(RTTNews) - It turns out that Robert De Niro's famous line from the 1976 film Taxi Driver was inspired by Bruce Springsteen's live act of the time. At least according to E Street Band saxophonist Clarence Clemons, who makes the claim in his book, Big Man: Real Life & Tall Tales.

The line that De Niro asks himself while standing in front of a mirror, "You talkin' to me?," was the same thing the Boss would say when his fans screamed out his name at concerts.

"That was part of our shtick back in the day," Clemons told Spinner.

"(He) had been to one of our concerts and the audience was yelling out 'Bruce!' In those days, Bruce would stop onstage and say, 'You talkin' to me?' De Niro was kind of channeling him," Clemons said.

Clemons also described his reaction to seeing De Niro utter the line on film.

"It made a connection, but there was nothing said about it," he said. "Nobody said, 'Hey, you took that from Bruce Springsteen!' We all knew where it came from so that was it."

by RTT Staff Writer

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