Robert De Niro at Work is the first critical study to examine how
Robert de Niro, perhaps the finest screen actor of his generation, works
with screenplays to imagine, prepare and denote his performance. In
categorising the various ways in which De Niro works with a screenplay,
this book will re-examine the relationship between actor and text. This
book considers the screenplay as above all a working document and a
material object, present at every stage of the filmmaking process. The
working screenplay goes through various iterations in development and
exists in many versions on set, each adapted and personalised for the
specific use of the individual and their role. As the archive reveals,
nobody works more closely with the script than the actor, and no actor
works more on a script than De Niro.