Robert De Niro has opened up about his honest impression of watching himself back on the big screen, revealing there are some moments he ‘possibly’ realises just how good he is.

The acting icon has fronted some of the most iconic films in cinema, including Killers of the Flower Moon, Goodfellas, The Godfather franchise, Raging Bull, A Bronx Tale and Jackie Brown – to name just a few.

At this year’s Tribeca Film Festival, which kicks off today in Manhattan, the 81-year-old will be reminiscing over his efforts in Casino and Meet the Parents at special anniversary events, alongside Martin Scorsese and Ben Stiller respectively.

Speaking to Metro to celebrate the annual event, which he co-founded with producer Jane Rosenthal in 2002, the dad-of-seven touched on how it feels to reflect on his time in the spotlight.

When asked whether rewatching those projects makes him realise just how good he is in front of the camera, he couldn’t help but give us the most Robert De Niro answer ever, quipping: ‘That’s possible…

‘Most of the time you’re just sort of looking and [squirming] but it’s possible. Especially if you have many, many years distance between the time that you did it and the time you’re seeing it.

‘You can be a little more objective.’

Questioning if he ever looks at the films differently now, after having seen them through fresh eyes and with an audience, he clarified: ‘I’m not going to see them with an audience – I might.

‘I’ll try to look at them but not with an audience. I’m doing one Q&A before, and one after.’

Robert has always celebrated his career at Tribeca with screenings and Q&A sessions – and last year was honored with his very own ‘De Niro Con’ around Manhattan.

This year is no different as he is appearing at events to mark the 25-year anniversary of Meet the Parents, as well as a chat with Martin Scorsese on all things Casino for the iconic flick’s 30th birthday.

In Meet the Parents, he showed off his comedic talents when he invited us all into his ‘circle of trust’ as the stern father who was meeting his daughter’s boyfriend, Gaylord ‘Greg’ Focker (Ben Stiller), for the first time.

Unfortunately, Greg’s attempts to impress his partner’s parents didn’t quite go as planned, leading to lie detectors and a lost family cat.

Casino was a slightly different vibe but equally as legendary, with Robert playing mobster Sam ‘Ace’ Rothstein.

He is tasked with running a Las Vegas casino but takes action when his pal Nicky Santoro’s (Joe Pesci) criminal activities – and his own romance with con artist Ginger (Sharon Stone) – draw too much attention to their antics.

Aside from Casino, he has worked with director Martin a number of times, staring off their close relationship with Mean Streets in 1973, before reuniting on Taxi Driver three years later.

They went on to share a set in New York, New York, as well as Goodfellas, Cape Fear and Netflix’s The Irishman.

Robert has also showered with acclaim and accolades from projects with the filmmaker – he won the best actor trophy at the Oscars for his efforts in 1980’s Raging Bull, and a Golden Globe.

He landed a further two nominations for stints in Marty’s movies – including Cape Fear and Killers of the Flower Moon, while his first Oscar came from his scene-stealing turn in Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather Part II.

The Hollywood heavyweight has graced our screens for decades and is clearly showing no signs of slowing down, having made his TV debut in Netflix series Zero Day earlier this year.

He recently played a dual role as both Vito Genovese and Frank Costello in The Alto Knights, and is next set to pop up in The Whisper Man alongside Michelle Monaghan, Adam Scott and Michael Keaton.

However, speaking to GQ he explained that there is still one thing that he would love to do in terms of his career.

‘I was always thinking I’d like to see all my movies,’ he told the outlet. ‘Go over them all and see [them] in the order I made them and just sort of see everything that I’ve done one last time in my life.

‘I don’t know if I’ll ever do it but I used to think, I’d like to do it.’

We need to make this happen.

Tribeca Film Festival runs until June 15.

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