Robert DeNiro gets emotional on 'Katie'

Silver Linings Playbook stars Robert DeNiro and Bradley Cooper paid a visit to Katie Couric’s morning talk show Katie to discuss their film and its portrayal of bipolar disorder. Accompanying them was the film’s director David O. Russell, whose child suffers from a mood disorder.

DeNiro got particularly choked up on the show when Katie asked him a question about Russell’s child, reported Celebrity-Gossip.

Couric asked DeNiro if he felt a certain amount of responsibility about doing a film Russell had so much personal investment in, to which DeNiro replied, “Oh, of course, I understand what he… I don’t like to get emotional, but I know exactly what he goes through.” During this, DeNiro had to compose himself before moving on, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

SLP stars Bradley Cooper as a former high school teacher, who’s bipolar disorder caused him to brutally injure the man his wife was cheating on him with. Faced with a life crisis, he starts spending time with Jennifer Lawrence’s character, a mentally unstable woman who lost her husband in a freak accident. DeNiro plays Cooper’s father, a protective father ridden with obsessive-compulsion and superstition over the Philadelphia Eagles.

The film was widely successful, earning Cooper, DeNiro, and Lawrence acting nominations at the 2013 Academy Awards.