History Trivia / TheIrishman

* ActorSharedBackground: While Creator/RobertDeNiro is most well known for his Italian-American gangster roles and is himself Italian-American, he actually has more Irish ancestry than Italian, being only a quarter Italian and about 30% Irish (his father was half-Irish, and his mother had some as well). Previously, he had played the Irish-American gangster Jimmy Conway for Scorsese in ''Film/{{Goodfellas}}''. However, in real life, Frank Sheeran's mother was of Swedish descent, and as a result he had blue eyes and [[HairOfGold sandy hair]].

* AllStarCast: The major players are Creator/RobertDeNiro, Creator/AlPacino and Creator/JoePesci, with supporting performances by Creator/HarveyKeitel, Creator/RayRomano, Creator/JessePlemmons, Creator/BobbyCannavale and Creator/AnnaPaquin as well as a large cast of prolific character actors.

** Creator/MickeyRourke claimed in an interview that Creator/MartinScorsese had asked him to appear in the movie, but he refused due to an ongoing feud between himself and De Niro that began during the production of ''Film/AngelHeart''.

* DoingItForTheArt: Scorsese stated in an interview that, had there been no guarantee that there would be an exclusive theatrical run, which was his one stipulation towards Netflix, he would have still strongly considered them picking up the movie, as "it had to be done". This is in large part of his enthusiasm for both the source material and with collaborating with Creator/RobertDeNiro potentially one last time.

* CareerResurrection: Creator/AlPacino had been doing little of note since his role in the notorious ''Film/JackAndJill''. After having a small, but well received role earlier in the year in ''Film/OnceUponATimeInHollywood'', his performance here proved to be his most acclaimed in years, bringing him back into the spotlight. He would go on to be announced as appearing in other potentially prestigious projects shortly afterwards.

** As a back-up plan in case Creator/JoePesci refused to come out of retirement to play Russell Bufalino, Scorsese intended to have De Niro play Russell and cast either Creator/LiamNeeson or Creator/PierceBrosnan as Sheeran. Neeson actually bears a closer physical resemblance to the real Sheeran than De Niro (which becomes funnier when you realize that he was actually Irish and was the same height as Frank Sheeran).

* DoingItForTheArt: [[https://www.fxguide.com/fxfeatured/de-aging-the-irishman/ There's a reason]] the movie has a blockbuster-level budget despite being just a very long period drama.
** Creator/MartinScorsese and Creator/RobertDeNiro made very specific requests to Creator/IndustrialLightAndMagic regarding the deaging of the older actors: None of them are to wear any special makeup or wear any special equipment, none of them are to do any additional performances to aid in the visual effects process, the tech must allow them to improv (which means no body doubles), no messing with their performances up to even their facial expressions, and only the original lighting as intended by the director is to be used.
** To pull this off, ILM had to create an entirely new VFX pipeline and a special camera rig consisting of two infrared cameras positioned to each side of both the main A and B cameras.
** Certain things interfered with the infrared cameras and had to be worked around.
*** The vintage cars used in the movie have lead in their windshields, which blocks infrared light, so they had to film without the windshields and add them back later as CGI.
*** Cigarette smoke emits heat in front of the actors' faces that messes with the infrared cameras, so a lot of the smoking was fake and ILM had to put in CGI smoke and lit cigarettes.

* IronyAsSheIsCast: Jimmy Hoffa (who was German-American and Irish-American in real life) is shown to be prejudiced against Italians/Italian-Americans and often hurls anti-Italian slurs during conversations. He is played by the ''very'' Italian-American Creator/AlPacino.

* ActorSharedBackground: While Creator/RobertDeNiro is most well known for his Italian-American gangster roles and is himself Italian-American, he actually has more Irish ancestry than Italian, being only a quarter Italian and about 30% Irish (his father was half-Irish, and his mother had some as well). Previously, he had played the Irish-American gangster Jimmy Conway for Scorsese in ''Film/{{Goodfellas}}''.
** However, in real life, Frank Sheeran's mother was of Swedish descent, and as a result he had blue eyes and [[HairOfGold sandy hair]].

* AllStarCast: The major players are Creator/RobertDeNiro, Creator/AlPacino and Creator/JoePesci, with supporting performances by Creator/HarveyKeitel, Creator/RayRomano, Creator/JessePlemmons, Creator/BobbyCanavale and Creator/AnnaPaquin as well as a large cast of prolific character actors.

* ThoseTwoActors: This is the fourth film featuring both De Niro and Pacino (after ''Film/TheGodfatherPartII'', ''Film/{{Heat}}'' and ''Film/RighteousKill''),[[note]]Though they didn't share scenes together in ''The Godfather Part II''[[/note]] and the sixth film to feature De Niro and Pesci (after ''Film/RagingBull'', ''Film/OnceUponATimeInAmerica'', ''Film/{{Goodfellas}}'', ''Film/ABronxTale'' and ''Film/{{Casino}}''), though Pesci had a small appearance in De Niro's ''Film/TheGoodShepherd''. This was also the ninth film featuring De Niro and Creator/HarveyKeitel (after ''Film/MeanStreets'', ''Film/TaxiDriver'', ''Film/FallingInLove'', ''Film/CopLand'', ''The Bridges of San Luis Rey'', ''WesternAnimation/ArthurAndTheInvisibles'', ''Film/LittleFockers'', and ''Film/TheComedian''.

* ThoseTwoActors: This is the fourth film featuring both De Niro and Pacino (after ''Film/TheGodfatherPartII'', ''Film/{{Heat}}'' and ''Film/RighteousKill''),[[note]]Though they didn't share scenes together in ''The Godfather Part II''[[/note]] and the sixth film to feature De Niro and Pesci (after ''Film/RagingBull'', ''Film/OnceUponATimeInAmerica'', ''Film/{{Goodfellas}}'', ''Film/ABronxTale'' and ''Film/{{Casino}}''), though Pesci had a small appearance in De Niro's ''Film/TheGoodShepherd''.