With age comes a lack of patience, a life lesson that our grandparents taught us well.

So, when detailed accounts of Robert de Niro being fed up during a promotional interview for his new movie where he stars as Anne Hathaway’s intern, it’s no wonder after a full day of silly questions the star got up and walked out.

The interviewer, Emma Brockes, who frequently writes for The Guardian, said Robert accused her of asking him questions with a “negative inference”. More than once.

There were two questions that set Robert off.

First off, she queried about the impact of Tribeca – the neighbourhood that plays host to Robert’s Tribeca Film Festival – being owned by bankers and he replied that the whole interview was filled with negativity:

All the way through. Negative inference. The whole way through and I’m not doing it. I’m not doing it, darling.

But it was the second question that got his blood boiling. Emma asked Robert if he ever went into autopilot mode while acting. And he repeated:

All the way through. Negative inference.

Emma admitted she lost her cool, telling De Niro:

I think you’re very condescending.

To which the grumpy old man answered before he walked out.

Oh, you think ‘darling’ is condescending?

Shame man. Sometimes you just don’t want to talk to people – especially when your new ‘comedy’ has received more negative reviews than positive ones.

[source: theguardian]