Maniscalco had worked on a film with De Niro before, on Martin Scorsese’s ‘The Irishman’, but it was brief and didn’t exactly establish anything like a friendship where he could, say, call him up. Then one day he got word that De Niro had the script, through producer Paul Weitz, and wanted to do a table read with some actors in New York. It’s something he likes to do if he’s taking something seriously, he said.
AP