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In Raging
Bull, he gained and lost 60 pounds in order to portray boxer Jake
LaMotta. In Taxi Driver, he stood in an army fatigue jacket
before a mirror, rehearsing those unforgettable lines, "Are you talkin'
to me? I don't see anybody else here. You talkin' to me?" In Cape
Fear, he scared the daylights out of movie audiences with a portrayal
of a vengeful ex-con that seemed so real it left you wondering where the
acting stopped and reality began. And now, in a complete change of pace,
in the box office comedy hit Meet the Parents, he portrays
a maniacally overprotective father who grills his prospective son-in-law
with the aid of a lie detector!
Over the
last 27 years, Robert DeNiro has played a wide range of roles—everything
from drama, to comedy, to horror—a range much broader than most actors
are willing to take on. Rather than stay in a niche, cornering the market
on a certain style or type of role, DeNiro has taken chances. Critics
and fellow actors alike agree, however, that whatever role he attempts,
DeNiro literally becomes the character he is playing. Another thing they
seem to agree on is that while the characters he plays become real, it
is very difficult to get in touch with the man behind the character. He's
described as an elusive individual who reveals very little about himself
or his private life.
 Let's
use astrology to see if we can peer through the camouflage and find the
real Robert DeNiro. He was born August 17, 1943, at 3:00 am in Brooklyn,
New York. His Sun (the core identity and basic energy) is in Leo, the
sign of the actor. Leos love drama on and off camera, and have no trouble
commanding center stage. The Moon (his personality and emotional nature)
is in sensitive, amorphous Pisces—a sign known for empathy, which is the
ability to put yourself in someone else's shoes.
Essence
and Form
The difference
between the Sun and the Moon in an individual's horoscope is the difference
between essence and form. While the Sun represents our essential nature,
we need the Moon to give it form. Robert DeNiro's essence is to act. He
was born to perform. With the Moon in free-flowing Pisces, there is no
limit to the forms into which he can pour his essence. Alteration of appearance,
speech, weight and gait is no problem for no-boundary Pisces. With the
Moon near his Pisces Midheaven, a major career point in the horoscope,
this trait had a strong influence on his choice of vocation.
The Moon
is even more powerful in DeNiro's horoscope because it rules the Ascendant.
In astrology, each of the planets is given rulership over a certain sign.
The Moon is the ruler of Cancer, and DeNiro's chart has Cancer rising
on the Ascendant. The Ascendant is the most personal point in a horoscope,
representing our modus operandi, or way of relating to the world, and
even our physical appearance.
It is interesting
to observe that when Cancer rises in someone’s chart, the individual is
normally of a pale complexion, reflecting, perhaps, the pale light of
the Moon itself. In his childhood, DeNiro was known around Little Italy
in New York as "Bobby Milk," because of his pallor. He was a
shy kid who preferred books to friends, but was able to overcome his timidity
at age ten for his first stage role in a school play. Fittingly for a
Leo with a Pisces Moon, he played the cowardly lion in "The Wizard
of Oz."
The
Method
Looking further,
DeNiro has Mercury and Venus conjunct in Virgo. Mercury is in charge of
thinking and working, while Venus describes our artistic abilities. Placed
together in a conjunction, these two energies work together in methodical
Virgo. In preparation for his acting career, while he worked in dinner
theaters and off-Broadway in the 1960s, he studied method acting with
Lee Strasberg. So while DeNiro's ability to shift from one persona to
another may seem easy, if not a little weird, there is definitely a method
to his madness.
Saturn, the
planet that represents achievement and our urge to control, is another
key planet in DeNiro's chart. It is located in the Twelfth House, which
can indicate an individual who prefers to maintain control by keeping
separate. DeNiro may have chosen to deliberately hide behind his characters
as a way of avoiding revealing too much about himself, as a defensive
measure.
Nevertheless,
DeNiro's breakthrough performance was in 1973 in the TV drama Bang
the Drum Slowly, in which he played dying baseball player Bruce
Pearson. It was the year of DeNiro's Saturn return, when Saturn completed
its first full cycle around the horoscope, returning to the place in the
sky it occupied at his birth. The last 27 years have been the fulfillment
of a second Saturn career cycle that will conclude in July 2002. DeNiro
may go in a new direction at that time, perhaps devoting his full attention
to his Tribeca Film Center, a company dedicated to promoting film production
in New York.
Currently,
with transiting Jupiter conjuncting Uranus in his Eleventh House and
Pluto sending a harmonious trine to Jupiter in his second, DeNiro's popularity
and financial success are at a new high. But between January and April
2001, with Saturn conjuncting his Mars and Neptune opposing Pluto in his
Second House of money, DeNiro should consider carefully any investments
in risky projects, otherwise acrimonious disputes with those he thought
were friends could be the result.
To sum it
up, Robert DeNiro is the essential actor's actor with the ability to choose
at will the form his creativity will take. With his Virgo planets providing
the method, and Saturn in control behind the scenes, Robert DeNiro is
truly the master of form and essence.
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