Robert De Niro shared insights about how Richard Dreyfuss took the role initially intended for him.
During the appearance at Tribeca Festival's De Niro Con for the screening of their 1997 movie Jackie Brown, De Niro, 80, and Quentin Tarantino, 61 discussed a backstory behind his involvement in the classic film.
The Irishman star initially starred in and started filming the earlier version, but director Mike Nichols felt he wasn't suited for the comedic role and eventually fired him.
De Niro mentioned that he blamed himself as he “didn’t know certain things. It was a certain type of comedy — Neil Simon — that had the timing that would be a certain way … It just wasn’t working. I shot for about two weeks.”
The Taxi Driver went on to say, “It was the worst … You know, I’ve had maybe three times in my life that I’ve ever had that experience with a director. You can’t make them happy and they’re not happy and you’re kind of feeling that. So this was one of them.”
To note, in the 70’s film Bogart Slept Here, the script was later reworked into the 1977 film The Goodbye Girl, which earned Richard Dreyfuss an Academy Award.
