Aubrey Plaza discusses producing more, freaking out Robert De Niro

During a recent appearance at a London Film Festival Screentalk session (via Variety), Aubrey Plaza took a moment to talk about her new movie Emily The Criminal, why she wanted to do more producing at this point in her career, and how she freaked out Robert De Niro while filming Dirty Grandpa by being “totally insane” (in character). That’s about as wide-ranging as a celebrity chat can get, so let’s start with the serious one.

Plaza said that she felt like her 2017 movie Ingrid Goes West was her breakthrough movie as a producer, and it convinced her that it’s fun to have some real say over the final product. “I want my opinion to matter contractually—and the fun of it is having control over the parts I get to play,” she explained, adding, “I’m just not the kind of person who waits around for the perfect thing to fall into my lap.” It makes sense, then, that Plaza has been getting roles that seem like something she can really work with, not just in Emily The Criminal or Ingrid Goes West but films like Black Bear (which she was also a producer on).

But a year before she began producing, Plaza appeared in Dirty Grandpa, a 2016 sex comedy that is not Bad Grandpa despite having the same title. This is the one that starred Zac Efron and Robert De Niro as they went on road trip, with De Niro’s character getting really invested in sleeping with Aubrey Plaza’s character under false pretenses (he’s an old army guy, but she thinks he’s an old professor and is attracted to him because of that, and they get married in the end of the movie despite their entire relationship being built on lying, but we’re not here to pick apart the morality of Dirty Grandpa).

Plaza said during his appearance that she and De Niro never really talked when they weren’t filming, so he only ever saw her when she was in character, and her only goal as the character was to have sex with Robert De Niro (even though he’s lying about who he is, which is wrong). “I was acting totally insane as the character because we were about to shoot,” she said. “I don’t think her understood that wasn’t me. You’d think he would because he’s an actor and an amazing one.”

Plaza apparently got a message from one of her agents that “Bob’s a little freaked out” by her, and later on when De Niro got the cast and crew together for a lunch he didn’t even recognize her. Plaza puts all of this on herself, saying “I did some questionable things I wouldn’t do anymore,” but it does sound weird that Robert De Niro—an actor—would be confused by the idea of someone acting. Then again, how often does Robert De Niro play someone who isn’t just “Robert De Niro in a different setting” these days?