Robert De Niro says he did the Warburtons ad because 'f*** it, why not?'

Robert De Niro has no regrets about doing the Warburtons adverts.

The Goodfellas star took some flack for the ads, in which he played a gangster trying to muscle in on Warburtons' new bagel line, set at the company's Bolton HQ.

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The ad also starred bakery chairman Jonathan Warburton, who seemed oblivious to De Niro's strong arm tactics.

Speaking to GQ, he explained that the way had ben paved before him by Sylvester Stallone, who appeared in Warburtons ads in 2015.

“Look, they asked me to do it and I met the guy, Warburton, and I thought it was funny,” he said.

“I saw Stallone do it and I thought at least he has a sense of humour about it and about himself. And I thought I can look at it two ways.

“Should I think I should never have done that? I’m too good for that or something? And I said, f*** it, I’ll do it. Why not?

“Don’t hold it against me.”

Stallone joined the Warburtons work force in his ad in 2015, nodding to movies like Rocky and The Expendables.

The Rambo star said at the time: “I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Bolton and particularly loved spending time in the bakery.

“Maybe I should have stopped beating up bad guys a long time ago and gone into baking instead.”

De Niro is next up in Martin Scorsese's The Irishman, due to land on Netflix on November 27.