Robert De Niro was introducing the Icon & Creator Tribute to Martin Scorsese‘s Killers of the Flower Moon at the Gotham Awards when something seemed a little off.
The 80-year-old seemed unsure of what was on the teleprompter and stumbled over his words at the ceremony, held in New York on Monday (Tuesday AEDT) but then revealed what caused all the confusion.
“The beginning of my speech was edited, cut out, and I didn’t know about it,” De Niro told the star-studded audience after a video message from Scorsese played.
Watch the video above.
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“And I want to read it.”
As the audience whooped and cheered, De Niro read his original opening from his mobile phone in his hand.
“History isn’t history anymore, truth is not truth,” he said.
“Even facts are being replaced by alternative facts and driven by conspiracy theories and ugliness.
“In Florida, young students are taught that slaves were taught skills that could be applied for their personal benefit.”
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In taking aim at lies and misinformation in what he called America’s “post-truth society”, De Niro singled out “our former president” Donald Trump, whom he has publicly taken aim at many times.
“The former president lied to us more than 30,000 times during his four years in office, and he’s keeping up the pace with his current campaign of retribution,” De Niro said.
“With all of his lies, he can’t hide his soul. He attacks the weak, destroys the gifts of nature and shows his disrespect, for example using Pocahontas as a slur.”
The actor also took aim at Hollywood for earlier depictions of Native Americans and specifically called out Westerns actor John Wayne for a quote he once gave.
“The entertainment industry isn’t immune to this festering disease. The ‘Duke’ John Wayne famously said of Native Americans, ‘I don’t feel we did wrong in taking this great country away from them. There were great numbers of people who needed new land and the Indians were selfishly trying to keep it for themselves’.”
De Niro seemed to blame Apple, which produced Killers of the Flower Moon, for the changes to his speech as he scrolled through the rest of the notes on his phone.
After saying he was supposed to ”thank them and all that”, referring to both Apple and Gotham, De Niro paused and told the audience “but I don’t really feel like thanking them at all for what they did”.
“How dare they do that, actually.
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“But now I will go to accepting the award.”
Apple didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment, according to Associated Press.
De Niro, who has teamed up on-screen with Scorsese on 10 of his films, plays William Hale in the director’s latest three-hour epic, chronicling the 1920s murders of members from the oil-rich Osage Nation.
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