“I’m going to see it with my daughter,” the “King of Comedy” star explains.

Robert De Niro loved working with Ariana Grande, but still hasn’t seen her in Wicked: ‘I still am trying’

"I'm going to see it with my daughter," the "King of Comedy" star explains.

By Wesley Stenzel

Wesley Stenzel

Wesley Stenzel is a news writer at **. He began writing for EW in 2022.

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June 2, 2026 10:00 a.m. ET

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Robert De Niro and Ariana Grande in 'Focker In-Law'. Credit:

Atsushi Nishijima/Universal Pictures and Paramount Pictures

- Robert De Niro says that Ariana Grande was "very professional" while working on *Focker In-Law*.

- The *Taxi Driver* star says that he's "still trying to see" her performance as Glinda in *Wicked*.

- De Niro also shares how he decides which projects to accept.

Robert De Niro enjoyed welcoming Ariana Grande into the circle of trust.

The *Heat *star discusses working with the "7 rings" singer on the forthcoming *Meet the Parents* sequel, *Focker In-Law,* in an interview with *.*

"I liked her," De Niro says of Grande. "Nice kid."

However, the *Taxi Driver* star says he has yet to see the musician's Oscar-nominated turn as Glinda in 2024's *Wicked*.

"I didn't see her movie, and I still am trying to see it, believe it or not, but I want to see it," he explains. "I'm going to see it with my daughter. And she's, of course, seen it."

Ariana Grande in 'Wicked'.

Giles Keyte/Universal Pictures

However, De Niro was familiar with Grande's previous screen work. "I had seen her in some stuff with my daughter, some sitcom thing she had done," he says, presumably in reference to her four-season stint on Nickelodeon's *Victorious*. "I'm forgetting the name. My kid was into that. I was aware of her then and, of course, aware of her in other ways. She was great."

The *King of Comedy* star has nothing but praise for Grande, who portrays Olivia, the girlfriend of De Niro's character's grandson, Henry Focker (Skyler Gisondo).

"She was very professional," he says. "She's terrific and very quick and got it all. She was very much part of the whole process."

Robert De Niro in Cannes, France, on May 13, 2025; Ariana Grande in Los Angeles on Jan. 9, 2026.

Daniele Venturelli/WireImage; Emma McIntyre/WireImage

De Niro emphasizes how crucial it is for actors to reach the same performance wavelength on set. "It's really so important that everybody sort of gets it and jumps in quick, and the timing and the give-and-take is there," he explains. "Everybody understands what we're doing. It's all very professional. It really helps."

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De Niro's other 2026 project is the crime film *The Whisper Man*, directed by New Zealand filmmaker James Ashcroft. What drew De Niro to the project?

"I liked the story. It was interesting," he says. "It's a thriller, and it wasn't, in some ways, as demanding as some other things I've done."

He continues, "I liked just doing it. I wanted to do something, and it was there, and it was in New York. And so I said, 'I'll do it.' And I liked James and everybody who was in it."

Robert De Niro and Ben Stiller in Las Vegas on April 15, 2026.

David Becker/Getty

At 82, De Niro now has over 100 film credits to his name, and he considers a number of factors before committing to his next project.

"It depends. The script, of course, is the first thing," he says. "You'd like that it would be great, but even if it's good and the director is good, I'd want to do it. Sometimes it's the money *and* all those things."

He continues, "In some films, it's not like doing other films with directors I've worked with many times, of course, Martin Scorsese being the main one, where it's a different thing."

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De Niro is currently working on the 25th year of the Tribeca Festival alongside his longtime producing partner Jane Rosenthal. "I have the easy part," he says of his responsibilities to the festival, which he cofounded in 2002. "Jane does all the work with the team — they're great, and it's a daunting job."

He adds, "I wish I had the time to look at many of the movies that are good — and sometimes I do, and I just regret that I can't see others that I know are great. So it's my loss, but I'm here in support of the festival. I'm here. I do whatever I'm asked gladly and so on."

The 2026 Tribeca Festival will take place from June 3 to June 14 in New York City.

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