Robert De Niro 'doesn't know' why he's worked with just four female directors over five decades

The actor was criticised for having worked with minimal women filmmakers in his five-decade career

(Rex Features)

Robert De Niro has been called out for working with a small number of female directors throughout his five-decade career.

The actor was speaking at the Marrakech Film Festival when he was asked by French actor-turned-filmmaker Maiwenn why there was a lack of projects directed by women in his filmography.

“I don’t know,” De Niro replied. “I don’t have a problem working with a woman. If it’s a good script I’d do it.”

De Niro is best known for his collaborations with male filmmakers, including Martin Scorsese, Brian De Palma and David O Russell. Since his first feature film credit in 1968, he has worked with just four women directors, one of which (Shark Tale's Vicky Jenson) was co-directing alongside two men.

The other three include Penny Marshall (Awakenings, 1990), Agnès Varda (One Hundred and One Nights, 1995), and Nancy Meyers (The Intern, 2015).

In 2019, the actor will star in three male-directed films: The War With Grandpa from Tim Hill, The Hangover director Todd Phillips comic book film Joker and The Irishman which mark his ninth time working with Scorsese.

The actor confirmed that the Netflix-produced film will receive a theatrical release after much speculation.

“I love the big screen and I think certain movies have to be shown on a big screen, especially our movie," he said. "In the beginning, we’re talking about big venues where it should play. What happens after that I don’t know. The contradiction is that the money we’re fortunate to get from Netflix has been very good, so hopefully they’ll be some kind of a compromise.”

Speaking about his collaboration with the streaming service, Scorsese said: “People such as Netflix are taking risks. The Irishman is a risky film. No one else wanted to fund the pic for five to seven years. And of course, we’re all getting older. Netflix took the risk.”

According to reports, The Irishman’s budget ended up soaring because of the CGI required to make the 74-year-old De Niro look like a 30-year-old for the scenes set in 1959.