Don Rickles, the legendary comedian known for his famously barbed wit, didn’t confine his roasts to the stage. He brought that same playfully aggressive energy to movie sets, often targeting his fellow actors with good-natured, if relentless, jabs. A recent resurfacing of behind-the-scenes footage from Martin Scorsese’s 1995 crime epic Casino reveals just how Rickles operated and how differently his targets received his humor.
The footage, originally shown during the 2014 tribute special Don Rickles: One Night Only, depicts Rickles playfully berating Robert De Niro on set. In one instance, after De Niro momentarily forgot a line, Rickles quipped, “Learn the thing. You’ve got a pop-out trailer, sit in there and study. Do the lines and let’s get out of here, for Christ’s sake.” De Niro, visibly amused, barely managed to maintain a straight face. According to accounts from those present, De Niro genuinely enjoyed the ribbing.
However, not everyone on the Casino set shared De Niro’s appreciation for Rickles’s brand of humor. Kevin Pollak, who played Phillip Green in the film, revealed in an interview with Jay Mohr that Joe Pesci was considerably less receptive to Rickles’s relentless teasing. Pollak recounted an incident where Rickles joked that Pesci was so short he could “ride him around like a Shetland pony.” Pesci’s response was blunt and forceful: “No, no, I get it, I get it. I’m a midget, you’re a genius. Go f–k yourself.”
The dynamic between Rickles and Pesci wasn’t a one-time occurrence. Rickles himself recalled a particularly memorable exchange during the filming of a scene where Pesci’s character physically assaults Rickles with a telephone. In a 2007 interview with Playboy, Rickles stated that Pesci “got carried away” during the take. “I had on a rubber suit and it still hurt,” Rickles said. “If I didn’t have the rubber suit, I’d be dead. After the scene was over, I said to Pesci, ‘Joe, go take a Valium.’ I still get a little nervous any time somebody hands me a telephone receiver.”
This suggests that Rickles’s attempts at humor genuinely ruffled Pesci, a notoriously intense actor known for his method approach. While De Niro seemed to thrive on the playful antagonism, Pesci clearly did not. The contrast highlights the different personalities at play on the Casino set and the varying ways individuals respond to confrontational humor.
Years later, Rickles appeared to reflect on his interactions with Pesci with a degree of understanding. When asked about Pesci in an interview with the Milwaukee Magazine, he said, “Joe was a good guy. I think sometimes he believed he was with the Mob. But he got over that.”
Interestingly, despite the on-set tension, Rickles and Pesci did eventually appear together in a commercial – albeit not in the same shot. In 2011, both actors participated in a Snickers campaign, but were filmed separately. This somewhat ironic outcome underscores the complex relationship between the two comedians, a relationship built on a foundation of playful antagonism and, perhaps, a grudging respect.
The stories emerging from the Casino set offer a fascinating glimpse into the personalities of some of Hollywood’s most iconic actors. They reveal a dynamic where a comedian’s signature style – relentless, often pointed humor – was met with vastly different reactions, demonstrating that even in the collaborative world of filmmaking, individual sensitivities and boundaries remain paramount. The footage and anecdotes serve as a reminder of Rickles’s unique ability to provoke and entertain, and the sometimes-unpredictable consequences of his comedic approach.
