Robert De Niro Turned Down the Al Pacino Role in Any Given Sunday

Levy writes that De Niro also turned down the role of Miami Sharks coach Tony D’Amato, which turned out to be a layered and sympathetic performance by Al Pacino. But we never got to see DeNiro give the “inch by inch” speech. 

Another aside: De Niro appeared in the comedy Meet the Parents a year after Any Given Sunday, which turned out to be a very good financial decision. Meet the Parents was a huge hit, and its sequel, Meet the Fockers, earned nearly $280 million domestically. Joker is the only De Niro movie to perform better at the box office, but De Niro had a bigger financial stake in the Meet the Parents films, because he was a producer.