De Niro tears up: Actor emotional on Katie Couric's talk show

When actor De Niro tears up in "Silver Linings Playbook," it makes for one of the more emotional scenes in the Oscar-nominated film. Recently, the actor himself teared up in a more real life moment, when he was speaking about a sensitive subject on Katie Couric's TV talk show.

As reported on UPI.com earlier on Feb. 6, Robert De Niro joined actor Bradley Cooper on "Katie" to discuss the new film. However, De Niro became particularly choked up when he started talking about how he knew what director David O. Russell is going through with his 18-year-old son who has bipolar disorder. Russell spoke of why he wanted to make this move for the sake of awareness, because of the hard times he has faced dealing with his own son's mood swings. That particular situation helped De Niro and Russell connect when discussing Robert's role for "Silver Linings Playbook."

An emotional De Niro said during the talk show appearance as he reached for a tissue:

"I don't like to get emotional. But I know what [Russell] goes through."

The film director added regarding an emotional meeting he had with De Niro over the film:

"I thought he was having hay fever, and I realized he was having an emotional reaction.

I sat there and watched Robert De Niro cry for 10 minutes and I said, 'Wow, he's really connecting with this material and this would be a beautiful thing if it could work out, because I think his heart would be there,' and it is there."

A video clip from Katie's recent interview with De Niro, Cooper and Russell is available here. The film "Silver Linings Playbook" is nominated for several Academy awards including Best Actor for Bradley Cooper and Best Supporting Actor for Robert De Niro. "Katie" is seen weekdays at 3 p.m. EST on local ABC affiliate WSET 13.