While filming a film with Robert De Niro, Aubrey Plaza admitted to using some unconventional methods.
The movie released in 2016 stars De Niro alongside Zac Efron.
During Spring Break, the two actors—Zoey Deutch and Aubrey Plaza—play the roles of a lawyer and his grandfather, who meet the characters Shadia and Lenore in Florida.
Plaza’s character is a younger woman who is intent upon sleeping with a college professor, leading De Niro’s character to say that’s what he is.
Plaza, for her part, dove headfirst into character, to the point where she worried she was going too far with her method acting.
Specifically, we’re talking about Dirty Grandpa.
At ScreenTalk at the London Film Festival, she described how one of her agents was informed that “Bob’s a little freaked out” due to her behavior while filming.
Plaza said: “I didn’t have time to get to know him, he shows up in a puff of smoke and there’s no chatting at the water cooler.”
The former Parks and Recreation star continued by saying that she was already “in character” when he showed up because she hadn’t had chance to meet him well.
She said: “By the time he’d show up, I’m in character. My character had one goal: to have sex with him. I was acting totally insane as the character because we were about to shoot.
“I don’t think he understood that wasn’t me. You’d think he would because he’s an actor and an amazing one.”
Still, Plaza said that she likely would have toned it down a bit if given the chance.
She said: “At first I think I came on really strong. I did some questionable things I wouldn’t do anymore.”
Plaza opened out about the “gift” she gave De Niro in character during an earlier chat with late-night host Seth Meyers.
She said: “I didn’t know him, we’d never talked, and I was really scared of working with him… but I was like, ‘I’m gonna do something really crazy’, and I took a real slutty picture of myself in my trailer, in character, and then I printed it out and I put it in a book of zen Buddhism.
“And then I slipped it under his trailer door with a little note that said, ‘Happy shooting’, or something, and then I waited.”
Around a week passed leaving Plaza ‘terrified’ she’d made a mistake.
“[De Niro] just casually came over to me and he was like, ‘I got your book…’ I put the picture on page four and he was like, ‘I only got to page four, but it was very good,’ and then he walked away.”