The actor stood up for the arts in Chaplin Award speech.
Robert De Niro was honoured with a special lifetime achievement award this week, and with it he took the opportunity to slam President Donald Trump for the government's budget proposals regarding cutting funding for the arts on stage at the David Koch Theater at the Lincoln Center.
Robert De Niro at an anti-Trump rally
With news that the US government is planning to make dramatic cuts to the arts, 'The Comedian' star Robert De Niro made his opinions on the subject quite clear as he received the coveted Chaplin Award at the 44th annual Film Society of Lincoln Center honours last night (May 8th 2017).
'We make movies to entertain audiences. Audiences vote by seeing them; critics vote by writing about them; and then posterity takes its time to decide if they're art - or not', he told the audience during his acceptance speech. 'I've been thinking about this a lot lately because of our government's hostility towards art. The budget proposal, among its other draconian cuts to life-saving and life-enhancing programs, eliminates the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.'
He certainly wasn't about to mince his words on the topic. 'For their own divisive political purposes, the administration suggests that the money for these all-inclusive programs goes to rich liberal elites', he added. 'This is what they now call an 'alternative fact,' but I call it bulls**t.'
'By being here tonight, you are supporting arts for everyone', he continued. 'You're supporting the slapstick of Charlie Chaplin, the great body of work of Marty Scorsese and Barry Levinson, the dumb-ass comedies of Robert De Niro, the 'overrated performances of Meryl Streep' and your own taste and needs.'
More: 'The Irishman' reportedly set to move to Netflix
De Niro is currently filming family comedy 'The War with Grandpa' with Uma Thurman and Christopher Walken, and he is also working on a new Martin Scorsese movie entitled 'The Irishman'.
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