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 Scorsese earned him the Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Jake LaMotta in the 1980 film "Raging Bull". De Niro's first major film roles were in the sports drama "Bang the Drum Slowly" (1973) and Scorsese's crime film "Mean Streets" (1973). He earned Academy Award nominations for the psychological thrillers "Taxi Driver" (1976) and "Cape Fear" (1991), both directed by Scorsese. De Niro received additional nominations for Michael Cimino's Vietnam war drama "The Deer Hunter" (1978), Penny Marshall's drama "Awakenings" (1990), and David O. Russell's romantic comedy-drama "Silver Linings Playbook" (2012). His portrayal of gangster Jimmy Conway