Robert De Niro describes leg injury pain while filming 'Killers of the Flower Moon' as 'excruciating'
Bryan AlexanderRobert De Niro described the pain he felt after a leg injury while in Oklahoma working on Martin Scorsese's "Killers of the Flower Moon" as "excruciating." But it won't stop him from filming.
The injury, which happened off-set, forced the Academy Award winner to fly back to New York City for medical attention on May 13. De Niro, 77, explained the circumstances during an interview with Indie-Wire published Saturday.
"I tore my quad somehow," De Niro said. "It’s just a simple stepping over something and I just went down. The pain was excruciating and now I have to get it fixed. But it happens, especially when you get older, you have to be prepared for unexpected things. But it’s manageable."
De Niro said the injury likely won't affect his performance as cattleman William Hale in the crime drama film.
"What I’m doing with Scorsese in ‘Killers of the Flower Moon,’ I’m pretty much a sedentary character in a way. I don’t move around a lot, thank god. So we’ll manage," he said. "I just have to get the procedure done and keep it straight in a certain position and let it heal."
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De Niro's publicist Stan Rosenfield officially confirmed the injury on Friday with a statement:
"While at his on- location home in Oklahoma for the filming of Martin Scorsese's 'Killers of the Flower Moon,' Robert De Niro injured his quadriceps muscle which will be treated medically in New York. This will not affect production as he was not scheduled to film again for another three weeks."
De Niro told the publication that "Flower Moon," which AppleTV+ is producing, will not be exclusively a streaming release.
"One of the things is that it has to play in theaters," he said. That’s a very strong component of it. By the time it comes out, hopefully it’ll be back to a close-to-normal situation."
The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Jesse Plemmons.
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