9 Actors Who Helped Movies In Ways You Won't Believe
1. Robert De Niro Agreed To Screen An Anti-Vaccine Film At His Festival (But Later Backed Out) - Vaxxed
Robert De Niro hasn't ever been one to shy away from his political leanings, proudly waving the flag for Democratic presidential candidates and most recently proclaiming, "F**k Trump," on national television.
But the acting vet got himself into hot water when, as founder of the Tribeca Film Festival, he agreed to screen a documentary at the fest in 2016, Vaxxed: From Cover-Up to Catastrophe.
The film, directed by discredited anti-vaccine activist Andrew Wakefield, is effectively anti-vaccine propaganda espousing the widely-debunked link between the MMR vaccine and autism.
Despite the initial uproar about the film premiering at Tribeca, De Niro initially defended his decision, citing the fact that he himself had a child with autism.
De Niro did eventually decide to pull Vaxxed from the festival after speaking with festival reps and scientific experts, though by even entertaining the idea of screening the propaganda doc at his world-famous festival, he had massively elevated its profile and effectively given it tons of much-needed publicity.
Likely in part due to the PR boost of the De Niro controversy, Vaxxed was commercially successful enough to get a 2019 sequel, Vaxxed II: The People's Truth, which was similarly panned by those few science-subscribing critics who even bothered to review it.