‘The Irishman’ Actor Steven Graham Recalls “Awkward” First Meeting With Joe Pesci

Stephen Graham, a prominent actor in Netflix’s hit 2019 film The Irishman, revealed that his first meeting with co-star Joe Pesci wasn’t exactly all it was cracked up to be.

According to Huffpost UK, Graham has certainly made a name for himself in England acting in successful shows such as Line Of Duty, The Virtues and the BBC’s new adaptation of A Christmas Carol. The Irishman was a particularly big score for the actor.

While the Martin Scorsese-directed Golden Globes contender stars some of the most famous actors from the gangster film genre and has been met with near-universal critical acclaim, Graham had some interesting encounters to share about on The Graham Norton Show.

Speaking to Norton on his upcoming New Year’s Eve special, Stephen recalled a rather strange experience the first time he met Pesci, who has been known for his roles in Goodfellas, Casino and Lethal Weapon.

First, Stephen spoke about his “surreal” experience meeting Robert De Niro, saying: “He is one of my heroes, someone I had grown up with. I was extremely nervous, as you can imagine, but he was lovely and very nice.

“I was only supposed to be there for 20 minutes and I was there for two hours. The meeting went well!”
What didn’t particularly go his way, however, was his first encounter with Joe Pesci, though, with Graham describing it as: “Awkward is not the word.

“It was the first couple of days of filming, and I was told that he wanted to see me. He asked, ‘Where are you from?’ I said, ‘I’m from England, Liverpool’ and he went, ‘You’re not Italian?’ I apologised for it and he was like, ‘Okay, you’d better do this right,’ to which I said, ‘I’ll do my best.’”

The actor mentioned that Pesci then told him he “wanted his role” in the film, adding: “I was like, ‘But your part’s massive, you’ve got loads to do.’ And he said, ’I knew Tony [Provenzano, Stephen’s character] so make sure you do a good job.’ The meeting really couldn’t have got any worse!

“A few days later he came up to me and said, ’You’re doing really well, come and have some dinner. But then he said, ’Why are you talking like that? Why don’t you talk as your character so I can understand you?’”

The Irishman debuted on Netflix earlier this year and is currently available to stream, garnishing rave reviews but also causing a stir with its atypical three-and-a-half hour run-time for a streaming platform.

Michael is a music and television junkie keen on most things that are not a complete and total bore. You can follow him on Twitter — @Tweetskoor

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