Actor Robert De Niro has spoken about the challenges of playing two roles in upcoming mafia movie The Alto Knights.
The film sees the 81-year-old play mob bosses Vito Genovese and Frank Costello, and sees Genovese order a hit on Costello, who survives but is wounded and decides to retire from the mafia.
Speaking about playing both roles at the film’s European premiere in London on Thursday, De Niro said: “I found I couldn’t just do it with somebody just reading lines.
“I had to do it with another actor, a character that I could believe would be either Vito or Frank.
“So I interviewed the actors who were playing other mob guys in the film, and I decided on this guy … he was terrific.
“He learned both parts, and he was great, I couldn’t have done it without someone like him doing it.”
De Niro said he particularly enjoyed playing Vito in the film as he is “more explosive” and “more spontaneous”, but said his other character, Frank, was “probably closer” to his real self.
He added: “The idea of me playing both parts came up when we were talking about who could play the other part, the Vito part, and I thought about it, I said, okay for a couple of days, let me try it.
“Once I committed, I just had to figure out how to do it.”
De Niro is known for his previous roles in mob films, playing Vito Corleone in The Godfather Part II, Jimmy Conway in Goodfellas and Frank Sheeran in The Irishman.
He won an Oscar for best supporting actor in 1975 for his role in The Godfather Part II, and won the best actor Oscar in 1981 for his role as Jake LaMotta in Raging Bull.
Directed by Barry Levinson and written by Nicholas Pileggi, The Alto Knights is based on the characters’ true story, and also stars Debra Messing as Bobbie Costello, Frank’s wife; Cosmo Jarvis as Vincent Gigante; and Kathrine Narducci as Anna Genovese, Vito’s wife.
The Alto Knights will be released in UK cinemas on March 21.
