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PIERS MORGAN: If Robert De Niro wants to be treated like the genius he still thinks he is, he should try making his first decent movie for two decades

Published: 12:58 EST, 22 September 2015 | Updated: 21:38 EST, 22 September 2015

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Robert De Niro is a magnificent actor.

Or rather, he’s a man whose career has been filled with magnificent acting performances.

The Godfather Part II, Taxi Driver, The Deer Hunter, Raging Bull, Once Upon A Time in America, Goodfellas, Casino – his thespian resumé is glowing from the plethora of gold and silver awards his work has earned him.

But there’s a common theme to all those great movies: they were all made at least 20 years ago.

Let’s be honest, De Niro’s more recent contribution to the big screen has verged on diabolical, a travesty of his talent.

Robert De Niro hasn't made a good movie in about 20 years. Next up he's in The Intern, seen here

During the junket for the supposed comedy, which costars Anne Hathaway, the self delusional star walked out of an interview because he didn't like some very reasonable questions

From the inane Meet The Fockers and unwatchable Last Vegas, to the meandering Grudge Match and gloriously awful New Year’s Eve, this giant of the industry has stunk theaters out across the globe for the past two decades.

Yet De Niro still behaves like he’s king of the hill, top of the heap, a number one.

Nowhere is this gargantuan self-delusion more readily on display than with his behaviour towards journalists.

He’s renowned as the rudest, most difficult and frankly obnoxious star to interview, possibly in the history of Planet Earth. A man so consumed with his own sense of self-importance that even offering a modicum of consideration towards those charged with trying to help him promote his own movies is beyond him.

His latest victim was Emma Brockes, a journalist I know well, who met him for the Radio Times – a BBC magazine reporting on the television and movie industries in the UK.

Ms Brockes had the audacity to ask De Niro two utterly innocuous, quite interesting questions.

His latest victim was Emma Brockes, a journalist I know well, who met him for the Radio Times – a BBC magazine. Ms Brockes had the audacity to ask De Niro two utterly innocuous, quite interesting questions

First, how he avoided being on auto-pilot during film shoots.

Second, whether his beloved Tribeca area of New York has been taken over by bankers.

The answer to both is fairly easy. 1) ‘Because I’m a great actor.’ 2) ‘Yes, it has.’

But De Niro, who had already moped and grumbled his way through the whole interview prior to this, was so instantly and mortally offended at the ‘negative inference’ of this particular line of interrogation that he decided to abruptly end the interview and walk out.

No, though, before hurling one last sexist zinger at his interviewer: ‘Negative all the way through and I’m not doing it, darling…’

Ms Brockes snapped back at him, perfectly understandably, saying he’d been ‘condescending’.

If I’d been her, I’d have slapped him round his smug little chops.

Let’s remind ourselves why this interview was taking place: De Niro was promoting his new movie, another lame comedy called The Intern.

As part of his multi-million dollar contract, he’s required by his studio to pitch up and do a bit of press to sell the movie to the public.

Every actor does it, and most understand it is a key part of marketing a film to try and ensure its box office success.

De Niro, unfortunately, thinks it’s all one big horrible chore which is beneath a star of his self-appointed magnitude.

I experienced the same miserable nonsense when I once interviewed him for CNN.

I’d been warned how mono-syllabic, humourless and gruff he could be, how I should avoid any questions which could be answered with one word, because that’s exactly how he would answer them.

But I was convinced I’d draw out his hidden, charming side.

There isn’t one.

De Niro was a bloody nightmare.

To almost every question, he grunted ‘I don’t know’, ‘I can’t really say’ or ‘that’s a big question.’

Occasionally, he’d just shrug his shoulders in total silence.

It was only one removed from interviewing a corpse.

Even when I asked him to name his favourite actor, he just stared back at me like an extra from The Walking Dead and sneered: ‘How can I answer that?’ Pause. ‘I don’t know….’

I did extract a few morsels of interesting material out of him, but I’d have had an easier job extracting teeth from a Pitbull.

It’s as if he prides himself on being a total douchebag.

But there’s a wider issue here than just Robert De Niro.

De Niro is 72 and hasn't made a good movie this millenium. Remember how great he was? Here he is in 1980's Raging Bull

More and more stars have taken to treating journalists like dirt.

Robert Downey Junior flounced out of a TV interview a few months ago protesting at being asked personal questions that he himself has talked about many, many times when it suits him.

Ben Affleck ordered PBS not to air a revelation that he had a slave owner in his family background. A revelation that came during a lengthy interview he agreed to do for a show named “Finding Your Roots”…specifically about his family background!

Cara Delevinge recently sulked like a big baby on air when she was taken to task by local morning TV anchors for being quite obviously sleep-deprived and humour-devoid.

They’re all encouraged to behave like this by a coterie of often quite ghastly power-crazed publicists, who see the press as an enemy to be used, abused and thrown to the wolves whenever it suits them.

Well, it’s time the world’s media fought back.

I’d honestly put Robert De Niro out of his self-enforced misery.

He’s 72, hasn’t made a good movie this Millennium, and clearly hates every second of the process of promotion.

He should stop behaving like a pathetic prima donna and show some damn courtesy to those inflicted with the unenviable hell of having to talk to him.

But he won’t.

So let’s ban him.

Every journalist in the world should agree, with immediate effect, never to interview him again.

Give the guy what he thinks he wants.

Only, I suspect it’s the very last thing De Niro wants.

Because underneath all the pompous, arrogant rudeness lies a man still desperate for superstar status and all the trappings that brings.

Or why else would he continue to make increasingly c**p movies?

The best oxygen for the rarefied Utopia he craves is the media.