At 83, Robert De Niro has built one of the most revered film resumes in American cinema, typically leaning toward time-tested classics over modern streaming hits. But when it comes to the remote control in his household, the screen legend admits his teenage daughter often calls the shots.
How Robert De Niro’s Daughter Hooked Him on Stranger Things
Joining Amy Poehler on her Good Hang podcast, the Oscar winner pulled back the curtain on his home life with his 14-year-old daughter, Helen. While De Niro prefers exposing his children to golden-age cinema, Helen’s viewing habits eventually pulled him into the world of Hawkins, Indiana.
“She, you know, I try to tell her that we should look at movies,” De Niro shared. “She looks at things like Stranger Things, which got me into it.”
The actor admitted that the gateway to modern television usually begins when he wanders past her screen.
“I saw a movie called Housemaid… I’m walking by her while she’s watching and I say, ‘That’s not bad, that movie,'” he explained. “Just walking by, I get a sense of the film, then I see. But I don’t like to look at those, so I wind up looking at [them] because she wants to look at them. I’d rather find classics that she could look at.”
Getting a teenager to adopt his vintage cinematic palate remains an uphill battle.
“It’s hard. It’s hard,” De Niro laughed when asked if Helen responds to older films.
Still, the Duffer brothers’ sci-fi phenomenon proved to be a rare common ground. De Niro was so taken with the universe that the pair took their fandom beyond the living room couch: “We went to see the play, too, the musical,” he noted. “Yeah, it was good.”
Between navigating streaming algorithms and checking out the West End stage adaptations, Hollywood’s quietest heavyweight proved that even cinema purists can’t escape the pull of the Upside Down.
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