Robert De Niro drops the F bomb in university commencement speech

Nothing like this has ever happened in commencement speeches at UBC or SFU.

Last week at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, Robert De Niro had a blunt message for the graduating class.

"You're fucked," he said.

De Niro pointed out that performing-arts students, unlike those in other faculties, must look forward to a life of rejection.

But then the veteran actor put a more pleasant light on this, noting that in the arts, "passion should always trump common sense."

"Now that you've made your choice—or rather succumbed to it—your path is clear," he said.

Besides, he cautioned, artists can't be too relaxed about what they do and they don't want to block the pain too much.

"Rejection might sting but my feeling is that often, it has very little to do with you," he stated.

That's because producers, directors, or investors usually have someone very different in mind before auditions even begin, according to the star of such movies as Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, and Goodfellas.

"That happened to me when I auditioned for the role of Martin Luther King in Selma, which is too bad because I felt I could have played the hell out of that part," De Niro quipped.

So how should artists cope with rejection?

"I hear that Valium and Vicodin work," De Niro said with a smile.