Aubrey Plaza left Robert De Niro ‘freaked out’ by her ‘insane’ behavior on Dirty Grandpa set

Aubrey Plaza has revealed that she took some unusual methods during the filming for a movie starring Robert De Niro.

The movie released in 2016 stars De Niro alongside Zac Efron.

The pair play a lawyer and his grandpa who travel to Florida during Spring Break where they meet Shadia and Lenore played by Zoey Deutch and Aubrey Plaza.

Plaza’s character is a younger woman who is intent upon sleeping with a college professor, leading De Niro’s character to say that’s what he is.

And Plaza got right into character for the role, worrying that she even took things too far in her method acting.

The movie in question is Dirty Grandpa.

She recalled at London Film Festival’s ScreenTalk that one of her agents was told that ‘Bob’s a little freaked out’ by her on-set behaviour.

Plaza said: “I didn’t have time to get to know him, he shows up in a puff of smoke and there’s no chatting at the water cooler.”

Aubrey Plaza’s character was intent on sleeping with De Niro’s (Lionsgate)

The Parks and Recreation alumnus went on to say that she hadn’t had time to meet him properly, so was already ‘in character’ by the time he arrived.

She said: “By the time he’d show up, I’m in character. My character had one goal: to have sex with him. I was acting totally insane as the character because we were about to shoot.

“I don’t think he understood that wasn’t me. You’d think he would because he’s an actor and an amazing one.”

Nonetheless, Plaza said that she probably wouldn’t have been quite so intense if she had to do it again.

She said: “At first I think I came on really strong. I did some questionable things I wouldn’t do anymore.”

Plaza said she was worried she’d made a mistake (Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty Images)

In a previous interview with late night host Seth Meyers, Plaza revealed that she had given De Niro a ‘gift’ in character.

She said: “I didn’t know him, we’d never talked, and I was really scared of working with him… but I was like, ‘I’m gonna do something really crazy’, and I took a real slutty picture of myself in my trailer, in character, and then I printed it out and I put it in a book of zen Buddhism.

“And then I slipped it under his trailer door with a little note that said, ‘Happy shooting’, or something, and then I waited.”

Around a week passed leaving Plaza ‘terrified’ she’d made a mistake.

“[De Niro] just casually came over to me and he was like, ‘I got your book…’ I put the picture on page four and he was like, ‘I only got to page four, but it was very good,’ and then he walked away.”