He’s known for his stoic commitment to method acting, famously driving a New York cab for months ahead of Taxi Driver, and stalking his own autograph hunters while filming The King Of Comedy.

So it should come as no surprise that Robert de Niro is currently in the process of scaring the life out of the world’s most beloved TV hosts, as he promotes his new mafia flick The Alto Knights, continuing on the Drew Barrymore Show on Monday.

Last week, he terrified Alison Hammond with a menacing display on This Morning that made the likes of Goodfellas’ Jimmy Conway and Heat’s Neil McCauley seem tame.

Now the actor, 81, has taken his no-messing approach to promo back across the pond, almost making poor Drew feel like she was going to ‘throw up’ on the hit CBS daytime show with an unnerving response to a light-hearted stunt.

Asking Robert about using social media videos to calm down his daughter Gia, 23 months, the host said: ‘Is it true that Ms Rachel is alive and well in your home?’

He replied: ‘Yes, I became aware of Ms Rachel and I realised that also if there’s a problem with the baby – unhappiness – put on Ms Rachel and it just immediately goes away.’

Robert de Niro is in the process of scaring the life out of the world’s most loved TV hosts, as he promotes mafia flick The Alto Knights, continuing on the Drew Barrymore Show on Monday

The actor, 81, has taken his no-messing approach to promo back across the pond, almost making poor Drew ‘throw up’ on the hit CBS daytime show

In a huge bombshell, Drew revealed that her team had reached out to the education influencer and asked her to piece together a birthday clip for baby Gia, who turns two on April 6. 

‘Hi Gia! It’s Ms Rachel!’ the social media star began, before Robert muttered, ‘Oh boy.’

Holding a toy taxi, Ms Rachel continued: ‘What’s that? It’s a taxi! What does a taxi say? Beep beep, beep beep. What does a taxi driver say? Are you talking to me?’

‘Oh God,’ Robert simply said as he listened to the internet sensation read out his most famous line.

‘Yay great job,’ Ms Rachel added. ‘You have such a special bond with your dada – and your dada and your mama love you so much, you bring them so much joy. Bye Gia!’

Amid rapturous audience applause, Robert could be heard leaning over towards Drew and saying: ‘Ah that’s sweet. Is this live, this show? No? I want Gia to see it.’

An alarmed Drew then addressed the camera, saying: ‘Oh my God. He was like, “Is this live this show?”, I was like, “No, do you want me to cut that out?”, and he was like, “I want Gia to see it”. 

‘Oh I’m so relieved. I almost just threw up. Okay, so you think she’ll like that?’

Education influencer Ms Rachel performed a birthday message for Robert’s daughter Gia, after which he asked if the show was ‘live’

Thankfully there had been a big misunderstanding and the star just ‘wanted Gia to see it’ although he then said: ‘I don’t know what her reaction will be’

Drew added: ‘I just felt like Gaylord Focker by the way, the way you said that line…Did we ever know that Ms Rachel would talk about Taxi Driver? I didn’t know I needed that cross-over’

In his classic laconic style, Robert said: ‘Well, no, it’s nice to show it to her. I don’t know what her reaction will be but…’ 

Drew added: ‘I just felt like Gaylord Focker by the way, the way you said that line. 

‘Did we ever know that Ms Rachel would talk about Taxi Driver? I didn’t know I needed that cross-over in my life but I thank you for that because I didn’t see that coming.’

‘That’s okay,’ Robert said.

The Raging Bull star’s latest unsettling TV appearance comes after he took a seat on This Morning with Debra Messing and looked like he would rather be anywhere else.

Chatting with presenter Alison, Robert would not be moved on the subjects of acting dogs, mafia films or even the movie he was promoting.

The most excruciating moment came when the host, 50, attempted to liven things up a touch with a novel game concept that pitted the famously cagey Casino actor against his current co-star Debra. 

The ice-breaker involved reading unusual nicknames out to the pair and asking them to guess if they were real gangster names or just those of her old school pals.

Robert plays the two leads in The Alto Knights, Frank Costello (pictured, with Debra Messing as Bobbie Costello) and Vito Genovese, as their families go toe-to-toe for supremacy in New York

His latest unsettling TV appearance comes after he took a seat on This Morning with Debra and Alison Hammond and looked like he would rather be anywhere else 

The most excruciating moment came when Alison attempted to liven things up with a novel game concept that pitted the famously cagey Casino actor against his current co-star Debra

The ice-breaker involved reading unusual nicknames out to the pair and asking them to guess if they were real gangster names or just those of her old school pals 

Robert struggled at the quiz and was ultimately beaten by Debra, who received flowers as a prize. 

Whether it was his lack of skill at the game or its quirky concept that caused The Taxi Driver to put on a face that screamed, ‘Are you talking to me?’, is unclear, but viewers immediately took to social media to sink their claws into the interview in the minutes after it aired.

Robert plays the two leads in The Alto Knights, Frank Costello and Vito Genovese, as their rival families go toe-to-toe for supremacy in 1950s New York.

After playing so many gangsters in a 50-year career, the Irishman star was asked why he decided to take the parts.

He simply said: ‘I thought [playing two roles] was more of a justifiable reason to do another gangster movie other than working with all the people I’ve worked with over the years.’

Debra added: ‘I went back and watched all of his gangster films. I pinched myself, this is a very special project. It was challenging mostly because she’s a real person. There’s something delicious about doing a period piece, it helps you lose yourself.’ 

The Raging Bull actor, who welcomed seventh child Gia in 2023 aged 79, was then asked about the difficulties of shooting scenes with dogs in his latest movie.

Robert said: ‘The dogs didn’t know what was going on, this wasn’t a walk they did every day.’

Earlier this month, The One Show viewers expressed concern for a ‘confused and awkward’ Robert after a live interview left them asking ‘what’s wrong with him’ 

During the instalment Robert was asked to give advice to 15-year-old Owen Cooper, who starred in the new Netflix drama, Adolescence 

Alison jokingly asked, ‘Did they get paid?’, to which the film star replied bluntly: ‘That’s a good question.’ 

A particularly awkward moment came when Robert seemingly did not grasp an example of common modern parlance as he was asked how it felt ‘being known as a GOAT [Greatest Of All Time]’.

Read More The One Show viewers concerned for ‘confused and awkward’ Robert de Niro – asking ‘what’s wrong?’

‘What’s that?’ he said baffled, before being filled in on its meaning and adding: ‘That’s a nice feeling, I’m flattered.’ 

Earlier this month, The One Show viewers expressed concern for a ‘confused and awkward’ Robert after a live interview left them asking ‘what’s wrong with him’.

During the instalment Robert was asked to give advice to 15-year-old Owen Cooper, who starred in the new Netflix drama, Adolescence.

Robert told the young actor: ‘Well, I think he’s off to a good start, that’s the main thing.’