INTERVIEWER
Are you so at home being a father?

ROBERT DE NIRO
Well, I’m not, I’m not at home. I think, you know, it’s tough. Eh, there are good moments and not so good moments. Anybody who has children knows that. So, it’s just life. I, I needless to say, but as long as you have children, there’s going to be a problem. You know, that’s something.

INTERVIEWER
Uh, speaking to, I mean, preaching to the choir because I’m, I’m a mother, too, and I have a thirty year-old…

ROBERT DE NIRO
Mm-hm.

INTERVIEWER
…and he is a handful.

ROBERT DE NIRO
Mm.

INTERVIEWER
How many do you have?

ROBERT DE NIRO
I have five and two grandkids.

INTERVIEWER
You have to give me a lesson.

ROBERT DE NIRO
Yeah. I, I don’t, I don’t know if I can, but I–

KIRK JONES (overlapping)
(chuckles)

INTERVIEWER
So, um, being a father, being a parent, eh, is just as much joy as, as it is a pain. Uh, what were the highlights for you as a parent and what were the down points that you really needed to resolve?

ROBERT DE NIRO
Oh. There’s so many. But, you know, I just got my twins’ report cards yesterday and I read them and they’re pretty, pretty…I’m very impressed, and had a meeting with their teachers. So, I was, that was a good moment. (chuckles)

KIRK JONES (overlapping)
That’s good. (chuckles)

INTERVIEWER
Mine faked my signature.

ROBERT DE NIRO
Oh, really? Okay. Well, that’s– (chuckles)

INTERVIEWER
And the principal called me and said…

ROBERT DE NIRO
Oh, boy.

INTERVIEWER
…”You know, uh, Mrs. [name], you always, uh, sign your name in yellow marker and print.”

ROBERT DE NIRO
Oh.

KIRK JONES
Crayon.

ROBERT DE NIRO
Yeah. Yeah.

INTERVIEWER
And what were the down moments? When you really had to go deep in you and just find something that–?

ROBERT DE NIRO
Well, you know, that, uh, even the ones that I would talk about, you know, eh, when the kids are not behaving or doing what you expect of them or what you’d hope that they’d want to do because you know in the long run for them, it’ll, it’ll, they’ll be better off, uh, whatever that is. Having, eh, having some, knowing that they, uh, i-if they know what they want to do in their lives, it helps. The way you un-, I understand it, they don’t know. Uh, you can’t, um, you can’t, um, I can’t force the kids to be anything other than what they want to be.

INTERVIEWER
Nobody can.

ROBERT DE NIRO (overlapping)
I like them to do…so, I’m, I’m pretty easy about that. I’d rather negotiate with them about if you want this; then give me that. Let’s– as opposed to being, um, punishing and stuff like that.

INTERVIEWER
Um, on the other hand, you know, I think, many, many years ago, let’s say a few decades ago, the family was more together.

ROBERT DE NIRO
Mm.

KIRK JONES
Mm.

INTERVIEWER
And I think the world goes, uh, it’s not the right way for families because we, we’re driven apart.

ROBERT DE NIRO
Yeah.

INTERVIEWER
We have too m-, too, too many things to do and we just don’t have the time to dedicate to our kids and to this relationship. What do you do about that?

ROBERT DE NIRO
Uh, I, I don’t know. Kirk might have something to say about that.

KIRK JONES
I think it’s, I think it’s a really good point. I, I think not so long ago, maybe thirty, forty years ago, I think communities were much stronger and that people tended to not move away so quickly or, or, you know, but now, as soon as kids hit teenage years, their first thought is to escape the area in which they grew up and work in another country or work halfway across the country. Um, and I think it’s, I, I think all that’s good about living in a community, um, is perhaps being lost in, in the modern world. You know, I s-, I, when I go back to Italy now I still see that there are, um, there is, uh, there are smaller communities and there are, uh, communities which, eh, which are, um, still surviving, and I think it’s a much healthier, um, environment to grow up in and, you know, and to stay in with the support of a community, rather than everyone just kind of heading off on their own.

INTERVIEWER
Uh, it’s very true. My son told me, um, when he was what, uh, twenty-three, he said, “I want two things. Number one: I don’t want, uh, to be what you me to be, and I want to move away from you as far as I can…

KIRK JONES
Mm.

INTERVIEWER
…in a different zip code possibly,” but there is still love.

ROBERT DE NIRO (overlapping)
(chuckles)

KIRK JONES
Yeah.

INTERVIEWER
So, how do you keep the love there when there is physical distance still?

ROBERT DE NIRO
That’s a good question. I liked my kids to be all around. I don’t like them to be off here and there unless they really have a, a reason or a job that pulls them there. Uh, I, I, I think the Italian thing is really good because the communities stay together and other, there are other countries and other cultures that have this, obviously. They stay together. You know, the whole family lives in different apartments in a ho-, in a building or something, that’s all nice stuff if you can do it. Uh, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.

INTERVIEW ENDS

** Everybody’s fine is released to DVD 2 June 2010**