Robert De Niro is legendary for being shy/screwy. He mumbles quick, enigmatic answers on the rare times he has to ad-lib at an event, or even on a talk show when he knows the answers in advance.
For an actor, he's also performed some bumbling jobs on "Saturday Night Live," unable to read a cue card properly after presumably days and days of rehearsal.
But he was in his element when he told NYU art school grads: "You're FUCKED."
Keep it short, tell the truth, and you're ok.
Bobby spoke at the Tisch School of the Arts, which is part of NYU. I don't know who Tisch is, but assume he's another of the rich assholes who LOVES to have buildings named after them. All kinds of buildings, hospitals, schools, etc. have ugly names because some rich bastard insisted on immortalizing himself. Tisch is sort of SHIT spelled backwards.
De Niro pointed out that a liberal arts degree is ridiculous. He noted that graduates of a school for lawyers or "“the school of medicine...each will get a job. Teachers, they’ll be working, shit jobs and lousy pay, but they will be working. YOU are opening a door to a lifetime of rejection!"
Har har.
The crowd knew what he meant. It's true, more than ever.
A lot of kids STILL would rather play in college, and major in English or Fine Arts or painting, rather than do what the parents suggested, and get a law degree or be an accountant.
BUT...you graduate with a BA, you major in Fine Arts...you have no "skill." EVERYBODY paints. EVERYBODY takes photos. EVERYBODY writes. Being good at it, or excellent or distinctive at it, means less and less when "adequate" is good enough.
Anyone notice Kendall Jenner as a truly attractive or adept model? Take a look at the dolt who does your TV news show, and check the set design, or the writing of news copy. None of it is remarkable. It's who you know, not your fucking college degree.
Now, more than ever, if you're a graduate in the arts you are supposed to work FREEEEEEEEEE.
If they don't steal and pirate your work, you should do that yourself via GooTube or blogs or Instagram. Tweet your best jokes. Perform on the street. Give away your songs and hope that somebody "discovers" you. Which is worse than 50 years ago when a woman had sex with a director in order to get a role in a show. Now you're being fucked by hundreds of people who hear your song or your clever sketch on GooTube, have a good time, and move on. You get NOTHING.
At best, you can be an "intern" and work your ass off doing menial crap for the chance to go on the boards for a few minutes.
De Niro shrugged: “when it comes to the arts, passion should trump common sense.”
Which is very nice when that distant brass ring is glinting, and you're very young. De Niro should've added, "If you're still fucking around at 30, or 40, with a lousy part-time job to pay the rent, and you have a roomie you hate...you are TOTALLY FUCKED because the odds are WORSE."
Why are there freebie people giving it away on the Internet, or being interns and working FREE in the real world? Because people know the "artist" mentality.
Guys like De Niro say in interviews all the time: "They pay me to do this! I'd do it for nothing!"
Producers and directors and club owners know it. They only pay if they absolutely have to.
I couldn't even count the number of times I've been scabbed by people happy to do MY job or FREE so they can interview or photograph celebrities or get free stuff to review or get a byline. I can't even know for sure how often I've been backstabbed, by people plotting to take work from me. I do know that often their scam or scheme succeeded.
It's difficult enough to climb the mountain, but once you're there, somebody is ready to sneak up behind you and toss you over the side. The sound of their laughter covers your descending scream.
It's a damn good thing that college kids are so naive and stupid and YOUNG they think they're gonna make it instantly, or they think that every baby step is monumental and they keep deluding themselves right through their 20's. Then they usually end up trying to backstab whoever they can at their day job because they know it's now their permanent job and they want to now get a bigger paycheck and get kicked up the ladder where they'll be able to do less work.
At least all these fools at the Art School can say, "My commencement address was by Robert De Niro! He told this funny line about how he didn't get the part of Dr. Martin Luther King in "Selma," so you have to keep trying and accept rejection. Har har."
"OH yes...and he also told everyone, 'YOU'RE FUCKED.'"
The man told the truth.
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