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 Temptation of Christ", he explained on at least two different occasions: In addition, De Niro has played a number of Catholic characters in his movies, including a Catholic penitent in the 1986 film "The Mission". De Niro initially supported the inclusion of the controversial documentary about an alleged vaccination coverup, "Vaxxed", at the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival. He explained his interest in the film resulted from his family experience with an autistic son. De Niro withdrew his recommendation after discussion with the scientific community. He said he was pressured by some festival filmmakers to remove "Vaxxed" from the festival line-up.