Aubrey Plaza on Working With Robert De Niro: ‘I Did Some Questionable Things’

Remember the 2016 broad comedy Dirty Grandpa? No? Well, too bad: Aubrey Plaza has nonetheless taken us on a trip down memory lane regarding her time appearing opposite the titular grandpa Robert De Niro. During a London Film Festival ScreenTalk interview Monday, Plaza recalled hearing from her agents during the Grandpa shoot that De Niro had been “a little freaked out” as a result of her on-set behavior. She described said behavior like this:

By the time he’d show up, I’m in character. My character had one goal: To have sex with him. I was acting totally insane as the character because we were about to shoot. I don’t think he understood that wasn’t me. You’d think he would because he’s an actor and an amazing one.

Plaza explained that after hearing she’d weirded the actor out, she no longer approached him in character. “I showed up and he’s like, ‘Who are you sweetheart?’ and after that he was normal,” she said. “At first I think I came on really strong. I did some questionable things I wouldn’t do anymore.”

Well, that’s vague, so let’s troll the archives for more specificity. In a 2016 interview on Jimmy Kimmel Live, Plaza described filming a sex scene with De Niro. She said the shot took nine or ten hours and that it was “fun” with “a lot of interesting stuff that went down.” Plaza said the scene hadn’t been planned out—virtually inconceivable in this day of on-set intimacy coordinators. And here’s exactly why those coordinators have their jobs: Plaza recounted to Kimmel that director Dan Mazer told her to suck De Niro’s nipples.

“I would go and try to do it, try to get in there, and suck on his nipples and he was like, batting me away, and I didn’t know if it was like in character or not, ‘cause you never know with him,” she said. Later Mazer confirmed that was the real De Niro batting her away: “Bob does not like his nipple area paid attention to. So don’t do that.” Well, at least we all know to never get near De Niro’s nipples if given the chance.

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Jamie Lee Curtis has acknowledged Jezebel’s supercut of her saying “trauma” over and over again while promoting the latest cycle of Halloween movies:

“I’ve seen the fucking meme, so don’t worry. It was funny,” Curtis said during an interview with Drew Barrymore at New York Comic Con over the weekend. “The movie also made a fucking fortune, so fuck you.” Thanks, love!

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