Ever since he burst onto the scene withReservoir Dogs, Quentin Tarantino has been one of the most popular filmmakers in the world. From his genre riffs such asKill BillandDjango Unchainedto his more cerebral, mature works likeJackie BrownandOnce Upon a Time in Hollywood, Tarantino has written and directed some of the most highly acclaimed movies of the past three decades.
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When a director pays as much attention to every little detail as Tarantino does, there are inevitably a bunch of fascinating behind-the-scenes facts from each of his movies.
10Tarantino Spent Reservoir Dogs’ Whole Soundtrack Budget On “Stuck In The Middle With You”
Music is an essential part of Quentin Tarantino’s style. This wasestablished in his debut featureReservoir Dogs, whose most iconic musical moment sees the sadistic Mr. Blonde torturing a police officer to the diegetic sounds of Stealers Wheel’s “Stuck in the Middle with You.”
Tarantino was so confident that “Stuck in the Middle with You” wasthe perfect song to juxtapose against the torture scenethat he blew the film’s entire soundtrack budget on licensing it. As film history has shown, of course, it was worth it.
9Will Smith Was Tarantino’s First Choice To Play Django
Although Jamie Foxx ended up being the perfect choice to play the title role inDjango Unchained, he wasn’t Tarantino’s first choice. Initially,Tarantino offered the role to Will Smith. However, Smith turned it down after reading the script and feeling that Django wasn’t really the lead role; Dr. Schultz was.
Before Foxx was cast, the producers considered Denzel Washington, but ultimately deemed him to be too old. Michael K. Williams was offered the part, but turned it down due to scheduling conflicts withBoardwalk Empire. Cuba Gooding, Jr. lobbied for the role, but got turned down. Idris Elba, Tyrese Gibson, Terrence Howard, and Chris Tucker were all considered for the part before Foxx was cast.
8Kill Bill’s Production Was Delayed Because Uma Thurman Was Pregnant
Quentin Tarantino brought the idea forKill Bill’s opening shot to Uma Thurman on the set ofPulp Fiction. It was her idea for the camera to pull out to reveal a bridal veil. Hence, the Bride was born and Tarantino wrote the movie specifically for Thurman to star in. However, by the time the script was finished and Tarantino was ready to roll cameras, Thurman was pregnant.
Reasoning that “if Josef Von Sternberg is getting ready to make Morocco and Marlene Dietrich gets pregnant,he waits for Dietrich,” Tarantino delayed filming to wait for Thurman to give birth.
7Pulp Fiction’s Adrenaline Shot Was Filmed In Reverse
Quentin Tarantino originally intended to play Lance the drug dealer inPulp Fiction, but decided to instead play Jules’ friend Jimmie after realizing he needed to be behind the camera for the adrenaline shot scene,one of the tensest moments in the movie.
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The moment when Vincent plunges the adrenaline needle into Mia was actually filmed backwards, with John Travolta pulling the needle away from Uma Thurman’s chest, and then reversed in the edit.
6Eli Roth Directed The Film-Within-A-Film In Inglourious Basterds
The third act ofInglourious Basterdsrevolves around the premiere of a new Nazi propaganda movie calledNation’s Pride. Throughout the screening, the audience is treated to a few scenes fromNation’s Pride. This film-within-a-film was actually directed by Eli Roth.
Roth, of course, plays Sgt. Donny “The Bear Jew” Donowitz inInglourious Basterds. Strangely enough, Adam Sandler was Tarantino’s top choice for the role, but he turned it down to makeFunny Peoplewith his old roommate Judd Apatow.
5Tarantino Spent Five Years Writing Once Upon A Time In Hollywood As A Novel
While the story ofOnce Upon a Time in Hollywoodended upworking perfectly in movie form, Tarantino initially developed it as a novel. He spent five years writing it as a novel before turning it into a screenplay.
The directorrecently signed a two-book deal with HarperCollinsand one of those books will be a novelization ofOnce Upon a Time in Hollywood, so it’s becoming a book after all.
4Reservoir Dogs’ Mr. Blue Was Played By An Actual Career Criminal
The role of Mr. Blue inReservoir Dogswasplayed by Edward Bunker, who was a real-life career criminalakin to the characters in the movie before going straight and becoming an actor.
Tarantino added the iconic opening diner scene after realizing Mr. Blue had no lines in the script. Ironically, Bunker didn’t like the diner scene, because he didn’t think professional criminals would have breakfast in public, surrounded by witnesses, before a big job.
3Uma Thurman And Daryl Hannah Didn’t Get Along While They Shot Kill Bill
During the filming ofKill Bill, Uma Thurman and Daryl Hannah didn’t get along. They asked hotel staff to keep them apart throughout the press tour and when they both won Best Fight at the 2005 MTV Movie Awards, only Hannah showed up to accept it.
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This ended up helping the movie in a way, as it made the animosity feel more palpable between Thurman and Hannah’s characters, the Bride and Elle Driver respectively.
At the beginning of “The Gold Watch” segment inPulp Fiction, there’s a flashback to when Butch was a little kid and one of his dad’s buddies from Vietnam, played by Christopher Walken, brought over the titular watch. Walken delivers an iconic monologue about the watch’s backstory – Butch’s dad hid it “up his ass” – that sets up its importance as a plot device.
In order to get the right shots, Chandler Lindauer, the child actor who played young Butch, had to sit through Walken’s entire monologue. Luckily, he was so young that he didn’t understand it.
1Rick Dalton’s Meltdown In His Trailer Was Improvised By Leonardo DiCaprio
In the script forOnce Upon a Time in Hollywood, Rick Dalton’sLancershoot went off without a hitch. But Leonardo DiCaprio had a tough time playing Rick playing hisLancercharacter, so he suggested adding a layer of conflict in Rick flubbing his lines.
This leads to a meltdown in his trailer that wasentirely ad-libbed by Leonardo DiCaprio. Tarantino simply pointed his camera at DiCaprio and let him play out the scene.
