Stephen Graham has revealed how he improvised in a stand-out scene in The Irishman, a move that took his co-star Al Pacino by surprise.
Graham and Pacino star in Martin Scorsese’s gangster epic alongside Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci.
Speaking about what it was like to star in a film with his heroes, Graham said: “I don’t know if it’s quite sunk in yet. It was my Champions League final. These are the people I grew up watching, revering and wanting to emulate, so for that little kid from Kirkby to be working with them was amazing.”
He told the Observer New Review: “But I still took that playfulness and eagerness into the performance. We improvised so much. I slapped an ice-cream out of Al Pacino’s hand, which he wasn’t expecting. I threw a line at Bobby De Niro and he came straight back with the best reply. Those scenes were a joy.”
Pacino’s character Jimmy Hoffa loves ice cream. He consumes four sundaes during the film’s three-and-a-half-hours.
Hoffa’s affinity for ice cream is mentioned once briefly in I Heard You Paint Houses, the Charles Brandt book on which the film is based, but Scorsese appears to have capitalised on that single mention.
Pacino recently said: "When I took the role, I was like, ‘You mean I get to eat ice cream in this part? I'm in.’”
