Robert De Niro will be doing an Uber U.K. ad campaign, but it will not be tied to his memorable Taxi Driver role.
Reports earlier this week in U.K. tabloid The Sun suggested that the Oscar-winning actor would be bringing one of his most memorable roles, Travis Bickle, to the commercial space. The ads were allegedly set to feature the actor uttering the famous line, “You talkin’ to me?”
The actor’s rep Stan Rosenfield denied that De Niro would be uttering the well-known phrase, and in a statement, told The Hollywood Reporter that “De Niro’s Uber commercial has nothing to do with his Taxi Driver character.”
THR has reached out to Uber for comment.
The campaign is currently filming in London and is slated to launch sometime later this year.
News that De Niro could possibly reprise his Taxi Driver role for Uber ads caught the attention of the movie’s writer, who responded critically on his own Facebook.
“Ouch,” Schrader wrote in a post shared on Wednesday. “Why Bob would do this is beyond my reckoning. But I haven’t seen it. If I’m lucky, I never will.”
Taxi Driver earned the Palme d’Or at the 1976 Cannes Film Festival, as well as four Oscar nominations, including best picture, best actor and best supporting actress.
The Martin Scorsese-directed psychological thriller about a taxi driver and his deteriorating mental state, also starred Jodie Foster, Cybill Shepherd, Harvey Keitel, Peter Boyle, Leonard Harris and Albert Brooks.
De Niro would go on to work with both Schrader and Scorsese again, including 1980’s Raging Bull. Next De Niro will appear in Scorsese’s latest anticipated film, Killers of the Flower Moon.
Uber has seen a number of celebrities help advertise for both its Uber Eats delivery service and Uber One, its separate membership service, in recent years. That includes Gwyneth Paltrow, Jennifer Coolidge, Trevor Noah, Sarah Silverman and Nicholas Braun.
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