Shelley with Robert De Niro
in The King of Comedy, 1983
Shelley Hack was fortunate enough to have worked with some of the best and brightest names in Hollywood. In 1983, she appeared in the Martin Scorsese film The King of Comedy which starred Robert de Niro and Jerry Lewis. During her audition, she read for both Scorsese and De Niro, then went home and waited. "I had a feeling I would get it," Shelley said, "Even so, it was a nervous time. It was obviously such an important break for me - getting it would make people look at me differently." After four months, her agent called and said she got the part. But then, "I couldn't work because I read for The King of Comedy and got the part. The picture was delayed and I couldn't take a chance on doing anything else."
Shelley with Robert De Niro
in The King of Comedy, 1983
She thought working with Scorsese and De Niro was an exhilarating experience. "Bobby (De Niro) plays a stand-up comic in the picture and he's extraordinary." Shelley recounts, "The first day on the set, I was standing talking to Marty (Scorsese) and everyone was laughing. I didn't know why until Marty said to me, 'Aren't you going to say hello to Bobby?' And there he was beside me. I just hadn't recognized him. He looks entirely different in the picture." The Rupert Pupkin character was quite a departure from the characters De Niro had played prior. Her performance in The King of Comedy received glowing reviews. As one critic put it, "Shelley Hack shines as an unpleasant talent coordinator trying to make Pupkin (de Niro's character) understand her polite rejections."
