Aubrey Plaza Says She Weirded Out Robert De Niro By Doing Questionable Things

Method acting might not have been the best idea while making the raunchy comedy “Dirty Grandpa.”

Aubrey Plaza recently opened up about how she “freaked out” Robert De Niro  while making the 2016 movie during a London Film Festival ScreenTalk session, Variety  reports.

In the film, Plaza portrayed Lenore, a college senior whose goal  is to have sex with a “freshman, alumnae and a professor” to complete a self-created “trifecta.” When Lenore discovers that De Niro’s Dick Kelly is a professor, she pursues him intensely.

Plaza said during her talk that she was usually in character when she worked with the Oscar-winning actor — even when the camera wasn’t rolling.

“By the time he’d show up, I’m in character,” Plaza said. “My character had one goal: To have sex with him. I was acting totally insane as the character because we were about to shoot. I don’t think he understood that wasn’t me. You’d think he would because he’s an actor and an amazing one.” 

Plaza also admitted that she “didn’t really have a relationship with him off camera,” which probably made their interactions even more awkward.

Although Plaza doesn’t specify what she did around De Niro, she did reveal that one of her agents “heard Bob’s a little freaked out” by her. 

But it seems De Niro finally met the real Plaza during a cast and crew luncheon in which the “Emily The Criminal” star was out of character. 

“I showed up, and he’s like, ‘Who are you, sweetheart?’ and after that, he was normal,” Plaza said. “At first, I think I came on really strong. I did some questionable things I wouldn’t do anymore.”

In 2016, Plaza did speak to Seth Myers about a few of the things she did to De Niro when they were working on “Dirty Grandpa” together, which included giving him a present she was “terrified” in retrospect would get her fired. 

“I took like a real slutty picture of myself in my trailer, in character,” Plaza told Meyer at the time. “And then printed it out, and I put it in a book of zen Buddhism and then I slipped it under his trailer door, with a little note that said like, ‘Happy shooting’ or something. And then I just waited.”

Check out the video above to see how De Niro responded and some more tidbits from Plaza about working on the film.