Robert De Niro’s challenging TV role was like ‘swimming | UK News

Robert De Niro has likened his first main tv role to “swimming the English Channel” forward of the project’s release this week.

The gripping political thriller Zero Day is set to drop this Thursday and pits the Taxi Driver star in opposition to a catastrophic cyberattack that throws the United States into chaos.

De Niro takes on the role of former president George Mullen, whose chosen to steer a new job pressure to analyze the strike on US soil and forestall one other catastrophe.

The Oscar-winning cinematic icon has solely made uncommon appearances on the small screen however made the leap to star on this relentless six-part drama sequence, that includes in nearly each scene all through the close to six-hour gauntlet.

“It is like doing three features back to back,” he defined.

“I was in most of it. And so I had to keep up with everything, even as simple as knowing the lines.”

The 81-year-old has appeared in some of essentially the most iconic movies of all time, from gangster classics like Goodfellas and The Godfather Part II, dramas like Raging Bull and The Deer Hunter and even comedies like the Meet the Parents sequence.

However, not even his main role in Martin Scorsese’s three and a half hour crime epic The Irishman fairly in comparison with the problem of Zero Day.

“So I likened it to being in the English Channel,” he shared at a preview in London, per Variety.

“Swimming to England from France, looking behind me and not seeing France, looking ahead, not seeing England.

“I gotta keep going, otherwise I’m gonna sink.”

Not solely did the restricted sequence problem the star’s endurance as an actor, but it surely additionally compelled him to go to some darkish locations.

Throughout Zero Day’s chilling investigation into cyberterrorism, President Mullen should additionally wrestle along with his own chilling secrets and techniques that would put the security of the nation at risk.

Co-creator Eric Newman, best referred to as the showrunner for Netflix’s hit sequence Narcos, was impressed by the climate of misinformation and post-truth in mainstream media and says De Niro was his first alternative for the main role.

“You can look at two different news sources and come away with a completely different version of the truth and that terrified me, and when something scares me, generally, it sort of inspires me,” he defined.

“If you have someone playing the president, a former president, and someone who needed a level of authenticity and credibility and gravitas — it’s a very short list, and Bob was at the top of it.”

While De Niro reveals his involvement was because of happenstance, including: “I told my agent that I’d like to do something where I’m in New York for five or six months.

“We talked about a limited series. Eric sent me every few weeks one episode, a few of them, enough to say: ‘Yeah, I’m ready. I’ll do it.’”

With this degree of expertise concerned, Zero Day is shaping up to be one other important viewing expertise from the world’s main streaming platform.

Zero Day can be launched Thursday, twentieth February on Netflix.