Film & TV2 min(s) read
Aubrey Plaza reveals moment from Robert De Niro sex scene that was real
In a 2016 appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Aubrey Plaza shared some unforgettable behind-the-scenes stories from her time filming Dirty Grandpa with Robert De Niro. The film, which saw Plaza playing a young, sex-obsessed college coed who becomes infatuated with De Niro’s character, a mischievous grandfather, provided some of the most hilarious moments of her career.
Plaza, who was 31 at the time, spoke about filming a graphic sex scene with De Niro, who was 73. She described how the scene, which took nearly ten hours to shoot, was anything but predictable. Plaza admitted that the details were far from rehearsed, making for some unplanned moments during the shoot.
Filming the scene was unpredictable
During her chat with Jimmy Kimmel, Plaza recalled that the scene wasn’t fully scripted, leading to a number of surprises on set. “There was a lot of interesting stuff that went down, you know,” she said. The director would frequently pull her aside to offer new instructions for each take. Some of these directions worked, but others didn’t quite land as expected.
“I’d try to get in there and suck on his nipples, and he was like batting me away, and I didn’t know if it was in character or not,” Plaza laughed. After one take, the director let her know, “Bob does not like his nipple area paid attention to,” which only added to the awkwardness. Plaza joked, "Great, now he thinks that I wanted to do that."
De Niro was nervous about working with Plaza
What surprised Plaza the most was discovering that it was De Niro who was nervous to work with her. She shared, “I heard from my agent, who had spoken to his agent that he was legitimately scared of me.” She thought his apprehension was likely more about her character, a sex-crazed college student, than her personally. “Every time I was around him, it was right before we started shooting, so I would be all over him, and I think I really freaked him out,” she said.
Despite the tension, Plaza and De Niro managed to have fun while filming, with Plaza joking about the challenges of working with the veteran actor.
Dirty Grandpa was released on January 22, 2016, bringing these memorable moments to the big screen.