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
Robert De Niro the 15th Moscow International Film Festival. He appeared in "This Boy's Life" (1993). Around this time, he was offered the role of Mitch Leary in "In the Line of Fire" (1993). However, due to scheduling conflicts with his directorial debut "A Bronx Tale" (1993), he gave up the role to John Malkovich, who later received an Academy Award nomination for it. In "A Bronx Tale", which De Niro agreed to direct after seeing the screenwriter's one-man off-Broadway play, he played a bus driver who struggles to keep his son away from a local mobster. At the 20th Moscow International Film