The King of Comedy (film) character fails to differentiate between his fantasies and reality in much the same way. Scorsese sought to achieve the same with the film so that, in his words, the "fantasy is more real than reality". Rupert Pupkin has been compared to Travis Bickle in "Taxi Driver": both characters have serious issues with reality testing, that is drawing the line between outer objective and inner subjective reality. In her review, entertainment columnist Marilyn Beck approved Johnny Carson's refusal to participate in "The King of Comedy", supposedly because he feared the film could inspire psychopaths like John Hinckley. Beck considered "The King
The Audition (2015 film) The Audition (2015 film) The Audition is a 2015 short film directed by Martin Scorsese. It stars Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio, playing fictionalized versions of themselves, who travel through Asia and compete against each other for a potential role in Scorsese's next film. The short film was created as a promotional piece for the Studio City Macau Resort and Casino. It is Scorsese's first film to feature both De Niro and DiCaprio. Both actors had individually worked with Scorsese several times in the past (De Niro with eight films when the short was released, DiCaprio with five), but