Sunday, August 18, 1996

With obsessive psycho roles in 'Taxi Driver,' 'King of Comedy' and 'Cape Fear,' no one has a better resume for stealthy pursuit than Robert De Niro. By Colburn Tseng

Summer Bruin Contributor

He is an actor best known for portraying men you would not want to meet in a dark alley. Violent men. Dangerous men. Disturbed men who ask questions like "Are you talking to me?"

He is Robert De Niro, one of the most revered actors of his generation, an imposing presence on the silver screen, and this morning, his co-workers from "The Fan" cannot stop talking about how gosh-darn, aw-shucks-gee-whiz nice he is.

"You know you're in awe of him," says co-star John Leguizamo, "and then you find out he's human. Then you're more in awe of him because he's so human, you know? De Niro is nothing like that stalker guy. He's like the friendliest, nicest guy."

That "stalker guy" Leguizamo refers to is Gil Renard, De Niro's character in "The Fan," a knife salesman whose admiration for baseball star Bobby Rayburn, played by Wesley Snipes, becomes a deadly obsession. The character is familiar territory for De Niro, who helped invent modern cinema's stalker archetype in "Taxi Driver," gave it a darkly humorous twist in "King of Comedy," then revisited that playground of fatal psychoses in "Cape Fear."

With a résumé like that, director Tony Scott's admission that De Niro was his first choice for the role comes as no surprise. On screen, De Niro radiates danger like nobody's business. In person, however, the actor is so unassuming, he is able to slip into a ballroom at the Four Seasons Hotel for an early morning press junket almost unnoticed.

This morning, De Niro could probably pass through a crowd unrecognized. Wearing a tan leather jacket and white button down shirt, the actor looks a bit disheveled. He sports a mustache and longish hair probably grown for a new role. De Niro is reputed to be an extremely private, shy man, and this morning these qualities show. When discussing aspects of his private life, De Niro is hesitant, and his answers are sometimes oblique. (De Niro on whether he is comfortable with his own celebrity: "Yeah, sometimes I ­ yeah now, I mean after so many years you get ­ it's OK. Yeah, it's OK.") When asked about his work however, De Niro becomes very open, almost eager.

"I did 'The Fan' because (director) Tony Scott was very persistent in getting me to do it, and I like him, and it turned out to be a very good experience," De Niro explains, though he admits initial concerns that the character was too similar to his previous roles. "The script was okay ­ there were things that needed work ­ but I sort of jumped in. And when I got into it, I was happy because Tony was terrific as far as being very open to ideas and very, very giving to actors."

One might think that De Niro, whose role research is legendary, would know this type of character inside and out by now. But on "The Fan," the exhaustive method actor spoke with men who specialized in profiling stalkers and watched videos of real stalkers, including the man who murdered actress Rebecca Schaeffer. Researching the obsessed murderer of an actress sounds like an unnerving pursuit for an actor. When asked how he, a potential target of obsession, felt watching these tapes, De Niro predictably shifts the focus of his answer from his personal life to his work.

"I don't know," the actor begins. "I was just trying to get as close to understanding why they were doing it, and sometimes you don't. I go as far as I can go, and then I have to interpret it in my own way because they act out something that most people don't do."

Like many actors, De Niro has had some strange fan experiences of his own.

"Bob has attracted I think through his working life and films, all the freaks out there," says Scott. "He's had numerous encounters: telephone calls, letters, guys watching him. But I think because of the way he's seen on film, he's perceived as being dangerous. He's the sweetest most charming, down-to-earth, very shy guy you'd ever want to meet. But by nature of the characters he plays in movies, people go "Whoa! You don't fuck with Robert De Niro."

"Basically, it's been OK," says De Niro. "People are nice in my situation. Sometimes somebody comes up, asks you for an autograph and you say 'I wonder if that's somebody that's gonna come back later some way. Somehow ... And I take note of certain things certain people do, or I just watch. And I used it in the movie in terms of behavior and stuff like that."

As one of today's most respected actors, De Niro's fans include not only the movie-going public, but also the people he works with. Leguizamo, Snipes and Scott openly admit their considerable admiration for De Niro. So does the actor do anything special to put his co-workers at ease?

"He stays in his trailer," deadpans Snipes.

De Niro laughs. "Yeah, right. Just do the work and get back in the trailer." He smiles. "No, it's very important to put people at ease. And that (starstruck quality) wears away in a couple of days with anybody under any circumstances. It normally just wears away and you get on with it because you have to do the work."

With Robert De Niro, all conversation with the press seems to come back to "the work," and thus it is fitting that the final question of the morning concerns his work habits. Considering his extensive research and method-based approach to acting, does De Niro ever find it difficult to get out of character?

"Well you know, after I did that stabbing scene in the steam room, I went out with a knife and went looking for people for about half an hour." He grins. "Then I calmed down."

FILM: "The Fan" starring Robert De Niro, Wesley Snipes and Ellen Barkin. Opened Aug. 16.

TriStar Pictures, Inc.

Bobby Rayburn (Wesley Snipes) receives a mysterious phone call in his team's locker room from a crazed fan played by Robert De Niro in the movie, "The Fan."