The true stories behind Martin Scorsese movie ‘The King of Comedy’
The King of Comedy by Martin Scorsese is one of the legendary director’s best (and perhaps most under-appreciated) cinematic efforts. The 1982 film starred Robert De Niro as a delusional stand-up comedian Robert Pumpkin, who is also an obsessive fan of his hero, the comedian and talk-show host Jerry Langford.
The origins of the movie has roots in true stories. Scriptwriter Paul D. Zimmerman – who in the early 1970s had been a writer for Newsweek – became fascinated by the nature of obsessive fans and the dark side of being famous. He saw a David Susskind programme on autograph hunters and felt that the theme of celebrity worship would make a good film.
Zimmerman also admitted to being influenced by “an article in Esquire about a man who kept a diary in which he assessed each Johnny Carson show: ‘Johnny disappointed me tonight,’ he would write. The talk shows were the biggest shows on television at the time. I started to think about connections between autograph hunters and assassins. Both stalked the famous – one with a pen and one with a gun.”
The resultant screenplay ended up as one of Scorsese’s best films, but interestingly, he was not initially keen on directing the project. De Niro had purchased the rights to Zimmerman’s screenplay and brought it to Scorsese, having already collaborated with him four times previously. Scorsese eventually came around to the idea of directing the film, later admitting: “I read it, but I didn’t quite get it. As we got further into the work, I understood it. I discovered it as we went along.”
Now that Scorsese was onboard, it was decided that De Niro himself would play the lead role of Robert Pumpkin. To prepare for the role, De Niro went to great lengths to confront his own autograph hunters and stalkers and ask them questions.
Discussing De Niro’s meeting with a stalker, Scorsese noted: “The guy was waiting for him with his wife, a shy suburban woman who was rather embarrassed by the situation. He wanted to take him to dinner at their house, a two-hour drive from New York. After he had persuaded him to stay in Manhattan, [De Niro] asked him, ‘Why are you stalking me? What do you want?’ He replied, ‘To have dinner with you, have a drink, chat. My mom asked me to say hi.'”
Given that the original motive of the film was inspired by Johnny Carson’s obsessive fan, De Niro and Scorsese actually asked Carson if he wanted to play the role of Jerry Langford. Carson turned the role down, but this meant that it would eventually go to another famous comedian Jerry Lewis, who performed in the film with great aplomb.
