Robert De Niro has confirmed the long-standing rumour that he was going to play the lead role in the film Big.
The Taxi Driver actor, 77, was up for the role of the Josh Baskin, the main character who transforms into an adult after making a wish at a funfair machine.
Instead, the role went to Tom Hanks, who played Josh after he became an adult in the legendary 1988 movie.
De Niro appeared on The Tonight Show on Monday evening when he was asked a series of true or false questions by the show's host Jimmy Fallon.
Fallon asked him if it was true that he almost played the role of Josh.
He explained that an "issue with negotiations" meant he never got to play the character.
Asking him about film myths, Fallon said: "In the 1988 movie Big, you were originally cast as Josh, the role that ended up going to Tom Hanks.
"Is that true?"
De Niro paused for a second, before saying: "Yes, but we had a thing, an issue with the negotiations, so it went the way it went. But that was fine."
The actor also answered questions about his other iconic film roles, including The Godfather Part II and Taxi Driver.
Fallon asked him if he originally was up for playing Sonny Corleone in the first movie, a part that ended up going to James Caan.
The TV host said: "You won your first Oscar for Godfather II playing a young Vito Corleone, but that almost never happened because you actually auditioned for the role of Sonny Corleone in the first Godfather, which went to James Caan.
"Is that true?"
De Niro confirmed this, explaining that the film's director Francis Ford Coppola had wanted to cast Caan, but let him audition.
He said: "Yes. Everybody was up for Michael [Corleone], but everybody knew that Al [Pacino] was gonna do it, that Francis wanted him.
"I wanted to do the Sonny part, too, and I read for it, but I think Francis was pretty set on Jimmy Caan, too. But they let me read."
Fallon then played a video of a young De Niro auditioning for Sonny.
Fallon then asked De Niro if if he ad libbed his famous "You talkin' to me?" line from Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver, which wasn't in the original script.
De Niro confirmed this was true, saying: "More or less, yeah."
The host went on: "Is that the line that people yell out to you the most when they see you?"
"Sometimes, yes," De Niro. "From odd places, a bunch kids pull up to me.
"I remember many years ago in LA, down in the Valley or somewhere, a bunch of kids pulled up to me at a red light, and said: 'you talkin' to me?'
"I don't know how they recognised me or whatever."
