Robert De Niro Blasts Ex-Assistant's Discrimination Claims as 'Nonsense' in His Testimony

De Niro was the first to take the stand on Monday during the gender-discrimination trial in New York City

Robert De Niro is dismissing his former assistant's legal claims as "nonsense."

During his testimony Monday at a civil trial in New York City, the 80-year-old actor addressed the gender-discrimination allegations from the ex-assistant, Graham Chase Robinson, claiming that they are blown out of proportion.

"She is working for me; she has to do what I'm asking," De Niro said on the stand during questioning from Robinson's legal counsel. "It is not like I'm asking her to go out on the floor and scrape floors and go out and mop the floor. I didn't do any of that and neither did [girlfriend Tiffany Chen], so this is all nonsense."

The Killers of the Flower Moon star was responding to a question about whether Chen told him that it felt like Robinson was living with the couple, during the time she was employed.

"[Tiffany] might have been saying stuff because she was annoyed, but she was annoyed because Robinson was disrespectful to her. Period. And that is unacceptable," De Niro said.

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Related: Robert De Niro Set to Testify Against His Ex-Assistant at Gender Discrimination Court Trial

De Niro also confirmed during his testimony that he had once called Robinson at 4:30 a.m., "when I cracked my back falling down the stairs," but claimed that he didn't regularly call her in the middle of the night.

"I didn't call her at 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning when it actually happened," he added of the injury.

De Niro was the first to take the stand at a federal courthouse in N.Y.C. on Monday. During questioning from his ex-assistant's legal counsel, the Oscar winner agreed that Robinson "did anything and everything within the confines of her job“ but objected to "the implication that it is anything and everything in my personal life."

When asked about tasks Robinson completed for De Niro's girlfriend Chen, the actor became visibly upset, explaining he and Chen "work together."

Robinson was first hired as the Godfather star's assistant at Canal Productions in 2008. Other tasks during her 11 years of employment that Robinson's attorney Andrew Macurdy asked De Niro to clarify included running operations at his townhouse, helping to furnish an apartment and creating Valentine's Day cards for his then-wife, Grace Hightower.

The latter, said De Niro, was "one of the few things [Robinson] was very good at."

The legal battle between Canal Productions and Robinson is expected to continue until Nov. 10. It began in 2019, when Robinson left the company after being promoted to vice president for production and finance. Following her departure, Canal Productions filed a $6 million lawsuit against Robinson, alleging that she binge-watched Netflix shows while working and that she abused her position to inappropriately use “her employer’s fund for her personal gain.”

Robinson then counter-sued De Niro and Canal Productions for alleged violations of the New York City Human Rights Law, claiming that De Niro directed sexist comments and conduct at her, assigned her "stereotypically female job duties that were inconsistent with her job title," and paid her less than a male employee due to gender-based stereotypes, per a release from Sanford Heisler Sharp, the law firm representing Robinson.

The release also alleged that Chen had "falsely accused Robinson of being in love" with De Niro and that he "then retaliated after Robinson complained, stripping Robinson of her job duties and driving her to resign" in April 2019.

Related: Robert De Niro Claims Ex-Employee Threatened to Write a Damaging Memoir About the Actor

The trial in New York will continue to feature texts and emails shared between De Niro and Chen, who in one message screenshot displayed in court called Robinson "a nasty b----." In another screenshot, Chen wrote that the plaintiff has an idea of “demented imaginary intimacy.”

De Niro testified on the stand that he now agreed with Chen about Robinson's alleged feelings for him: “I was shocked by that but now looking back she might’ve been onto something.”

After Robinson's attorney Brent Hannafan claimed she "had to be on call all the time and call her he would," the court was shown multiple email screenshots of Robinson letting De Niro know where she was on holidays and weekends.

The actor countered that his then-assistant's assigned working hours “were civilized ... You’re making it out like I controlled her.” The issue that led to problems with Robinson's work performance, the Irishman star added, was that “instead of doing what she needed to do, she didn't."

“I believe in the honor system," De Niro stated. “I only value work if it is done right or else it reflects poorly on me.”

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