Few directors would have the temerity to throw lines at Robert De Niro. Then there’s David O. Russell. Mr. Russell, the writer and director of “Silver Linings Playbook,” which stars Mr. De Niro as an obsessive but caring father, had a loose interpretation of following the script: he shouted bits of dialogue for his actors to repeat as the cameras were rolling.

“It had a certain chaotic, frenetic kind of energy, a spontaneity,” Mr. De Niro said by phone from his Manhattan home on Monday. “And people would say that they didn’t know where it was going, which is a good thing. It’s a very interesting, good way to work.”

His performance as Pat Solitano Sr., a Philadelphia Eagles die-hard who must contend with an even more obsessive, unstable and lovelorn son (played by Bradley Cooper), has earned him some of his most glowing reviews recently, and made him a front-runner in the crowded Oscar race for best supporting actor. Even Mr. De Niro, who has been nominated for six Oscars and won two — the last in 1981, for “Raging Bull” — didn’t feign indifference to the trophy hunt.

“Let’s put it this way,” he said, with his customary reserve. “It’s better to be acknowledged by your peers than not to be acknowledged. Anybody who says differently, I don’t know what it means.”