The Killers of the Flower Moon costars reunited at the opening ceremony of the Cannes Film Festival, where DiCaprio revealed that De Niro helped get him his breakout big-screen role.
Not just anyone could present Robert De Niro with the honorary Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival 2025. So the festival’s organizers chose Leonardo DiCaprio, with whom De Niro has made three films. The duo walked the red carpet at Cannes two years ago for the premiere of Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon. But that was not their first collaboration: They also co-starred in Michael Caton-Jones’s 1993 film This Boy’s Life and Jerry Zaks’s Marvin’s Room, released three years later. Onstage at the Palais des Festival, DiCaprio paid a vibrant tribute to his two-time Oscar-winning colleague, whom he described as a role model and idol. He began by looking back on their first collaboration together.
“The audition process was a tough one. There’s lots of competition. None of us knew who would get the part,” DiCaprio said. “And at 15 or 16 years old, I did the only thing I could think to stand out: I screamed at him at the top of my lungs. The room burst into laughter. Later that day, as the story goes, Bob was getting on his plane with a producer, [who] asked, ‘Who do you want to play the part?’ And in classic De Niro fashion, he replied, ‘Second kid from the last’”—meaning DiCaprio.
“Luckily, that second kid was me,” the actor continued. “And that moment changed my life forever, started my entire career in the world of cinema.”
Though the ceremony was formal, DiCaprio called De Niro “Bob” on numerous occasions, the affectionate nickname given to him by those closest to him. “That’s the thing about Bob,” DiCaprio said. “He doesn’t say much, but when he does, it matters. Whether it’s for his friends, his family, fighting for our democracy, or supporting the art of filmmaking, he shows up.”
The Wolf of Wall Street star also lauded the legendary partnership between De Niro and Scorsese: “They didn’t just make films. They redefined what cinema can be.” When a young DiCaprio first saw De Niro’s early films, he said, “What impressed me was not only his power, but his calm, meticulous interpretation of characters. Sometimes, the scenes without words are the strongest.”
And though De Niro can also be a man of few words in real life, DiCaprio treasured the opportunity to honor him at Cannes.
“If you know Bob, and I think many of you in this room do, you know he’s not someone who particularly enjoys being in the spotlight off camera,” the actor said as his speech wound down. “If I’m lucky, I’ll get a nod from him tonight, maybe even a half smile. And I would take that as a standing ovation. Every once in a while, even the most private giants deserve their moment, a moment to be acknowledged, not just for their work, but for the quiet, lasting influence they’ve had on so many lives. On my life. So without trying to speak for the entire world of cinema here tonight, but probably doing it anyway, there is no one more deserving of this Palme d’Or lifetime achievement award than Mr. Robert De Niro. Congratulations.”
This is not the first time that DiCaprio has been asked to celebrate the phenomenal career of De Niro. Back in 2020, he presented De Niro with the SAG Life Achievement Award.
In 2011, De Niro presided over the jury at Cannes, an institution that has seen him climb its famous steps on numerous occasions for several legendary films. He has premiered a dozen films there, including two Palme d’Or winners: Taxi Driver in 1976 and The Mission in 1986. Cannes also rolled out the red carpet for a tribute to his first feature film as director, A Bronx Tale, in 2011. In the press release announcing this year’s honorary Palme d’Or, the festival praised De Niro’s intense interpretive power, born of his early work with Brian De Palma, “where violence springs from a charismatic calm.”
