Robert De Niro is famous for his acting but he’s also infamous for his interview style. When talking to him, you need to know how to unpack what he is saying and let him talk. I would know, I’ve done it. Jimmy Fallon doesn’t have that gift though.
Call it what you will but there is an art to talking to the older generation. For me, I can talk to an older Italian man because I’ve done it my entire life with my own grandfather. When Fallon tried to play a game with De Niro, he learned the hard way that you can’t just say “pick this” without any kind of explanation. And instead of trying to lead De Niro to make a choice, Fallon just kept getting frustrated and it was hilarious.
The game is simple: Choose one movie over the other. But when De Niro clearly was thinking a bit too much about which movie, instead of trying a different approach, Fallon just doubles down and is visibly frustrated when it isn’t working out.
As someone who thinks that Fallon’s games are exhausting because he doesn’t know how to have an authentic conversation with the people on his show, I find this incredibly hilarious. There was an easy fix to this and when De Niro kept asking if he was asking the audience, I would have simply said “Do you want them to choose for you?”
That is, ultimately, what happens but you can see that Fallon is not exactly thrilled that his game of Would You Rather was derailed by De Niro (and I loved it).
Did Fallon’s frustration make this hilarious? Yes but it also showed me that he’s not a good interviewer. You have to adapt and if you can’t figure out how to break from your OWN mold to do that, then you shouldn’t be hosting. Luckily the audience took over but boy oh boy is it funny watching Fallon get this angry.
(featured image: NBC)
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