In the case of The Irishman, Peggy’s silence is a reflection of what she means to Frank. She’s his conscience, a reflection of his worst misdeeds. Because the story is told from his perspective, some elements of reality are distorted. He remembers the glares, the brooding looks, and the fear in her eyes, and so that’s what we see on-screen. His increasing involvement with Bufalino and Hoffa directly correlates with him increasingly distancing himself from the women in his life. First, he leaves his wife Mary (Aleksa Palladino) for a waitress he meets at the Italian restaurant Bufalino frequents. He and Irene (Stephanie Kurtzuba), whom he nicknames “Rini,” speak exactly one time before we learn that they've gotten married. (She doesn’t speak much more after that.) Finally, of his four daughters, the only one we really spend any time with is Peggy — and that’s not saying much. They exist on the margins, slinking in and out of the film on the rare occasions Frank’s at home, forced to confront what they think of him. That Rebecca Faulkenberry, who plays Jimmy’s wife Barbara Hoffa, gets the most lines of the female cast, is no coincidence. She, unlike Rini and Peggy, is directly involved in Frank’s world.