Movie News

Dressing De Niro

Mon 22 Oct 11:33 AM

British director Matthew Vaughn said asking Robert De Niro to wear a dress in his movie Stardust was one of his hardest tasks.

De Niro plays a cancan dancing, transvestite pirate called Captain Shakespeare in the fantasy adventure, but Vaughn, 36, didn't know how to broach the subject of the character's cross-dressing tendencies, so he kept quiet until De Niro got suspicious about the role.

Vaughn, who is married to supermodel Claudia Schiffer, recalled: "We had a meeting about the film and halfway through nothing had been said, so I started to get nervous. I kept thinking, 'When is he going to ask about the dress?', but he didn't say anything.

"Then as I was leaving, Bob turned round and said: 'One last question. Am I gay or a transvestite?' I told him he could play it however he liked!"

Stardust, which co-stars Michelle Pfeiffer and Clare Danes, is in cinemas now.