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
Robert De Niro to 128 pounds for the role in this film. Kazan adds that De Niro "is one of a select number of actors I've directed who work hard at their trade, and the only one who asked to rehearse on Sundays. Most of the others play tennis. Bobby and I would go over the scenes to be shot. Bobby is more meticulous... he's very imaginative. He's very precise. He figures everything out both inside and outside. He has good emotion. He's a character actor: everything he does he calculates. In a good way, but he calculates." Kazan developed and used those