Robert De Niro was left furious at the Gotham Independent Film Awards, as he claimed part of his speech had been "edited" without his knowledge

But there was controversy during his acceptance speech, which the Hollywood legend was reading from a teleprompter, as he appeared to be struggling and then paused, before realising some of his speech, in which he blasted former US President Donald Trump, was missing.

Speaking to the audience, he said: "I just want to say one thing. The beginning of my speech was edited, cut out, and I didn't know about it. And I want to read it."

Robert then took his phone out and began to read the part of his speech that had been "cut", which also referenced a 1971 Playboy interview with late actor John Wayne, who was known as "The Duke".

He continued: "It was ... Thank you, history isn't history anymore. Truth is not truth. Even facts are being replaced by alternative facts and driven by conspiracy theories and ugliness.

"In Florida, young students are taught that slaves develop skills which can be applied for their personal benefit.

"The entertainment industry isn't immune to this festering disease.

"The Duke John Wayne famously said of Native Americans, 'I don't feel we did wrong in taking this great country away from them. There were great numbers of people who needed new land and the Indians were selfishly trying to keep it for themselves.'

"Lying has become just another tool in the charlatans' arsenal. The former president lied to us more than 30,000 times during his four years in office, and he's keeping up the pace in his current campaign of retribution.

"But with all his lies, he can't hide his soul. He attacks the weak, destroys the gifts of nature, and shows disrespect, for example, by using Pocahontas as a slur.

"Filmmakers, on the other hand ..."

He then said: "This is where I came in and I saw they edited all that."

Robert was applauded by the audience for reading out the missing part of his speech, but admitted he didn't feel like "thanking" the Gotham Awards and Killers Of The Flower Moon's producer Apple, accusing them of editing his words.

He continued: "I'm going to say these things, but to Apple and thank them and all that ... Gotham, bla bla bla, thank them and all that.

"But I don't feel like thanking them at all for what they did. How dare they do that, actually."