The King of Comedy (film) without fists". She went on to write that "De Niro in disguise denies his characters a soul. De Niro's 'bravura' acting in "Mean Streets, Taxi Driver" and "New York, New York" collapsed into 'anti-acting' after he started turning himself into repugnant flesh eggies of soulless characters ... Pupkin is a nothing." Scorsese says that "people were confused with "King of Comedy" and saw Bob as some sort of mannequin". Scorsese has called De Niro's role as Rupert Pupkin his favorite of all their collaborations. Sandra Bernhard, who plays Masha in the film, indicated in a 2013 interview that Jack Black
A Bronx Tale (play) The play had a sold-out run and Palminteri received a 1989–1990 Special Award from the Outer Critics Circle. Academy Award winning actor Robert De Niro attended a performance of "A Bronx Tale" and offered to buy the film rights to the show. Palminteri agreed to sell the film rights on the conditions that he would be able to write the screenplay and that he be cast as the role of Sonny. The film version of "A Bronx Tale" premiered in 1993. The film version marked the directorial debut of De Niro and helped catapult Palminteri's film acting career. In 2007,