East of Eden, the same thing. I really started to get into those types of actors and those kinds of performances after I saw those two films.

De Niro’s own favorite films examine this theme: Marlon Brando’s Stanley Kowalski in A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE, Montgomery Clift’s George Eastman in A PLACE IN THE SUN, Brando’s Terry Malloy in ON THE WATERFRONT and James Dean’s Cal Trask in EAST OF EDEN. Each explores one man’s struggle as he confronts the unpredictability of the human condition.

“I watched Rebel Without a Cause so many times.” East of Eden too, he tells me, describing how the television at his father’s house was always tuned to Turner Classic Movies. “It seems almost impossible what Dean was doing,” Butler says, “the animalistic power that he had.”