In ‘The Card Counter,’ Tiffany Haddish brings the light

Tiffany Haddish may seem like an unconventional choice for a Paul Schrader movie, but that's just what he liked about the idea

VENICE, Italy -- Tiffany Haddish may have Martin Scorsese to thank for her role in Paul Schrader’s “The Card Counter,” at least indirectly. It was Scorsese who opened Schrader’s eyes to the power of the comedic actor when he cast Albert Brooks in a vanilla — seemingly plain — role in “Taxi Driver.” Schrader asked him why and he said he thought Brooks would find something in it. “You cast a comic, they will break something in a role, even if it isn’t laughs. They will make themselves interesting,” Schrader said. “It’s in their DNA.” And it’s a theory he’s often gone back to, from casting Richard Pryor in his debut “Blue Collar” to bringing Cedric the Entertainer to his last film “First Reformed.” So when Haddish’s name came up for the role of La Linda, a gambling agent who gets entangled with Oscar Isaac’s mysterious card shark William Tell, he was intrigued.