As any self-respecting movie buff will tell you, Robert De Niro’s big break came in 1974’s “The Godfather Part II.” De Niro played a younger version of Vito Corleone, the mafia boss whose original portrayal by Marlon Brando is the stuff of legend. Forty-five years later, De Niro starred as another outsider-turned gangster, playing Frank Sheeran in Martin Scorsese’s 2019 epic, “The Irishman.
Director Quentin Tarantino said he acclimated to the de-aging pretty quickly when he saw “The Irishman” in the theater, but “noticed it more” when he watched it on TV. George Miller, who directed this year’s Mad Max prequel “Furiosa,” said he considered casting Charlize Theron again for the titular role and de-aging her, but decided after watching “The Irishman” and “Gemini Man” that it wouldn’t be “persuasive.