Does a video show actor Robert De Niro yelling at anti-Israel protestors? No, that's not true: A spokesperson at Netflix told Lead Stories that this video was taken during the rehearsal of an upcoming series. Lead Stories found photographs on Getty Images of De Niro in the same clothing he was wearing in the claim. The caption to these photos cited him as being "seen on ... set."
The claim appeared in an X, formerly Twitter, post published on May 1, 2024 (archived here), with the caption:
Robert De Niro surprised me
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Source: X.com screenshot taken on Mon May 6 13:07:15 2024 UTC)
The 33-second video displayed a constant on-screen banner that read, "Robert De Niro Stands with Israel!" In the lower third of the video, there was transcription of what De Niro allegedly said in the video. Lines like "This is not a movie. This is real!" and "They say they are going to do it again! (October 7th)" can be read in the lower third of this video. However, there is no evidence that De Niro is speaking about the Hamas-Israel war or protests that have ensued.
This claim went viral during student protests on college campuses against their institutions involvement with Israel.
Jason Clark, director for publicity at Netflix, responded to an inquiry from Lead Stories with a May 6, 2024, email saying that this video is from a rehearsal of "ZERO DAY," an upcoming series on Netflix. He wrote:
The video and images were shot on location in NYC on April 27 during a rehearsal for ZERO DAY, an upcoming series on NETFLIX.
An article from TUDUM, Netflix's official site for fans of the streaming service's productions, elaborates on Clark's emailed statement with particulars about the series.
Actor Jesse Plemons is also visible in the X video at 0:13. Netflix lists him as being in the cast of the Netflix feature along with De Niro. Here is a Getty Images photo of De Niro and Plemons in the same attire of dark jackets and collared shirts seen in the claim. Visitors to the Getty link can also see a boom mic operator and a photographer standing behind De Niro. The caption above it reads:
Jesse Plemons and Robert De Niro are seen on the set of "Zero Day" on Wall Street on April 27, 2024 in New York City.
Lead Stories did a search using keywords on Google News, visible here, which found no credible documents or reporting to corroborate the X claim (archived here).
Lead Stories reached out to De Niro's representation and we will update this article when a relevant response is received.
Other Lead Stories articles on the Israel-Hamas war are here. More Lead Stories articles on claims concerning Robert De Niro are here.
