Anna Paquin Will Play Robert De Niro's Daughter in Martin Scorsese's THE IRISHMAN
Anna Paquin is the latest actor to join the cast of Martin Scorsese's highly anticipated Netflix film The Irishman. Paquin, who is best known for her roles in X-men and True Blood, will play the daughter of Robert De Niro’s character, Frank “The Irishman” Sheeran, who is a reputed hitman suspected of being involved with the disappearance of Teamsters leader Jimmy Hoffa in 1975.
Deadline offers some details on the character, saying:
Paquin will play Peggy, the strong-willed daughter of Frank and Mary. She despises the lifestyle Frank has chosen for himself and over the years begins to distance herself from her father, hating everything about him. At times, Peggy lives in fear of Frank, worried to tell him about the problems in her life for fear of what he might do to the people that have wronged her. Seeing Hoffa (Pacino) as someone outside of the mob and making a social impact with his unions, Peggy grows attracted to him. Even in the death of her mother, she shows no love for Frank and doesn’t speak a word to him at Mary’s funeral.
This sounds like it's going to be an intense role for Paquin to take on, which is great. This will be solid role for her, the kind of role that will flex her talents as an actor. It seems like it's been awhile since she's done anything truly great, and that might all change with her role in The Irishman.
Paquin joins an all-star cast that also includes Joe Pesci, Harvey Keitel, Bobby Cannavale, Ray Romano, Stephen Graham, Kathrine Narducci, Gary Basaraba, J.C. Mackenzie and Craig Vincent.
The film is based on Charles Brandt’s book, I Heard You Paint Houses: Frank ‘The Irishman’ Sheeran & Closing the Case on Jimmy Hoffa and I'm excited about seeing a new Martin Scorsese gangster film.
There's a lot of controversy surrounding the story as it's based on the deathbed confession of Frank "The Irishman” Sheeran.
"The hit man claimed to tell the real story of the disappearance of former Teamsters boss Hoffa. However, the account Sheeran told to Brandt has been disputed. Still, the FBI actually thought enough of Sheeran’s confession to pull up several floor boards from a house where he said he shot and killed Hoffa to look for DNA evidence. Latter the bureau said that the samples found weren’t from Hoffa."
The movie is being produced by Netflix. I included the full description of the book that it's based on below:
I HEARD YOU PAINT HOUSES is a fascinating account of a dark side of American history. The book’s title comes from the first words Jimmy Hoffa ever spoke to Frank "the Irishman" Sheeran. To paint a house is to kill a man. The paint is the blood that splatters on the walls and floors.
Frank Sheeran lived a long, violent, passionate life. As a boy he took on older kids in bar fights so his dad could win free beer. During World War II he was a highly decorated infantryman with 411 days of active combat duty and a willingness to follow orders. "When an officer would tell you to take a couple of German prisoners back behind the line and for you to ‘hurry back,’ you did what you had to do." He became a hustler and hit man, working for legendary crime boss Russell Bufalino and eventually becoming one of only two non-Italians on the FBI’s famous La Cosa Nostra list. He was also a truck driver who was made head of the Teamsters local in Wilmington, Delaware, by his good friend Jimmy Hoffa. When Hoffa disappeared on July 30, 1975, Sheeran became a leading suspect, and every serious study of the Hoffa disappearance alleges that Sheeran was there.
For the first time the Irishman tells all — a lifetime of payoffs (including hand-delivering bags of cash to Nixon’s attorney general John Mitchell) and manipulation (supporting Joe Biden’s election to the Senate with a Teamster action) — for the book that would become his deathbed confession. He died on December 14, 2003.
Sheeran also provides shocking new information on notorious mob hits: Joseph "Crazy Joey" Gallo — blown away as he celebrated his forty-third birthday in New York’s Little Italy; Salvatore "Sally Bugs" Briguglio — long suspected of being a player in the plot to kill Hoffa. And offers new insights to the crusading of Robert Kennedy and the death of John F. Kennedy.
This historic account is based on interviews of Frank Sheeran by Charles Brandt, who researched, cross-checked, and illuminated what Sheeran told him and turned it all into a gripping narrative that is sure to become an instant true crime classic.