The King of Comedy
Short description
Rupert Pupkin is an aspiring comedian convinced he belongs on television, and he fixates on Jerry Langford, the host of a popular late-night talk show. After a brief encounter with his idol, Rupert takes a brush-off as encouragement and begins pursuing a spot on the program, aided at points by Masha, a friend who is just as obsessed with Langford. When the normal routes into show business lead nowhere, Rupert's campaign to be seen takes a more extreme turn.
Martin Scorsese directed the film, the tenth of the thirty-eight features he has made, following Raging Bull and preceding After Hours. Paul D. Zimmerman wrote the screenplay, and Arnon Milchan produced. Robert De Niro plays Rupert, with Jerry Lewis as Langford, Diahnne Abbott as Rita, Sandra Bernhard as Masha, Shelley Hack as Cathy Long and Frederick de Cordova as Bert Thomas. Seventy-five cast members and fifty crew members are credited.
The film was released in December 1982 and runs 109 minutes. Made for about 20 million dollars, it returned roughly 3 million worldwide, a poor result on that scale. Audiences rate it at 7.8 out of 10 on IMDb from around 132,000 votes and 7.8 out of 10 on TMDB from a much smaller base, while a critics' rating stands at 8.5 out of 10 from 73 reviews, a higher mark than either audience figure.
What's left behind the scenes
- In the scene where Robert De Niro and Sandra Bernhard's characters argue, some thugs begin to harass her. The roles of the latter were played by Mick Jones, Joe Strummer, and Paul Simonon from the British punk rock band The Clash (1976-1985).
- Almost all of Rupert's scenes performed by Robert De Niro in Jerry's house were improvised. During the phone call, Kim Chan's character made up his lines as he went along. The episode where this character just can't open the door was also not written in the script.
- When Rupert appeared at Langford's house, Robert De Niro deliberately made several antisemitic remarks in order to seriously anger Jerry Lewis (1926-2017). Lewis was shocked, and his genuine reaction to the insults pleased the director.
- During the filming of the movie, Robert De Niro was married to Dianne Abbott, who played the role of Rita.
- The lawyer Jerry Langford was played by Martin Scorsese's lawyer.
- Sandra Bernhard had no formal acting training. The role of Masha was her film debut. Considering all this and wanting her character to look as natural as possible, director Martin Scorsese allowed her to improvise lines.
- The character played by Jerry Lewis is also named Jerry. Initially, the script stated that Jerry Langford's name was Bobby. Lewis himself suggested calling him by his own name so the camera could capture the reaction of passersby on the street who recognized him. In this scene, only the taxi driver and the woman in the phone booth were professional actors; all the others were random passersby.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
