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.