Robert De Niro claims Gotham Awards speech was censored without his knowledge

Robert De Niro claimed his speech was edited without his knowledge during the Gotham Awards on Monday night.

The Taxi Driver actor took to the stage at Cipriani Wall Street in New York to present the Gotham Historical Icon & Creator Tribute to his latest movie, Killers of the Flower Moon.

During his speech, De Niro appeared confused as he read from the teleprompter, and he subsequently told the audience that his anti-Trump comments had been removed without notice.

"The beginning of my speech was edited, cut out, and I didn't know about it. And I want to read it," he said, bringing the speech up on his phone. "History isn't history anymore. Truth is not truth. Even facts are being replaced by alternative facts, and driven by conspiracy theories and ugliness."

He continued, "Lying has become just another tool in the charlatan's arsenal. The former president lied to us more than 30,000 times during his four years in office. And he's keeping up the pace in his current campaign of retribution. But with all his lies, he can't hide his soul. He attacks the weak, destroys the gifts of nature and shows disrespect, for example, by using Pocahontas as a slur. Filmmakers, on the other hand, strive - this is where I came in and I saw that they edited all that."

De Niro concluded his speech by blasting Apple, the studio behind Killers of the Flower Moon, and Gotham organisers for editing his speech.

"I don't feel like thanking them at all for what they did. How dare they do that, actually?" he asked, before introducing his co-stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Lily Gladstone to the stage to accept the tribute.