There are many things to say about the two-time Oscar winner Robert De Niro. How he has acquired, and maintained, a reputation as the finest actor of his generation, despite appearing in more bad films than any thespian of comparable talent, save his friend and occasional co-star Al Pacino. How he has made a fortune out of pursuing business ventures outside of acting, most famously investing in the Nobu restaurant group, but also in everything from jukebox musicals (We Will Rock You) to real estate; he is said to own a substantial proportion of the upmarket Tribeca neighbourhood in his native New York.

But has De Niro ever made any public comment about any of these things? No, he has not. Or at least, if he has, it will be a mumbled couple of words.

It is now clear to any seasoned De Niro observer that the man hates being interviewed, whether out of shyness, deep contempt for journalists or something else entirely. He refuses to put a coherent or interesting sentence together, and when he does say something, it is either painfully banal or simply gnomic. Some would call this his prerogative; others would describe it simply as rudeness. Yet it is a prerequisite of the film business that its best-loved practitioners agree to answer questions, usually to promote a new picture. In the case of De Niro, he usually leaves everyone wishing that he hadn’t bothered.