Maeve McDermott
USA TODAY
Published 12:23 p.m. UTC Jun 11, 2018
NEW YORK – Robert De Niro’s comments didn’t make it past the censors at Sunday night’s Tony Awards. But that doesn’t mean that viewers watching couldn’t read his lips.
Taking the stage to introduce Bruce Springsteen’s performance at the awards, De Niro didn’t waste any time letting the f-bombs fly in his comments about the president.
“I’m gonna say one thing: (expletive) Trump!” he exclaimed. “It’s no longer ‘down with Trump,’ it’s ‘(expletive) Trump!’ “
Calming down, De Niro went on to praise his friend Springsteen, who then came onstage to perform My Hometown and an accompanying monologue from Springsteen on Broadway.
Meanwhile in the press room, Tony winners were surprised and amused by De Niro’s comments, including Harry Potter and the Cursed Child director John Tiffany, who entered the press room immediately after the incident.
“Did Al Pacino just say (expletive) Trump?” Tiffany asked the press room, chuckling as the room corrected his mistake. “It was Robert De Niro? That’s even worse!”
Angels in America playwright Tony Kushner chimed in with his own anti-Trump comments in the press room after the show won best revival of a play.
“(Expletive) Trump, I agree,” he said, calling Trump’s election “the Hitler mistake.”
“This person never should have been allowed anywhere near the seat of power,” Kushner said. “And there are a lot of analogies in history, and unfortunately, they never end well. So hopefully this will end before he ends us.”
Andrew Garfield, who won best performance by an actor in a leading role in a play for Angels in America, also spoke out against Trump in the press room.
“We’re lost right now, culturally,” he said. “(The play) is absolutely about the epidemic we’re experiencing right now, the epidemic of disconnect.”
“The person in the White House right now is the antithesis of this play,” he continued. “So, it feels very important right now to be telling this story.”
More from the Tony Awards:
‘Angels in America’: Andrew Garfield emphasizes ‘sanctity of the human spirit’ in powerful speech
More: Nathan Lane gets emotional in sweet Tony Awards speech thanking husband Devlin Elliott
Winners: Who took home Tony Awards?
Related: Rachel Bloom explains her Tonys T-shirt showing Stephen Sondheim smoking weed
Let’s block ads! (Why?)
