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You talkin' to me?
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"You talkin' to me?" is a popular quote said by Travis Bickle, a character played by Robert DeNiro in the 1976 movie Taxi Driver. The quote, and the scene it was featured in, have become a pop culture icon, and made DeNiro a star. The quote is sometimes lengthened to the proper English, "Are you talking to me?" The vernacular shortening, however, is the actual quote as it was said in the movie. The phrase is number ten on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movie Quotes list.
The line was derived from the classic 1953 western Shane when Shane confronts Chris Calloway (played by Ben Johnson) with "You speaking to me?" Chris replies, "I don't see nobody else standing there."
In the scene, Bickle is looking into a mirror at himself, imagining a confrontation which would give him a chance to draw his gun. He says the following line:
- "You talkin' to me? You talkin' to me? Then who the hell else are you talkin' to? You talkin' to me? Well I'm the only one here."
The scene was completely ad-libbed by De Niro. The script originally only had the following words in parenthesis: "(Travis looks into the mirror)."
In The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle (2000), DeNiro plays Fearless Leader, the head villain. When Boris and Natasha confess they have failed to dispatch the heroes, DeNiro responds: "Are you talking to me? Are you talking to me? Then who else are you talking to? Are you talking to me? Well, I'm the only one here, so you must be talking to me. And you are lying!"