Robert De Niro hopes fiery 'Zero Day' speech makes viewers think about threats to democracy

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Robert De Niro likes to keep himself busy.

But now in his sixth decade in an acting career that includes legendary roles in films like Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, The Godfather Part II, last year’s Killers of the Flower Moon and countless others, the two-time Oscar winner found himself slightly overwhelmed as he shot his first TV series Zero Day, now streaming on Netflix.

“It was a lot of keeping up. I had to stay on it,” De Niro, 81, admits in a video interview from New York City. “It’s different. It’s like doing three features back-to-back. It was a long haul, and I had to keep on top of it all the time to be ready to shoot these scenes.”

In Zero Day, De Niro plays George Mullen, a former one-term president who is drafted by the country’s current commander-in-chief (Angela Bassett) to lead an investigation into a deadly 9/11-style cyberattack.

The show was filmed during the last U.S. presidential election campaign and co-creator Eric Newman (American Primeval, Narcos) says the genesis for the story came about after he and his fellow collaborator Noah Oppenheim saw a noticeable shift in how Americans were engaging with the news around them.

“We were both very concerned about our country’s relationship with the truth,” Newman says. “Noah was the head of NBC News, and he had a very unique and experienced take on how American’s were getting the news, processing their news and then recycling their news. What was becoming apparent to him was that we were headed to a place where people lived inside of their own realities where two truths could exist contemporaneously and both sides believe their truth is the truth.”

After Mullen is recruited back into service, he encounters a political world that’s a far cry from the bipartisanship that marked his presidency. Backroom political machinations take place, driven by an antagonistic speaker of the House (Matthew Modine), a sneaky political fixer (Jesse Plemons), a sketchy billionaire (Clark Gregg), a brazen podcaster (Dan Stevens), the nefarious head of the CIA (Bill Camp), and Mullen’s estranged Congresswoman daughter (Lizzy Caplan) and his former chief of staff (Connie Britton).

“It seemed like an interesting theme and world in which to set a story and put a character in who has an inability to discern truth from fiction,” Newman says.

Even though we never hear the words “Democrat” or “Republican,” it’s a world Mullen doesn’t recognize anymore and it acts like a metaphor, in part, for how De Niro has come to interact in his own home country following his public battles with real-life President Donald Trump.

De Niro was one of the most vocal critics against Trump as he sought re-election with the two engaging in a frequent war of words. In the run-up to the 2016 campaign, the actor called Trump “a punk” and “a con.” Last spring, he called Trump supporters “gangsters” outside a New York City courtroom where the then-Republican candidate was on trial in his hush money case.

His performance as Mullen wasn’t based on any one president in particular, De Niro says. But he drew on certain ones he has met. “I got a lot of it from interviews or what I’ve read or seeing speeches that they made and situations they’re in when they’re in a press conference and they’re asked tough questions and they answer them in a certain way. It was pretty informative and helpful for me,” he says.

At one point in the six-part series, which is directed by Emmy winner Lesli Linka Glatter (Homeland, Mad Men), De Niro gives an impassioned speech appealing to American patriotism and why the truth matters.

“We’re Americans. What are we doing? We’re supposed to be standing up for each other. We’re supposed to be helping each other,” his character says to a group of demonstrators in the first episode. “You’re not behaving like an American or a patriot.”

Zero Day was finished before Trump’s presidential return was confirmed. But that doesn’t mean there still isn’t a message De Niro hopes leaves an impression on viewers.

In one scene, as Mullen contemplates his dogged pursuit of doing the right thing no matter the cost, he warns about the dangers of unchecked power. “Destroying democracy is not the way to save it,” his character says.

It’s a line De Niro expects to linger with audiences after the end credits roll.

“I hope they think about that line,” he offers, “and the whole thing.” 

Zero Day is now streaming on Netflix

mdaniell@postmedia.com