Big: Robert De Niro confirms he was set to star in the film before Tom Hanks

Robert De Niro appeared on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon on Monday and the late-night host used the chance to grill the actor about numerous “myths” that encompass his profession. In the course of the dialog, Fallon went in about one rumor involving De Niro being set to star within the 1988 comedy, BIG, earlier than Tom Hanks landed the position. Because it seems, that is very a lot true.

Throughout a zoom interview on the present, De Niro responded to the query relating to the rumor by saying “Sure, that is true. However we had a factor, a problem with the negotiations, so it went the best way it went. However that was fantastic.” I am personally attempting to see anybody else on this position aside from Tom Hanks and it is fairly troublesome however that may be a fairly fascinating enjoyable reality.

Within the movie, directed by Penny Marshall, a younger boy named Josh Baskin needs to be “massive” and he quickly learns to watch out what he needs for when he’s reworked into an grownup in a single day. Robert De Niro’s nearly involvement with the movie really started circulating again in April when Huge’s Elizabeth Perkins shared the identical casting information with What Occurs Dwell’s Andy Cohen.

Different reality bombs from De Niro throughout his look on The Tonight Present? De Niro touched on his involvement with the Godfather franchise and despite the fact that he in the end went on to win an Oscar for his efficiency as younger Vito Corleone in Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather: Part II, Fallon heard a rumor that De Niro’s authentic audition was for the position of Sonny Corleone, an element that went to James Caan within the authentic Godfather. De Niro confirmed by saying “Everyone was up for Michael Corleone, however everyone knew that Al Pacino was gonna do it, that Francis wished him. I wished to do the Sonny half, too, and I learn for it, however I feel Francis was fairly set on Jimmy Caan, too. However they let me learn.”

De Niro was additionally requested by Fallon if he ad-libbed his well-known “You talkin’ to me?” line from Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver. I at all times assumed this to be the case however the actor stated, “Roughly, yeah.” 

Can Robert De Niro share extra enjoyable tales about his profession? What are YOUR ideas about him initially being set to steer Huge? Might YOU see him in that position?