the Parents is a comedy. And Casino is more of a drama. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But you have to pick one of these. There's funny stuff in Casino, but Meet the Parents is a comedy. I don't know. I ask the people, well, do you want to see a comedy or a serious movie, if you will? All right, so what do we think? Just saying Casino. Here we go. All right, Casino, here we go. That makes it into the final round. We're almost done. You're great at this game. You're really good at this game. Oh, here we go. We have The Irishman, which I loved. Or The Godfather Part Two. Yeah, I don't know. Maybe a double bill again. No, no, no. You got it. I don't know. Godfather Two? Yeah, perfect. But now we're down to, the game continues, weirdly. We're down to four movies. Okay, so here's the first matchup. These are all, you have so many great movies. You know, I can't play this game with my movies, because I only have one movie. All right, here we go. We have Goodfellas vs. Taxi Driver. Audience? Casino or Godfather Part Two? Goodfellas or Godfather Part Two? Thank you so much for playing. You're fantastic at that game. Robert De Niro, everybody. The Tribeca Festival. You can get tickets at tribecafilm.com. More tonight show after the break. Stick around.