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Hi, I'm Quentin Tarantino and you're
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watching the El Rey Network.
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Here we go, for sight.
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And, action.
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Welcome, Señor.
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I'm so excited to have you
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here on the El Rey Network.
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I was laughing all the way driving up
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here just thinking
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about what we were saying.
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I'm actually kind of curious about what
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questions you want to ask.
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Well, I've been preparing
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this interview for 22 years.
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I'm sure that.
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I've got footage of stuff I'm going to
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show that I've kept for 22 years.
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I've got a lot of things that I've
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recorded while being with
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you, being inspired by you.
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So a lot of the stuff I want to talk
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about is really just kind of process.
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I mean, what the director's chair is
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about is a director interviewing another
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director about the craft.
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Because we all approach it differently.
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And it's very inspiring to people to hear
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someone's process because it really
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defines how they do what they do.
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And even though I've known you so long,
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there's still a lot of things I don't
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know about just how you do it.
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Let me interrupt one thing.
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You remember that moment?
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We're now sitting
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here in my movie theater.
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You're not in a screening room.
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F that. Alright, now
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it's a movie theater.
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But do you remember when I
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first started collecting prints?
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I had an apartment
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off of Crescent Heights.
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Oh, absolutely.
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And we put the
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projector in the living room.
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So we could throw it on the kitchen wall
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because it was like the bigger throw.
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And we'd be sitting there with just
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duperteen covering the windows.
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It was the only place
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that got direct lights.
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And naturally I turned that into a
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screening room so I
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could block all that out.
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And we're sitting there watching a 16
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millimeter print of something, I think
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white lightning, I think.
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And I turned to you and I go, "Hey,
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Robert, isn't this the life?"
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And it was just so fun.
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You always love cinema.
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You always love movies.
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You got to string up your little 16
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millimeter and we're
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skipping work that day.
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We're playing hooky.
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Sometimes we had things to do.
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We're supposed to be responsible.
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And you would call me sometimes.
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Your assistants would call me and say,
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"We can't find Quentin
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anywhere. Do you know where he is?"
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And I go, "I don't know where he is."
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I get a call from you.
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I get a call from you and you go, "Hey,
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man, I'm totally playing hooky today."
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All right, you know what? How often is
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this going to happen?
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I'll go over and you'd have white
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lightning up and you
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just turn everything up.
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Isn't this the life? We're here watching
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our own movies on our own screening room.
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And the screening room
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wasn't a screening room.
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That's the magic of cinema.
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Just seeing the image flickering in your
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home and seeing it the way you remember.
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And that kind of love for cinema, we've
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had so many conversations
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over the year about movies.
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I wish more people were privy to that.
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So that's kind of what this is about.
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I know they would just be inspired by it.
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According to filmmaker and historian
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Peter Bogdanovich, and he would know,
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you are the single most influential
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director of our generation.
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And here's why.
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Reservoir talks.
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Five-man job, busted in and busted out of
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a diamond, wholesalers.
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I'm acting like a professional.
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Pulp fiction.
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I'ma just medieval on your ass.
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Sit goddamn.
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Everybody be cool. This is a robbery.
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Jackie Brown.
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How you doing, Miss Jackie?
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Are you scared of me?
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Kill Bill, Volume 1.
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You and I have unfinished business.
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Kill Bill, Volume 2.
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Hello, kiddo.
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Death proof.
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In glorious bastards.
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And hype!
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We will be cruel to the Germans.
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Through our cruelty,
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they will know who we are.
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Django and Jane.
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What's your name?
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Django.
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D-J-A-N-G-O.
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The D is silent.
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And soon, the hateful eight.
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What an amazing
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ground-breaking filmography.
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From someone who is essentially
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self-taught and self-made.
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And who single-handedly revolutionized
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cinema at that time.
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I wanted to kind of go
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back in just the early days,
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and how you started to become someone who
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wanted to tell stories visually,
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because you could have chosen many paths
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telling stories and you chose visual.
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Some boys are into monsters.
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Some boys are into sports.
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Some boys are into cars.
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I was always into movies.
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But I actually remember
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my parents even saying,
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"Oh, Quentin's going to grow
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up and be a director someday."
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Just because they just
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knew how much I loved movies.
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I didn't even think I knew
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what a director was then.
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And when you're younger,
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and you know you see movies,
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and you know that that's
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what you want to be part of,
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you probably want to be an actor, because
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that's what you see.
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That's the tangible thing.
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I started like in an acting class,
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but I realized I really wasn't like a lot
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of the other students.
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They were about acting.
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They were about getting jobs.
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They were about becoming movie stars.
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I was really about cinema.
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I was really about movies,
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and about the history of movies,
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and the future of movies.
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My heroes had actually become directors.
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Right.
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They weren't actors.
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I wanted to become an actor so I could
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work with Sergio Leone,
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or work with Martin Scorsese,
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or learn Japanese and go to Japan and
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work with Akira Kurosawa,
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learn Italian, work with Mario Bava.
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That's what I wanted to do.
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Right.
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I just kind of realized, you know,
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I don't think this
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acting thing is for me.
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I don't think appearing
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in movies isn't enough.
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I want the movies to be my movie.
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Right.
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I want it to be mine.
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Just being in it isn't enough.
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I want to figure out what the movie is,
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and I want to own the movie.
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Once you actually start
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thinking about directing,
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if you look at something like Good and
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the Bad and the Ugly,
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or What's the Fine Time of the West?
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Well, that's directed.
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You can actually literally
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see what the director does
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and the way the characters
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enter frame and exit frame
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and the way the camera does its thing.
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It's like almost like a directing school.
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It doesn't mean you
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have to direct like that,
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but it shows you what directing is.
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Right.
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Shows you cinematically.
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And was it also partly
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watching movies and going,
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"You know, I would
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structure this differently.
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I would tell a story differently,
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and I'm never going to get a
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script like that as an actor.
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I would have to go create it."
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I don't think I thought about structure
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that much at that point in time.
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I think it started off
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with me thinking of shots.
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Mm-hmm.
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At the time, I never
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even thought about writing.
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But what I actually realized I had a
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little bit of talent at it
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was going to acting classes.
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Because I didn't want to do just the
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normal Samuel French plays and stuff.
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I would go and see a movie,
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and I'd see some neat scene.
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I was always doing
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bizarre scenes in acting class.
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You know, I'd see Jackie Chan's Big Brawl
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and like see a scene
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and then like write it down.
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You know, the Dilla de
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la Rente's Flash Gordon.
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Remember the scene of Flash Gordon where
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it's like Flash Gordon
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and Timothy Dalton are like sticking
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their hands in the tree with a monster.
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It's sort of like a comic book version of
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Deer Hunter or something.
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Yeah.
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Must be my lucky day.
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You do them as monologues
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or you do them with somebody?
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No, I do. I did it with another guy.
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I got a refrigerator box and
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cut a bunch of holes in it.
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And I cast some guy to be Flash Gordon,
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and I'm with the
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Timothy Dalton character.
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That's a great scene, but
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it's not that long of a scene.
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Would you add to the scene?
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I would add to the scene because what
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happened is I never had
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like the script or anything.
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Right.
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But basically, I
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always had a good memory.
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So I would see a scene from a movie, and
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I would just remember it.
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And I would go home, and
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I'd write it from memory.
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And anything else I couldn't remember or
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anything else good I came
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up with in the meantime,
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I'd add it into the scene
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because it was just my scenes.
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And then little by little by little, I
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just started adding more and
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more and more to the scenes.
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And that was me learning how to write
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dialogue or just me realizing that I
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could write dialogue.
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And I never really took it seriously
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until a member of the class,
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a guy named Ronnie Coleman,
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I think, was, "Quentin, you're really
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good. You're as good as Patty Chiesky."
282
00:07:08,469 --> 00:07:09,053
What do you mean I'm as
283
00:07:09,053 --> 00:07:10,096
good as Patty Chiesky?
284
00:07:10,388 --> 00:07:11,806
Well, you know, we did that
285
00:07:11,806 --> 00:07:13,516
scene in class from Marty.
286
00:07:14,392 --> 00:07:16,435
And you just wrote it down, and you gave
287
00:07:16,435 --> 00:07:17,979
me this handwritten scene from Marty.
288
00:07:18,646 --> 00:07:19,856
And it included this entire
289
00:07:19,856 --> 00:07:21,190
monologue about a fountain.
290
00:07:21,941 --> 00:07:23,651
Well, I actually have the original Patty
291
00:07:23,651 --> 00:07:25,194
Chiesky script, and there was no
292
00:07:25,194 --> 00:07:26,863
monologue about fountain there.
293
00:07:27,446 --> 00:07:28,990
That was completely added by you. You
294
00:07:28,990 --> 00:07:30,825
added an entire monologue to it.
295
00:07:30,825 --> 00:07:30,992
Wow.
296
00:07:31,033 --> 00:07:31,993
And it was just as good
297
00:07:31,993 --> 00:07:33,369
as the Patty Chiesky stuff.
298
00:07:33,661 --> 00:07:33,870
That's great.
299
00:07:34,662 --> 00:07:37,165
And, you know, somebody saying something
300
00:07:37,165 --> 00:07:40,168
like that to you actually got me to start
301
00:07:40,168 --> 00:07:41,419
taking it seriously,
302
00:07:41,419 --> 00:07:43,087
that maybe I did have a talent for that.
303
00:07:43,421 --> 00:07:45,339
That almost knighting by somebody to
304
00:07:45,339 --> 00:07:48,050
somebody saying, "Early in your life, you
305
00:07:48,050 --> 00:07:49,844
know, somebody tells
306
00:07:49,844 --> 00:07:50,636
you anything like that.
307
00:07:50,636 --> 00:07:52,180
You should listen because you don't
308
00:07:52,180 --> 00:07:53,264
always know. We're going
309
00:07:53,264 --> 00:07:54,140
to talk about this later."
310
00:07:54,140 --> 00:07:55,641
Sometimes you don't know when you're
311
00:07:55,641 --> 00:07:56,475
making something that's
312
00:07:56,475 --> 00:07:57,226
going to be groundbreaking.
313
00:07:57,643 --> 00:07:59,103
It doesn't look groundbreaking when
314
00:07:59,103 --> 00:07:59,979
you're staring at it.
315
00:07:59,979 --> 00:08:01,314
But how old were you at that time?
316
00:08:02,023 --> 00:08:03,608
Like, 19, 20.
317
00:08:03,858 --> 00:08:05,860
Wow. So this is, you know, 11 years
318
00:08:05,860 --> 00:08:06,819
before a reservoir dock.
319
00:08:06,819 --> 00:08:06,986
Yeah, yeah.
320
00:08:06,986 --> 00:08:08,070
I mean, this is way before. That's
321
00:08:08,070 --> 00:08:09,655
awesome. Tell me about reservoir docks.
322
00:08:13,993 --> 00:08:14,076
Yeah.
323
00:08:14,535 --> 00:08:17,288
That was an idea I had that just
324
00:08:17,288 --> 00:08:19,790
completely was based out of
325
00:08:19,790 --> 00:08:21,250
something I thought I could do.
326
00:08:21,584 --> 00:08:23,544
You know, with a few thousand dollars, I
327
00:08:23,544 --> 00:08:24,795
could actually make this.
328
00:08:24,795 --> 00:08:25,796
I could just get a bunch
329
00:08:25,796 --> 00:08:26,964
of actors, we'd rehearse it.
330
00:08:27,006 --> 00:08:30,009
And finally, after years of nobody
331
00:08:30,009 --> 00:08:31,552
wanting it, the company,
332
00:08:31,552 --> 00:08:33,221
Cinetel, bought True Romance.
333
00:08:34,138 --> 00:08:35,097
And so I actually did
334
00:08:35,097 --> 00:08:36,682
have like 30,000 coming.
335
00:08:36,682 --> 00:08:38,434
And this is, you know, I'm a guy who had
336
00:08:38,434 --> 00:08:39,852
only made 10,000 a year.
337
00:08:40,186 --> 00:08:43,105
And so I decided I would go out and I was
338
00:08:43,105 --> 00:08:44,190
going to make a movie with that money.
339
00:08:45,066 --> 00:08:46,484
And I didn't really think anyone was ever
340
00:08:46,484 --> 00:08:47,860
going to take a chance on me to actually
341
00:08:47,860 --> 00:08:49,111
direct a real movie and
342
00:08:49,111 --> 00:08:50,446
done in a real movie style.
343
00:08:50,821 --> 00:08:53,616
I thought I would have to, you know, just
344
00:08:53,616 --> 00:08:53,991
do it very gorilla style.
345
00:08:53,991 --> 00:08:56,369
Then I showed it to Lawrence Bender and
346
00:08:56,369 --> 00:08:59,288
he was like, this is really good.
347
00:09:00,122 --> 00:09:01,749
And I actually think I could get some
348
00:09:01,749 --> 00:09:03,709
real money, even if real money meant like
349
00:09:03,709 --> 00:09:04,543
half a million dollars
350
00:09:04,543 --> 00:09:06,712
or 400,000 or something.
351
00:09:07,380 --> 00:09:08,089
I was like, no, no, I don't
352
00:09:08,089 --> 00:09:09,715
believe that. I don't buy that.
353
00:09:10,007 --> 00:09:10,925
It waited too long.
354
00:09:10,925 --> 00:09:13,135
Everybody said, no,
355
00:09:13,135 --> 00:09:13,970
it's never going to happen.
356
00:09:13,970 --> 00:09:15,680
I don't know if I would even trust me. So
357
00:09:15,680 --> 00:09:17,139
why should anybody else trust me?
358
00:09:17,515 --> 00:09:18,182
And he said, well, you
359
00:09:18,182 --> 00:09:20,351
know, give me a month with it.
360
00:09:20,935 --> 00:09:22,228
You could wait like a
361
00:09:22,228 --> 00:09:22,979
month to make your home movie.
362
00:09:23,020 --> 00:09:25,564
And if we can't, then I'm like full steam
363
00:09:25,564 --> 00:09:27,024
ahead and that's the way to go.
364
00:09:27,400 --> 00:09:30,319
But if I get interest in a month, then
365
00:09:30,319 --> 00:09:31,404
we'll actually try to do it for real.
366
00:09:32,029 --> 00:09:34,407
And he got interested a month in the, you
367
00:09:34,407 --> 00:09:37,159
know, literally a very few months time
368
00:09:37,159 --> 00:09:39,662
from like the point that I wrote it to
369
00:09:39,662 --> 00:09:40,454
the point that we were
370
00:09:40,454 --> 00:09:43,749
shooting was maybe five or six months.
371
00:09:43,749 --> 00:09:44,542
Wow, really fast.
372
00:09:44,750 --> 00:09:46,586
And I was doing a real movie with a real
373
00:09:46,586 --> 00:09:46,961
budget with real actors.
374
00:09:47,003 --> 00:09:50,089
Harvey could tell for a real company that
375
00:09:50,089 --> 00:09:52,008
was taking a chance on me for like one
376
00:09:52,008 --> 00:09:52,925
point three million dollars.
377
00:09:56,679 --> 00:09:58,431
I actually showed up on my first day and
378
00:09:58,431 --> 00:10:00,516
there were trucks, you know, on the
379
00:10:00,516 --> 00:10:02,393
street like, oh my God, that was almost a
380
00:10:02,393 --> 00:10:04,312
bigger deal than seeing the camera or
381
00:10:04,312 --> 00:10:05,896
anything was to see the trucks parked in
382
00:10:05,896 --> 00:10:06,689
front of our location.
383
00:10:07,064 --> 00:10:09,150
Frankly, I identified more with the PAs
384
00:10:09,150 --> 00:10:10,484
than anybody else in the set because we
385
00:10:10,484 --> 00:10:11,110
were all about the
386
00:10:11,110 --> 00:10:11,986
same level of experience.
387
00:10:12,987 --> 00:10:14,488
The only sets I'd ever been on where I
388
00:10:14,488 --> 00:10:17,825
worked was I was a PA on the Dolph
389
00:10:17,825 --> 00:10:19,535
Lundgren exercise home video.
390
00:10:20,036 --> 00:10:21,912
Oh, yeah. So that was my only working job
391
00:10:21,912 --> 00:10:23,289
where I actually was part of a crew.
392
00:10:24,081 --> 00:10:25,750
But, you know, it's one thing to say,
393
00:10:25,750 --> 00:10:26,834
hey, I want to make a movie.
394
00:10:26,834 --> 00:10:27,752
Hey, I want to make a movie.
395
00:10:28,085 --> 00:10:30,212
And then someone goes, OK, we're going to
396
00:10:30,212 --> 00:10:31,005
take a chance on you.
397
00:10:31,589 --> 00:10:32,798
Like, holy shit.
398
00:10:33,049 --> 00:10:35,843
Yeah, I mean, but you didn't blink.
399
00:10:36,135 --> 00:10:37,136
Yeah. Well, you know,
400
00:10:37,261 --> 00:10:38,596
I blinked. All right.
401
00:10:39,013 --> 00:10:39,597
I blinked.
402
00:10:39,930 --> 00:10:40,556
You can't tell.
403
00:10:41,015 --> 00:10:42,016
I mean, not during
404
00:10:42,016 --> 00:10:43,309
the doing it. All right.
405
00:10:43,309 --> 00:10:48,856
In your names, Mr. Brown, Mr. White, Mr.
406
00:10:49,065 --> 00:10:53,194
Blonde, Mr. Blue, Mr. Orange, Mr. Bing.
407
00:10:54,111 --> 00:10:55,112
Your first film right out
408
00:10:55,112 --> 00:10:56,947
the gate had a big cast.
409
00:10:57,698 --> 00:10:59,992
You were showing what what a force you
410
00:10:59,992 --> 00:11:01,327
were in the directing world, being able
411
00:11:01,327 --> 00:11:02,870
to take that group of guys,
412
00:11:03,329 --> 00:11:04,538
direct them so brilliantly.
413
00:11:05,122 --> 00:11:05,790
How did you do that?
414
00:11:06,457 --> 00:11:08,000
Well, because I started off as an actor
415
00:11:08,000 --> 00:11:10,127
and actually the only like training I'd
416
00:11:10,127 --> 00:11:12,254
ever done has been as an actor.
417
00:11:12,922 --> 00:11:14,215
I always knew that that would be one of
418
00:11:14,215 --> 00:11:16,050
my strengths as far as like dealing with
419
00:11:16,050 --> 00:11:18,135
actors and writing the characters and
420
00:11:18,135 --> 00:11:19,261
dealing with them and getting the best
421
00:11:19,261 --> 00:11:20,763
out of them and being
422
00:11:20,763 --> 00:11:22,056
able to talk, actor talk.
423
00:11:22,431 --> 00:11:24,100
I was all about my shot, but I wasn't all
424
00:11:24,100 --> 00:11:26,435
about the lenses and the lighting and all
425
00:11:26,435 --> 00:11:27,603
that stuff that maybe a lot of film
426
00:11:27,603 --> 00:11:28,979
students at the time were.
427
00:11:29,021 --> 00:11:31,524
What I could do is put a bunch of actors
428
00:11:31,524 --> 00:11:33,359
in a room and get the best out of them
429
00:11:33,359 --> 00:11:35,528
and actually kind of rehearse the scenes
430
00:11:35,528 --> 00:11:36,445
and like get them to
431
00:11:36,445 --> 00:11:37,446
the right kind of pitch.
432
00:11:37,988 --> 00:11:39,115
You gotta remember this story is about
433
00:11:39,115 --> 00:11:41,867
you and how you perceived the events that
434
00:11:41,867 --> 00:11:44,662
went down. The only way to do that, my
435
00:11:44,662 --> 00:11:47,331
brother, keep saying it.
436
00:11:48,999 --> 00:11:52,962
We had a two week rehearsal and we had
437
00:11:52,962 --> 00:11:55,506
chewed the rag on the material so much
438
00:11:55,506 --> 00:11:56,966
and they were so ready to go.
439
00:11:57,550 --> 00:11:59,385
It was it gave me confidence.
440
00:12:02,054 --> 00:12:05,015
I knew I was the best
441
00:12:05,015 --> 00:12:06,267
person to do this movie.
442
00:12:06,809 --> 00:12:08,352
I knew this material better
443
00:12:08,352 --> 00:12:09,687
than anybody else would know.
444
00:12:10,271 --> 00:12:12,356
And these guys really respected me.
445
00:12:12,356 --> 00:12:13,691
They wanted to make my movie.
446
00:12:14,233 --> 00:12:16,277
It was the diving into the material that
447
00:12:16,277 --> 00:12:17,820
just gave me confidence.
448
00:12:18,612 --> 00:12:19,738
I was ready to do it.
449
00:12:20,030 --> 00:12:20,906
I can't imagine a more
450
00:12:20,906 --> 00:12:22,241
confident person than you.
451
00:12:22,241 --> 00:12:23,451
So to hear you say that I think really
452
00:12:23,451 --> 00:12:25,244
will give people, you know, some
453
00:12:25,244 --> 00:12:27,663
consolation if they feel nervous about a
454
00:12:27,663 --> 00:12:28,581
step they're going to take.
455
00:12:28,581 --> 00:12:29,373
You should feel nervous.
456
00:12:29,373 --> 00:12:30,416
You should feel some fear because that
457
00:12:30,416 --> 00:12:31,876
means you're you're embarking on
458
00:12:31,876 --> 00:12:33,711
something that is worth your time.
459
00:12:33,711 --> 00:12:34,336
But if you're doing a
460
00:12:34,336 --> 00:12:35,921
piece, that's the answer.
461
00:12:36,630 --> 00:12:37,590
Get to know that piece.
462
00:12:37,840 --> 00:12:38,507
Know that piece.
463
00:12:38,507 --> 00:12:39,383
There was nobody better.
464
00:12:40,217 --> 00:12:42,011
I chewed the rag on it so much.
465
00:12:42,011 --> 00:12:42,595
There was nobody better
466
00:12:42,595 --> 00:12:42,970
than me to tell this story.
467
00:12:43,012 --> 00:12:44,555
Now, whatever happens after
468
00:12:44,555 --> 00:12:45,681
that is what happens after that.
469
00:12:46,056 --> 00:12:47,057
But I knew this story.
470
00:12:47,308 --> 00:12:48,767
Everybody else in that set could know a
471
00:12:48,767 --> 00:12:49,310
hell of a lot more
472
00:12:49,310 --> 00:12:50,644
about filmmaking than I did.
473
00:12:50,644 --> 00:12:51,437
And they all did.
474
00:12:52,062 --> 00:12:53,022
But I knew this
475
00:12:53,022 --> 00:12:54,648
material better than they did.
476
00:12:54,648 --> 00:12:56,484
Hey, show time.
477
00:12:57,234 --> 00:12:57,943
Grab your jacket.
478
00:12:58,694 --> 00:12:59,320
Mark that stuff.
479
00:13:00,196 --> 00:13:00,821
Be right down.
480
00:13:01,238 --> 00:13:02,740
Everything was like kind of new and like,
481
00:13:02,740 --> 00:13:04,116
you know, finishing your day, getting
482
00:13:04,116 --> 00:13:06,285
your day done, going to new locations,
483
00:13:06,744 --> 00:13:07,912
working with all these people, getting
484
00:13:07,912 --> 00:13:09,413
everything that were, you know, being the
485
00:13:09,413 --> 00:13:09,997
director of the crew.
486
00:13:10,039 --> 00:13:12,291
You know, there is it's not just, you
487
00:13:12,291 --> 00:13:13,751
know, one, you're an artist, but two,
488
00:13:13,751 --> 00:13:15,753
you're you're also a general.
489
00:13:15,753 --> 00:13:16,420
You're the leader.
490
00:13:16,420 --> 00:13:17,588
You have to lead and you
491
00:13:17,588 --> 00:13:18,422
have to lead by example.
492
00:13:18,714 --> 00:13:19,340
So then you do all
493
00:13:19,340 --> 00:13:20,674
that and then that's done.
494
00:13:20,674 --> 00:13:22,259
And now it's editing.
495
00:13:22,343 --> 00:13:24,929
It's a completely new experience.
496
00:13:25,804 --> 00:13:26,889
And so you go through that
497
00:13:26,889 --> 00:13:28,349
and then now it's the sound mix.
498
00:13:29,058 --> 00:13:30,726
And that's this really huge experience.
499
00:13:31,143 --> 00:13:32,686
But what I just kind of noticed is that,
500
00:13:32,686 --> 00:13:34,980
you know, there was always like just like
501
00:13:34,980 --> 00:13:36,815
a new mountain decline.
502
00:13:37,274 --> 00:13:38,817
And my late editors not here anymore.
503
00:13:38,817 --> 00:13:38,984
Sally Minkie.
504
00:13:39,026 --> 00:13:41,487
She was we'd done all our films together
505
00:13:41,487 --> 00:13:43,072
before she passed on,
506
00:13:43,072 --> 00:13:44,532
including Reservoir Dogs.
507
00:13:45,032 --> 00:13:46,450
Now she had done movies before too.
508
00:13:46,700 --> 00:13:48,577
So once I was actually finished with the
509
00:13:48,577 --> 00:13:50,079
edit of the movie, once I had locked the
510
00:13:50,079 --> 00:13:50,913
picture and that was the
511
00:13:50,913 --> 00:13:52,039
picture and everyone agreed.
512
00:13:52,373 --> 00:13:53,999
And it was exactly what I wanted.
513
00:13:54,833 --> 00:13:56,752
She kind of took a little bit more of the
514
00:13:56,752 --> 00:13:58,671
lead because she knew about the sound
515
00:13:58,671 --> 00:14:00,339
process more than I did, knew about the
516
00:14:00,339 --> 00:14:01,674
lab work more than I did.
517
00:14:02,258 --> 00:14:04,385
And I'm starting to get a little tired
518
00:14:04,385 --> 00:14:05,803
now, but that's actually
519
00:14:05,803 --> 00:14:06,971
when she would pick up.
520
00:14:07,096 --> 00:14:08,514
All right. And she'd just take just a
521
00:14:08,514 --> 00:14:09,265
little bit more of the lead
522
00:14:09,265 --> 00:14:11,141
position and ram things through.
523
00:14:11,559 --> 00:14:13,227
So when like the print would come back
524
00:14:13,227 --> 00:14:15,563
and I didn't there was a problem with the
525
00:14:15,563 --> 00:14:17,565
lab, I didn't like something or whatever.
526
00:14:18,357 --> 00:14:20,734
I might be more and more inclined to just
527
00:14:20,734 --> 00:14:21,944
be sad about it because
528
00:14:21,944 --> 00:14:23,070
it didn't quite work out.
529
00:14:23,279 --> 00:14:24,321
She was like, no, that work is
530
00:14:24,321 --> 00:14:25,739
unacceptable. Send it back.
531
00:14:25,739 --> 00:14:26,448
Right. Right. Professional.
532
00:14:26,782 --> 00:14:28,284
Yeah. And then I'm sort of like, gosh,
533
00:14:28,284 --> 00:14:29,368
she's been kind of mean to them.
534
00:14:29,368 --> 00:14:30,953
I mean, you know, it's like, no, they can
535
00:14:30,953 --> 00:14:31,829
do it better than that.
536
00:14:31,829 --> 00:14:32,496
That's absolutely
537
00:14:32,496 --> 00:14:33,497
positively unacceptable.
538
00:14:33,872 --> 00:14:33,998
That's good.
539
00:14:34,999 --> 00:14:36,000
Which favorite part of
540
00:14:36,000 --> 00:14:36,792
the directing process?
541
00:14:38,085 --> 00:14:39,628
I don't really have one favorite part.
542
00:14:39,628 --> 00:14:41,714
Each part is my favorite
543
00:14:41,714 --> 00:14:44,425
part at that given time.
544
00:14:44,967 --> 00:14:46,802
And right when I'm kind of done with it
545
00:14:46,802 --> 00:14:48,220
and sick and tired of
546
00:14:48,220 --> 00:14:49,513
it, it's usually over.
547
00:14:49,805 --> 00:14:51,890
And now I'm moving on to another part
548
00:14:51,890 --> 00:14:52,683
that's really exciting.
549
00:14:52,891 --> 00:14:56,228
So it's like it's not that I think
550
00:14:56,228 --> 00:14:59,106
editing is so much more fun than shooting
551
00:14:59,106 --> 00:15:00,858
or shooting is so much
552
00:15:00,858 --> 00:15:01,775
more fun than writing.
553
00:15:02,985 --> 00:15:04,028
Writing is a tremendous
554
00:15:04,028 --> 00:15:05,821
amount of fun for me now.
555
00:15:05,821 --> 00:15:07,156
I really have a great time.
556
00:15:07,865 --> 00:15:09,575
But when I'm done with the script, I'm
557
00:15:09,575 --> 00:15:11,535
sick of writing. I'm done it now.
558
00:15:11,535 --> 00:15:12,995
Now I want to put the
559
00:15:12,995 --> 00:15:14,121
material on its feet.
560
00:15:14,121 --> 00:15:15,289
Now I want to make it better.
561
00:15:15,289 --> 00:15:17,207
And now I want to put in the other voices
562
00:15:17,207 --> 00:15:18,208
and the other people.
563
00:15:18,417 --> 00:15:19,710
And now we're going to leave that
564
00:15:19,710 --> 00:15:21,920
document in the dust and do something
565
00:15:21,920 --> 00:15:23,380
even better than that.
566
00:15:23,631 --> 00:15:26,884
But after shooting forever, I'm done with
567
00:15:26,884 --> 00:15:28,135
it by the time I'm done.
568
00:15:28,135 --> 00:15:29,970
And now editing just seems so great.
569
00:15:30,012 --> 00:15:32,890
And now it's more of a solitary
570
00:15:32,890 --> 00:15:33,974
experience again as
571
00:15:33,974 --> 00:15:35,267
opposed to this carnival.
572
00:15:35,851 --> 00:15:38,020
A little closer to writing again.
573
00:15:39,021 --> 00:15:41,940
But it's between those three sections,
574
00:15:42,232 --> 00:15:42,900
the writing and the
575
00:15:42,900 --> 00:15:44,193
directing and editing.
576
00:15:44,193 --> 00:15:45,486
By the time that's over, now for the
577
00:15:45,486 --> 00:15:46,070
first time you're really
578
00:15:46,070 --> 00:15:46,987
looking at it like a movie.
579
00:15:48,697 --> 00:15:50,616
To this day, I can't read a novel and not
580
00:15:50,616 --> 00:15:52,159
turn it into a movie to some degree.
581
00:15:52,576 --> 00:15:54,620
He gave us enough confidence with this
582
00:15:54,620 --> 00:15:56,121
idea by stringing us along
583
00:15:56,121 --> 00:15:57,539
that we went forward with it.
584
00:16:00,000 --> 00:16:01,126
Here we go. For a sec.
585
00:16:06,006 --> 00:16:07,800
Here we go. For a sec.
586
00:16:08,550 --> 00:16:10,094
And action.
587
00:16:11,011 --> 00:16:11,595
I had a question about
588
00:16:11,595 --> 00:16:13,555
just your unique storytelling.
589
00:16:13,806 --> 00:16:15,140
When did you... What led you to
590
00:16:15,140 --> 00:16:17,184
constructing that sort of back and forth
591
00:16:17,184 --> 00:16:19,353
non-linear style that
592
00:16:19,353 --> 00:16:20,396
you did in Reservoir Dogs?
593
00:16:20,396 --> 00:16:21,021
That really kind of
594
00:16:21,021 --> 00:16:21,939
took people by surprise.
595
00:16:22,189 --> 00:16:24,191
Were the chapters and introducing the
596
00:16:24,191 --> 00:16:24,983
characters... Where did
597
00:16:24,983 --> 00:16:25,984
you get the idea from?
598
00:16:26,694 --> 00:16:30,072
I'd read novels. And in a novel, you can
599
00:16:30,072 --> 00:16:31,365
start in the middle of the story.
600
00:16:32,366 --> 00:16:33,826
An analogy I would give
601
00:16:33,826 --> 00:16:35,661
is Mo, Larry and Curly.
602
00:16:36,328 --> 00:16:37,705
And they're doing something and it's just
603
00:16:37,705 --> 00:16:39,206
moving in the forward momentum of what
604
00:16:39,206 --> 00:16:39,957
they're doing that's taking
605
00:16:39,957 --> 00:16:41,125
place in the here and now.
606
00:16:41,458 --> 00:16:42,710
But now it comes to chapter three.
607
00:16:43,127 --> 00:16:45,629
And chapter three is about Mo. And that
608
00:16:45,629 --> 00:16:47,423
happened two years before.
609
00:16:49,049 --> 00:16:50,592
You just accepted in a novel.
610
00:16:50,592 --> 00:16:51,885
Yeah, and you read it in the novel and
611
00:16:51,885 --> 00:16:54,430
you read kind of how Mo
612
00:16:54,430 --> 00:16:54,972
got there a little bit.
613
00:16:55,013 --> 00:16:56,932
Or explains more who Mo is.
614
00:16:57,641 --> 00:16:58,100
And then you go back
615
00:16:58,100 --> 00:16:59,143
to chapter four. Boom!
616
00:16:59,143 --> 00:17:01,019
And now you're back into the same current
617
00:17:01,019 --> 00:17:02,396
situation, the same thrust of stuff.
618
00:17:02,396 --> 00:17:03,021
But now you know more
619
00:17:03,021 --> 00:17:04,231
about Mo than you did before.
620
00:17:04,690 --> 00:17:06,191
And then the next chapter comes and now
621
00:17:06,191 --> 00:17:07,359
they're going to isolate Larry.
622
00:17:07,359 --> 00:17:08,360
And maybe that only happened a day
623
00:17:08,360 --> 00:17:10,154
before. But it sets up his situation.
624
00:17:10,863 --> 00:17:13,031
And to this day, I can't read a novel and
625
00:17:13,031 --> 00:17:14,158
not turn it into a movie
626
00:17:14,158 --> 00:17:15,284
to some degree in my mind.
627
00:17:15,492 --> 00:17:17,828
Anyway, I always thought if you did it
628
00:17:17,828 --> 00:17:19,246
the way they did it in novels, it would
629
00:17:19,246 --> 00:17:20,205
be even more cinematic.
630
00:17:20,914 --> 00:17:21,999
I'm sorry.
631
00:17:21,999 --> 00:17:24,835
Give me the hand.
632
00:17:25,127 --> 00:17:26,462
It would be exciting. And if you pulled
633
00:17:26,462 --> 00:17:27,504
it off, it would be fun.
634
00:17:27,504 --> 00:17:27,921
Say it!
635
00:17:28,547 --> 00:17:29,965
The cross-cutting would be neat.
636
00:17:30,215 --> 00:17:31,216
Everybody starts shooting so I'm blasting
637
00:17:31,216 --> 00:17:31,925
my way out of there.
638
00:17:32,718 --> 00:17:33,927
And it's not just one thing.
639
00:17:35,471 --> 00:17:39,099
Do movies the way novels tell stories
640
00:17:39,099 --> 00:17:41,018
when they move around like that?
641
00:17:42,936 --> 00:17:44,688
That would be inherently cinematic.
642
00:17:45,355 --> 00:17:46,690
And to just put it all in chronological
643
00:17:46,690 --> 00:17:48,150
order was inherently not
644
00:17:48,150 --> 00:17:48,984
cinematic. It was drab.
645
00:17:49,026 --> 00:17:51,069
Do you remember a time when you figured
646
00:17:51,069 --> 00:17:52,446
that out, when you read a novel in
647
00:17:52,446 --> 00:17:53,197
particular, and you said,
648
00:17:53,197 --> 00:17:55,407
"How come the movies aren't like this and
649
00:17:55,407 --> 00:17:56,325
I'm going to do this?"
650
00:17:56,325 --> 00:17:57,659
It's not one novel that
651
00:17:57,659 --> 00:17:59,453
got me thinking that way.
652
00:17:59,453 --> 00:18:02,080
It was more just every time I read a
653
00:18:02,080 --> 00:18:03,332
novel like that, I thought
654
00:18:03,332 --> 00:18:04,833
I figured out how to do it.
655
00:18:05,501 --> 00:18:07,961
And I knew that that's not what Paramount
656
00:18:07,961 --> 00:18:09,838
would do if it had the opportunity.
657
00:18:10,088 --> 00:18:11,423
Especially if you're talking about coming
658
00:18:11,423 --> 00:18:14,051
off of the 80s, which I think was a very
659
00:18:14,051 --> 00:18:15,969
oppressive time for cinema.
660
00:18:17,012 --> 00:18:20,808
The studio system was one of the more
661
00:18:20,808 --> 00:18:22,309
repressive times to
662
00:18:22,309 --> 00:18:23,644
come out since the 50s.
663
00:18:23,936 --> 00:18:24,978
Things were just very standard.
664
00:18:26,480 --> 00:18:28,190
Things had gotten very, very homogenous.
665
00:18:28,440 --> 00:18:30,359
There wasn't a whole lot of creativity
666
00:18:30,359 --> 00:18:32,569
going on as far as doing new things.
667
00:18:33,153 --> 00:18:35,864
People like Paul Verhoeven or David Lynch
668
00:18:35,864 --> 00:18:38,700
were really put in boxes as being weird.
669
00:18:39,076 --> 00:18:39,993
Everyone had to be likeable.
670
00:18:40,994 --> 00:18:45,249
There was never dark shades of things.
671
00:18:45,457 --> 00:18:47,835
You read crime novels and characters
672
00:18:47,835 --> 00:18:50,379
could do so much and be so twisted.
673
00:18:50,754 --> 00:18:52,506
If they ever talked in the 80s about
674
00:18:52,506 --> 00:18:53,549
doing those movies, they
675
00:18:53,549 --> 00:18:54,508
always had a wimp-out ending.
676
00:18:54,842 --> 00:18:55,634
They'd say, "Oh, you can't do a movie
677
00:18:55,634 --> 00:18:57,553
about that. The characters are too
678
00:18:57,553 --> 00:18:58,762
unlikable or it's too
679
00:18:58,762 --> 00:19:00,180
mortally ambiguous."
680
00:19:00,681 --> 00:19:03,892
That just was the death in the 80s.
681
00:19:04,935 --> 00:19:06,562
So I'm kind of coming off of that.
682
00:19:06,979 --> 00:19:10,607
I did finally have one thing that I
683
00:19:10,607 --> 00:19:11,900
thought proved that I was right.
684
00:19:12,901 --> 00:19:15,529
Fred Chalepsy did an adaptation of one of
685
00:19:15,529 --> 00:19:17,739
the John LeCare novels, The Russia House,
686
00:19:18,198 --> 00:19:20,367
with Sean Connery and Michelle Pfeiffer.
687
00:19:21,326 --> 00:19:23,036
I never read the book, but you could tell
688
00:19:23,036 --> 00:19:24,663
he kept the structure of the book, which
689
00:19:24,663 --> 00:19:26,081
was really moving back and forth.
690
00:19:26,623 --> 00:19:29,001
The story doesn't catch up with itself
691
00:19:29,001 --> 00:19:30,586
until about midway through.
692
00:19:31,336 --> 00:19:32,254
From that point on,
693
00:19:32,254 --> 00:19:33,255
everything is everything.
694
00:19:34,006 --> 00:19:34,756
Before that, it's really
695
00:19:34,756 --> 00:19:36,466
hopping around back and forth.
696
00:19:37,134 --> 00:19:39,094
It was exciting. It
697
00:19:39,094 --> 00:19:40,637
was really, really fun.
698
00:19:41,179 --> 00:19:43,015
I was like, "Oh, see? I
699
00:19:43,015 --> 00:19:43,974
knew this would work."
700
00:19:45,017 --> 00:19:46,727
Those moments are just so important,
701
00:19:46,727 --> 00:19:47,728
especially when you're doing something
702
00:19:47,728 --> 00:19:48,478
that's been done for
703
00:19:48,478 --> 00:19:49,605
so long, like cinema.
704
00:19:49,605 --> 00:19:51,189
When you just question something and you
705
00:19:51,189 --> 00:19:53,400
go, "How come no one's ever done this?"
706
00:19:53,400 --> 00:19:54,693
Or, "Why don't they do it that way?" I
707
00:19:54,693 --> 00:19:55,736
felt that on Sin City.
708
00:19:55,736 --> 00:19:57,613
I remember looking at the graphic novel,
709
00:19:58,363 --> 00:20:00,282
reading it and going, "This is more
710
00:20:00,282 --> 00:20:01,325
cinematic than a movie."
711
00:20:02,034 --> 00:20:04,202
The way he's just putting a drawing while
712
00:20:04,202 --> 00:20:05,829
this voiceover is going, and it's
713
00:20:05,829 --> 00:20:06,914
action-packed, but his
714
00:20:06,914 --> 00:20:08,498
voiceover is very calm.
715
00:20:08,498 --> 00:20:10,125
Why does it have to be a facsimile of
716
00:20:10,125 --> 00:20:11,376
this? Why can't it be this?
717
00:20:11,627 --> 00:20:14,004
Just shoot that. Make it like that. That
718
00:20:14,004 --> 00:20:15,297
will blow people away, because they're
719
00:20:15,297 --> 00:20:16,340
used to just seeing a movie.
720
00:20:17,090 --> 00:20:19,134
Visual storytelling, the way Frank was
721
00:20:19,134 --> 00:20:20,636
doing it on the graphic novel, I just
722
00:20:20,636 --> 00:20:21,929
wanted to see that move.
723
00:20:22,429 --> 00:20:23,972
The way you were saying you read a novel,
724
00:20:23,972 --> 00:20:25,098
and go, "Why don't they make a movie like
725
00:20:25,098 --> 00:20:27,059
that?" That storytelling, it should work.
726
00:20:27,059 --> 00:20:28,602
You shouldn't have to adapt it to a film.
727
00:20:28,894 --> 00:20:29,603
It should just work,
728
00:20:29,603 --> 00:20:29,978
because it's still storytelling.
729
00:20:30,020 --> 00:20:31,104
I would think it would be
730
00:20:31,104 --> 00:20:32,439
kinetic. It would be exciting.
731
00:20:33,148 --> 00:20:35,609
The audience has to know it's in good
732
00:20:35,609 --> 00:20:37,945
hands. It has to know that there's a
733
00:20:37,945 --> 00:20:38,987
"there" or "there" somewhere.
734
00:20:39,363 --> 00:20:40,822
But as long as there's some good hands,
735
00:20:40,822 --> 00:20:42,616
it likes not knowing
736
00:20:42,616 --> 00:20:44,159
and waiting to find out.
737
00:20:44,159 --> 00:20:45,827
One of the hallmarks of your films from
738
00:20:45,827 --> 00:20:47,412
the very beginning has just been your
739
00:20:47,412 --> 00:20:50,040
musical choices and your style.
740
00:20:50,332 --> 00:20:51,875
Were you always just a big music fan?
741
00:20:51,875 --> 00:20:53,585
Well, I got really lucky, because I could
742
00:20:53,585 --> 00:20:55,420
be stuck in a situation where I was doing
743
00:20:55,420 --> 00:20:56,380
really low-budget movies.
744
00:20:56,380 --> 00:20:57,464
I wouldn't be able to afford anything.
745
00:20:58,006 --> 00:21:00,717
In the case of Reservoir Dogs, we had
746
00:21:00,717 --> 00:21:04,638
like $13,000 set aside
747
00:21:04,638 --> 00:21:05,973
for our entire music budget.
748
00:21:07,140 --> 00:21:08,141
But I knew I needed
749
00:21:08,141 --> 00:21:09,059
"Stuck in the Middle With You."
750
00:21:13,897 --> 00:21:24,324
We had to get "Stuck in the Middle With
751
00:21:24,324 --> 00:21:25,993
You" for that price.
752
00:21:26,034 --> 00:21:29,788
At the time, the woman with the power of
753
00:21:29,788 --> 00:21:31,331
the pen there, the person
754
00:21:31,331 --> 00:21:33,917
that had the yes or no at EMI,
755
00:21:33,917 --> 00:21:35,127
was this really lovely
756
00:21:35,127 --> 00:21:36,920
lady named Pat Lucas.
757
00:21:37,587 --> 00:21:39,423
And so Stacy Shear, who later became a
758
00:21:39,423 --> 00:21:41,133
producer on Pulp Fiction, who was one of
759
00:21:41,133 --> 00:21:42,759
the producers on Django Unchained,
760
00:21:43,301 --> 00:21:46,013
she knew Pat Lucas, wrote her a big
761
00:21:46,013 --> 00:21:49,016
blowjob letter about how talented I was,
762
00:21:49,474 --> 00:21:50,684
and if you're inclined,
763
00:21:51,518 --> 00:21:52,978
I think Quentin could be another Kubrick.
764
00:21:53,020 --> 00:21:54,646
And so we just really
765
00:21:54,646 --> 00:21:55,772
kind of romanced her.
766
00:21:56,148 --> 00:21:58,108
We had to know before we shot the scene.
767
00:21:58,900 --> 00:22:00,402
And so she had that much time to think
768
00:22:00,402 --> 00:22:01,153
about it, and finally
769
00:22:01,153 --> 00:22:01,862
she thought about it,
770
00:22:01,862 --> 00:22:03,113
and she decided to give
771
00:22:03,113 --> 00:22:05,365
us a song for $13,000.
772
00:22:05,782 --> 00:22:06,700
Okay, what's your music budget?
773
00:22:06,992 --> 00:22:07,492
Well, then that's what
774
00:22:07,492 --> 00:22:08,160
I'm going to do it for.
775
00:22:08,618 --> 00:22:10,662
So we spent our entire music budget on
776
00:22:10,662 --> 00:22:12,497
"Stuck in the Middle With You."
777
00:22:23,008 --> 00:22:27,346
[grunting]
778
00:22:27,346 --> 00:22:34,853
If that was going to be the
779
00:22:34,853 --> 00:22:37,481
only song in the film, so be it.
780
00:22:37,898 --> 00:22:41,276
But then we got the idea of maybe if we
781
00:22:41,276 --> 00:22:44,321
got a record deal, that record deal will
782
00:22:44,321 --> 00:22:45,697
pay for the rest of the songs.
783
00:22:46,406 --> 00:22:47,240
And we started getting a
784
00:22:47,240 --> 00:22:47,991
little cocky about the idea.
785
00:22:48,033 --> 00:22:49,868
And actually there was one guy kind of
786
00:22:49,868 --> 00:22:50,827
stringing us along
787
00:22:50,827 --> 00:22:53,205
who never came through,
788
00:22:53,872 --> 00:22:55,791
yet he gave us enough confidence with
789
00:22:55,791 --> 00:22:57,959
this idea by stringing us along that we
790
00:22:57,959 --> 00:22:58,877
went forward with it.
791
00:22:59,127 --> 00:23:00,420
I don't think we actually would have gone
792
00:23:00,420 --> 00:23:01,505
forward with it if we didn't have
793
00:23:01,505 --> 00:23:02,881
somebody kind of lying to us.
794
00:23:03,715 --> 00:23:05,592
But then we were committed, and then we
795
00:23:05,592 --> 00:23:06,301
actually made it happen.
796
00:23:06,718 --> 00:23:08,887
Right. And then that became such a, you
797
00:23:08,887 --> 00:23:10,430
know, Hallmark soundtrack
798
00:23:10,430 --> 00:23:11,515
that you just continued to--
799
00:23:11,515 --> 00:23:12,641
Well, I got to really show it off, you
800
00:23:12,641 --> 00:23:15,977
know, my talent, be that as it may,
801
00:23:16,019 --> 00:23:16,978
all right, of putting
802
00:23:16,978 --> 00:23:19,022
music and scenes together.
803
00:23:19,022 --> 00:23:21,900
[grunting]
804
00:23:21,900 --> 00:23:26,279
When I'm seeing my movie for the eighth
805
00:23:26,279 --> 00:23:28,490
time or the ninth time, or hell, even the
806
00:23:28,490 --> 00:23:29,449
third time or fourth time,
807
00:23:30,117 --> 00:23:31,827
I'm waiting for the music sequences,
808
00:23:32,077 --> 00:23:33,578
because those are the fun parts.
809
00:23:33,578 --> 00:23:34,830
Those are really the fun parts. That's
810
00:23:34,830 --> 00:23:36,706
sort of the, like, you know, the surfing
811
00:23:36,706 --> 00:23:37,999
part, where you're just gliding.
812
00:23:37,999 --> 00:23:42,587
[music]
813
00:23:47,008 --> 00:23:49,219
It really is an anthology. It's three
814
00:23:49,219 --> 00:23:50,428
separate stories. No one
815
00:23:50,428 --> 00:23:51,847
looks at it that way anymore.
816
00:23:52,639 --> 00:23:54,808
The hero just killed that person, and who
817
00:23:54,808 --> 00:23:56,309
is this guy? What's going on?
818
00:23:57,018 --> 00:23:59,312
[music]
819
00:23:59,312 --> 00:24:00,438
Here we go. For sake.
820
00:24:01,064 --> 00:24:04,192
[music]
821
00:24:06,027 --> 00:24:07,821
Here we go. For sake.
822
00:24:08,989 --> 00:24:10,198
And action.
823
00:24:11,032 --> 00:24:12,993
I remember when I went back to work on
824
00:24:12,993 --> 00:24:14,119
Desperado at Columbia
825
00:24:14,119 --> 00:24:15,412
Pictures on the Sony lot.
826
00:24:15,912 --> 00:24:18,290
We ended up finding out we had offices
827
00:24:18,290 --> 00:24:19,124
right next to each other.
828
00:24:19,124 --> 00:24:19,374
Yeah, yeah.
829
00:24:19,374 --> 00:24:20,167
You were writing Pulp
830
00:24:20,167 --> 00:24:21,001
Fiction at that time.
831
00:24:22,586 --> 00:24:24,379
[music]
832
00:24:25,172 --> 00:24:27,340
You got a corpse in a car, minus a head
833
00:24:27,340 --> 00:24:28,717
in a garage. Take me to it.
834
00:24:29,759 --> 00:24:30,927
[music]
835
00:24:33,263 --> 00:24:34,723
How did you come up with Pulp Fiction?
836
00:24:34,723 --> 00:24:36,057
Because it fascinates me how you came up
837
00:24:36,057 --> 00:24:36,725
with this structure.
838
00:24:36,725 --> 00:24:39,352
You thought originally to do it as short
839
00:24:39,352 --> 00:24:40,812
films that you could just shoot.
840
00:24:41,021 --> 00:24:42,856
I thought about the idea, "Oh, you know,
841
00:24:43,398 --> 00:24:45,066
why do I do this as, like, an anthology
842
00:24:45,066 --> 00:24:46,484
with, like, different
843
00:24:46,484 --> 00:24:48,111
directors and stuff?"
844
00:24:48,111 --> 00:24:49,571
And I was friends with Tony Scott at the
845
00:24:49,571 --> 00:24:50,697
time, and I was always a
846
00:24:50,697 --> 00:24:52,324
huge admirer, as we both are.
847
00:24:52,699 --> 00:24:55,660
He had done True Romance, so I proposed
848
00:24:55,660 --> 00:24:57,412
to him and his partner
849
00:24:57,412 --> 00:24:57,996
at the time, Bill Unger.
850
00:24:58,038 --> 00:25:00,457
I go, "What if we do a thing we call Pulp
851
00:25:00,457 --> 00:25:03,210
Fiction? I'll write one of the stories. I
852
00:25:03,210 --> 00:25:05,003
can write another story. Tony could do
853
00:25:05,003 --> 00:25:06,296
one, and I'll write a third one, and
854
00:25:06,296 --> 00:25:06,755
we'll get another
855
00:25:06,755 --> 00:25:07,756
director to do another one."
856
00:25:08,840 --> 00:25:10,008
And they were like, "Wow,
857
00:25:10,008 --> 00:25:11,718
that's great. Let's do that."
858
00:25:12,552 --> 00:25:14,679
So I started working on one.
859
00:25:17,432 --> 00:25:17,474
[music]
860
00:25:17,474 --> 00:25:19,142
And I did have the basic idea that would
861
00:25:19,142 --> 00:25:20,477
be Vincent Vega and
862
00:25:20,477 --> 00:25:22,020
Marcellus Wallace's wife, that story.
863
00:25:22,354 --> 00:25:23,521
And so I thought, "Well, you know, I
864
00:25:23,521 --> 00:25:25,398
could write that, and then we can go out
865
00:25:25,398 --> 00:25:26,983
and do that as a short film, and that would be kind of cool."
866
00:25:27,025 --> 00:25:29,527
She did on 16mm. So I
867
00:25:29,527 --> 00:25:31,071
did have that kind of idea.
868
00:25:32,697 --> 00:25:34,449
And when I had had that idea of doing it
869
00:25:34,449 --> 00:25:36,993
as a short film, I wanted to possibly do
870
00:25:36,993 --> 00:25:39,162
it with Roger Avery, who was a good
871
00:25:39,162 --> 00:25:40,330
friend of mine at the time.
872
00:25:40,747 --> 00:25:42,207
And he was also working in one of the
873
00:25:42,207 --> 00:25:43,625
video stores, and I really liked his
874
00:25:43,625 --> 00:25:44,709
writing. We encouraged each other.
875
00:25:44,918 --> 00:25:45,835
So Roger, why don't you come
876
00:25:45,835 --> 00:25:47,837
up with a story of your own?
877
00:25:48,129 --> 00:25:49,798
And he came up with, like, the Butch
878
00:25:49,798 --> 00:25:51,174
Coolidge story, the Boxer story.
879
00:25:51,383 --> 00:25:52,425
And he didn't have the Gold Watch speech.
880
00:25:52,759 --> 00:25:54,010
He had a Gold Watch, but he didn't have
881
00:25:54,010 --> 00:25:54,970
the speech or the reason.
882
00:25:55,011 --> 00:25:56,346
Why the Gold Watch was so important.
883
00:25:56,805 --> 00:26:01,893
Now, little man, I gave the watch to you.
884
00:26:02,227 --> 00:26:03,895
[cheering]
885
00:26:04,396 --> 00:26:06,356
I like the cliche aspect of it. I wanted
886
00:26:06,356 --> 00:26:07,649
the storylines to be cliche, as the
887
00:26:07,649 --> 00:26:08,275
Boxer's supposed to
888
00:26:08,275 --> 00:26:09,609
throw the fight and doesn't.
889
00:26:10,193 --> 00:26:12,362
The hood that's supposed to take out Mr.
890
00:26:12,654 --> 00:26:13,822
Big's maul, or the
891
00:26:13,822 --> 00:26:14,698
"look but don't touch."
892
00:26:14,990 --> 00:26:17,158
You're just the beard. And
893
00:26:17,158 --> 00:26:18,076
then, like, what happens?
894
00:26:18,576 --> 00:26:20,245
Then I started kind of thinking about the
895
00:26:20,245 --> 00:26:23,540
idea of them not being separate one-offs.
896
00:26:24,082 --> 00:26:25,458
Making it so maybe some
897
00:26:25,458 --> 00:26:26,584
characters can overlap.
898
00:26:27,043 --> 00:26:29,212
And not in a gimmicky kind of way, but it
899
00:26:29,212 --> 00:26:31,548
just all take place in the same world.
900
00:26:32,132 --> 00:26:33,466
And a character who could be the lead of
901
00:26:33,466 --> 00:26:34,968
one story could just be a small part in
902
00:26:34,968 --> 00:26:36,219
the other, and vice versa.
903
00:26:36,761 --> 00:26:38,138
And the more I started thinking about
904
00:26:38,138 --> 00:26:39,723
really kind of tying them in together,
905
00:26:39,723 --> 00:26:40,390
even though the three
906
00:26:40,390 --> 00:26:41,308
stories would be separate,
907
00:26:41,850 --> 00:26:42,559
the more I said, "No, it
908
00:26:42,559 --> 00:26:43,935
really needs to have one hand."
909
00:26:44,561 --> 00:26:46,688
So I had to call Tony, "Oh, yeah, I think
910
00:26:46,688 --> 00:26:47,605
this is going to be my next movie."
911
00:26:48,440 --> 00:26:49,524
And so then I went off
912
00:26:49,524 --> 00:26:50,775
to Amsterdam to write it.
913
00:26:51,443 --> 00:26:53,153
Get a load of this. All right. If you get
914
00:26:53,153 --> 00:26:55,155
stopped by a cop in Amsterdam, it's
915
00:26:55,155 --> 00:26:56,614
illegal for them to search you.
916
00:26:57,157 --> 00:26:57,824
I mean, that's the right
917
00:26:57,824 --> 00:26:59,159
that cop Samsung don't have.
918
00:26:59,743 --> 00:27:01,202
Oh, man. Oh, God.
919
00:27:01,202 --> 00:27:02,954
I love the evolution of an idea like that
920
00:27:02,954 --> 00:27:04,080
because it ended up being such a
921
00:27:04,080 --> 00:27:05,749
groundbreaking movie.
922
00:27:05,999 --> 00:27:07,250
But to me, it wasn't really a whole lot
923
00:27:07,250 --> 00:27:07,959
different than, like, say,
924
00:27:07,959 --> 00:27:09,044
Mario Bob's Black Sabbath,
925
00:27:09,919 --> 00:27:12,005
which is like, you know, three horror
926
00:27:12,005 --> 00:27:14,049
stories. We did one of those four rooms.
927
00:27:14,841 --> 00:27:16,051
There have been things like that before.
928
00:27:16,760 --> 00:27:18,636
But never like three separate crime
929
00:27:18,636 --> 00:27:19,637
stories. That was unique.
930
00:27:20,263 --> 00:27:21,639
And the idea that, like, the three
931
00:27:21,639 --> 00:27:22,390
separate stories could
932
00:27:22,390 --> 00:27:23,767
end up telling one story.
933
00:27:23,767 --> 00:27:25,560
Well, that had never really been done
934
00:27:25,560 --> 00:27:26,978
before to that degree.
935
00:27:26,978 --> 00:27:29,230
And it still is, I mean, it's actually
936
00:27:29,230 --> 00:27:30,231
the best compliment because
937
00:27:30,231 --> 00:27:31,399
it really is an anthology.
938
00:27:31,691 --> 00:27:33,651
It's three separate stories. No one looks
939
00:27:33,651 --> 00:27:34,694
at it that way anymore.
940
00:27:35,236 --> 00:27:36,863
Or even then, they all looked at it as
941
00:27:36,863 --> 00:27:38,365
one big unified piece.
942
00:27:38,365 --> 00:27:40,241
But that's kind of hard to do. But it
943
00:27:40,241 --> 00:27:41,785
actually is three separate stories.
944
00:27:42,160 --> 00:27:44,162
It seems so new. I mean, it was new.
945
00:27:44,579 --> 00:27:45,830
At the time, somebody, a friend of yours,
946
00:27:45,830 --> 00:27:46,456
I don't remember, was a
947
00:27:46,456 --> 00:27:46,998
producer friend or an actress.
948
00:27:46,998 --> 00:27:49,959
Somebody asked you, OK, after they saw
949
00:27:49,959 --> 00:27:52,379
him. So when John Travolta, so he's
950
00:27:52,379 --> 00:27:53,838
really, he's still dead, though, right?
951
00:27:54,172 --> 00:27:54,714
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
952
00:27:54,714 --> 00:27:55,548
Remember the guy said he's just never seen.
953
00:27:55,882 --> 00:27:57,300
Yeah, I know. It's like, yeah, he's dead,
954
00:27:57,300 --> 00:27:57,967
right? And I go,
955
00:27:57,967 --> 00:27:58,718
well, of course he's dead.
956
00:27:59,677 --> 00:28:00,512
That wasn't a dream
957
00:28:00,512 --> 00:28:01,596
sequence. Of course he's dead.
958
00:28:04,808 --> 00:28:07,310
I mean, you know where you are, all
959
00:28:07,310 --> 00:28:08,311
right? You're back in the
960
00:28:08,311 --> 00:28:09,979
scene that you were at earlier.
961
00:28:10,230 --> 00:28:12,065
Now you're just going further with it.
962
00:28:12,065 --> 00:28:12,982
And it was a, wow.
963
00:28:13,149 --> 00:28:16,152
It was a big leap to ask them to do. And
964
00:28:16,152 --> 00:28:18,405
not everyone quite got it at the time,
965
00:28:18,405 --> 00:28:19,447
but most people did.
966
00:28:19,948 --> 00:28:21,116
They're like a little moment of
967
00:28:21,116 --> 00:28:22,992
confusion, but then they, oh, OK, I guess
968
00:28:22,992 --> 00:28:23,993
we're just back where
969
00:28:23,993 --> 00:28:24,744
we were at the beginning.
970
00:28:25,036 --> 00:28:26,579
Yes, you are. I mean, one of the things
971
00:28:26,579 --> 00:28:28,206
that was really exciting about watching
972
00:28:28,206 --> 00:28:29,707
the movie, I was always
973
00:28:29,707 --> 00:28:31,709
ahead of them in Pulp Fiction.
974
00:28:31,918 --> 00:28:32,377
They're in the entire
975
00:28:32,377 --> 00:28:33,420
running time for the most part.
976
00:28:33,837 --> 00:28:35,171
If you stopped watching Pulp Fiction
977
00:28:35,171 --> 00:28:36,881
after the first hour, you know, you
978
00:28:36,881 --> 00:28:37,966
didn't even really see the movie.
979
00:28:38,007 --> 00:28:39,759
Like, it takes an hour for it to really
980
00:28:39,759 --> 00:28:41,094
get going, or for it to
981
00:28:41,094 --> 00:28:42,720
really revealing itself.
982
00:28:43,054 --> 00:28:44,305
There was this neat thing that happened
983
00:28:44,305 --> 00:28:46,599
with audiences every time. And I watched
984
00:28:46,599 --> 00:28:47,559
it with a lot of audiences.
985
00:28:48,101 --> 00:28:50,311
The movie would start in that cafe with
986
00:28:50,311 --> 00:28:51,020
Tim Roth and Amanda
987
00:28:51,020 --> 00:28:52,480
Plummer, Pumpkin and Honey Bunny.
988
00:28:52,480 --> 00:28:54,441
Then it would go into the John Travolta,
989
00:28:54,858 --> 00:28:56,192
Sam Jackson Park, and the
990
00:28:56,192 --> 00:28:57,569
John Travolta, Uma Thurman Park.
991
00:28:58,069 --> 00:28:59,654
And then the boxer comes into it with
992
00:28:59,654 --> 00:29:01,239
Bruce Willis, and then we go back in
993
00:29:01,239 --> 00:29:02,740
time, and now it's Jules and Vincent
994
00:29:02,740 --> 00:29:04,451
again, and all that goes on.
995
00:29:05,034 --> 00:29:06,161
Little by little, you forget about
996
00:29:06,161 --> 00:29:08,079
Pumpkin and Honey Bunny. And it's going
997
00:29:08,079 --> 00:29:08,830
on, and I've been ahead
998
00:29:08,830 --> 00:29:10,206
of you the entire time.
999
00:29:11,207 --> 00:29:13,543
Then when you cut to the exterior of the
1000
00:29:13,543 --> 00:29:15,462
coffee shop, before you go in the coffee
1001
00:29:15,462 --> 00:29:17,213
shop, even though you never saw the
1002
00:29:17,213 --> 00:29:20,216
exterior in the opening scene, the
1003
00:29:20,216 --> 00:29:21,593
audience had caught up.
1004
00:29:21,593 --> 00:29:22,260
Wow, that's great.
1005
00:29:22,552 --> 00:29:23,720
And they knew, "Oh,
1006
00:29:24,053 --> 00:29:25,638
that's what he's gonna do!"
1007
00:29:25,638 --> 00:29:25,847
Wow.
1008
00:29:26,139 --> 00:29:28,391
Those two guys, the guy and the girl, the
1009
00:29:28,391 --> 00:29:29,434
British guy and girl from the beginning,
1010
00:29:29,851 --> 00:29:30,643
they're gonna be there.
1011
00:29:31,019 --> 00:29:34,439
Oh my God! And it was this kind of thing,
1012
00:29:34,439 --> 00:29:37,275
where it's like, "You son of a bitch! I
1013
00:29:37,275 --> 00:29:38,610
haven't understood how you're telling
1014
00:29:38,610 --> 00:29:41,362
this story from the very beginning, but
1015
00:29:41,362 --> 00:29:43,740
it's taken me this long, but now I get
1016
00:29:43,740 --> 00:29:45,533
it. Now I know, for the first time, I
1017
00:29:45,533 --> 00:29:46,367
know what you're gonna do."
1018
00:29:47,368 --> 00:29:49,621
I've heard you at a few times say, "If I
1019
00:29:49,621 --> 00:29:51,289
do my job right, I'll be able to play the
1020
00:29:51,289 --> 00:29:52,624
audience like a fiddle right here."
1021
00:29:52,624 --> 00:29:53,541
Because you really are
1022
00:29:53,541 --> 00:29:54,542
tuned in to what they were like.
1023
00:29:54,542 --> 00:29:56,419
I've always been pretty attuned. I've
1024
00:29:56,419 --> 00:29:57,212
always considered myself
1025
00:29:57,212 --> 00:29:57,962
a part of the audience.
1026
00:29:58,004 --> 00:30:01,633
So I don't second-guess it, as far as,
1027
00:30:01,633 --> 00:30:04,260
"Oh, I'm gonna smarten it up or dumb it
1028
00:30:04,260 --> 00:30:05,803
down or do anything to
1029
00:30:05,803 --> 00:30:08,848
get an unnatural response."
1030
00:30:09,432 --> 00:30:12,644
I know how I feel when I'm being jerked
1031
00:30:12,644 --> 00:30:14,938
around, and it's fun. And I do like
1032
00:30:14,938 --> 00:30:15,939
jerking them around a
1033
00:30:15,939 --> 00:30:16,981
little bit, and it's pretty easy.
1034
00:30:17,023 --> 00:30:18,983
What do you make all this?
1035
00:30:19,692 --> 00:30:20,985
Man, I don't even have an opinion.
1036
00:30:21,486 --> 00:30:23,404
Well, you gotta have an opinion! I mean,
1037
00:30:23,404 --> 00:30:24,781
do you think that God came down from
1038
00:30:24,781 --> 00:30:25,907
heaven and stopped him?
1039
00:30:26,991 --> 00:30:29,911
Audiences didn't even realize how attuned
1040
00:30:29,911 --> 00:30:32,622
they had got to the contrivances of
1041
00:30:32,622 --> 00:30:34,249
movies, because they were so used to it.
1042
00:30:34,791 --> 00:30:36,709
So you could use that against them. You
1043
00:30:36,709 --> 00:30:39,295
could leave the breadcrumbs that would
1044
00:30:39,295 --> 00:30:41,256
indicate that you were gonna go the way
1045
00:30:41,256 --> 00:30:42,966
all the other films had gone.
1046
00:30:42,966 --> 00:30:44,217
And then all of a sudden you make a quick
1047
00:30:44,217 --> 00:30:45,468
left turn, and they're
1048
00:30:45,468 --> 00:30:46,302
not prepared for that.
1049
00:30:47,011 --> 00:30:50,682
[screaming]
1050
00:30:55,562 --> 00:30:56,688
They didn't even know that they were
1051
00:30:56,688 --> 00:30:57,855
anticipating what was gonna
1052
00:30:57,855 --> 00:30:59,107
happen next, but they were.
1053
00:30:59,482 --> 00:31:01,192
And so then you use their own knowledge
1054
00:31:01,192 --> 00:31:03,319
against them. And that's exciting.
1055
00:31:04,112 --> 00:31:05,905
Now all of a sudden the storytelling is
1056
00:31:05,905 --> 00:31:07,156
infused with something.
1057
00:31:07,365 --> 00:31:08,741
Now you can't predict it.
1058
00:31:08,741 --> 00:31:10,410
I thought you were going to do it. I
1059
00:31:10,410 --> 00:31:12,412
never thought that guy would die. Or I
1060
00:31:12,412 --> 00:31:12,996
know that guy's a goner.
1061
00:31:13,037 --> 00:31:16,249
Oh no, he's not a goner. Oh my god. The
1062
00:31:16,249 --> 00:31:17,250
hero just killed that person.
1063
00:31:17,875 --> 00:31:19,836
And the innocent people are dying, and
1064
00:31:19,836 --> 00:31:21,045
the hero doesn't care, and they're just
1065
00:31:21,045 --> 00:31:22,547
cracking jokes and they're moving on.
1066
00:31:22,880 --> 00:31:24,507
Who is this guy? What's going on?
1067
00:31:26,217 --> 00:31:27,510
We all want to do something different.
1068
00:31:27,885 --> 00:31:30,054
When you're watching it with a regular
1069
00:31:30,054 --> 00:31:32,056
old audience for the first time, all of a
1070
00:31:32,056 --> 00:31:33,641
sudden you wanted to be guitar.
1071
00:31:33,641 --> 00:31:34,642
It doesn't sound like such a great
1072
00:31:34,642 --> 00:31:36,102
ambition when you've got a bunch of
1073
00:31:36,102 --> 00:31:37,061
people who want to be entertained.
1074
00:31:39,981 --> 00:31:41,065
Here we go. For a sec.
1075
00:31:44,402 --> 00:31:50,158
Here we go. For a sec. And action.
1076
00:31:51,159 --> 00:31:53,286
I like to talk about how some things that
1077
00:31:53,286 --> 00:31:54,954
look like a failure aren't always.
1078
00:31:55,371 --> 00:31:56,539
That's why I kind of like to keep a
1079
00:31:56,539 --> 00:31:57,874
journal about everything. Because
1080
00:31:57,874 --> 00:31:59,250
sometimes when things don't go your way
1081
00:31:59,250 --> 00:32:00,251
you look back and you go,
1082
00:32:00,251 --> 00:32:00,960
"Oh, thank god. Thank god."
1083
00:32:02,003 --> 00:32:06,841
Friday, May 14th, 1993, you had just
1084
00:32:06,841 --> 00:32:08,843
finished the script in the cast and you
1085
00:32:08,843 --> 00:32:11,638
were talking to Christopher Walken,
1086
00:32:11,638 --> 00:32:13,931
Harvey Katell, Michael Mattson, Tim Roth,
1087
00:32:13,931 --> 00:32:15,016
John Cusick, Matt
1088
00:32:15,016 --> 00:32:16,809
Dillon, Larry Fishburne.
1089
00:32:17,060 --> 00:32:18,603
TriStar had 30 days to greenlight your
1090
00:32:18,603 --> 00:32:19,979
script. You were getting everything
1091
00:32:19,979 --> 00:32:20,730
together. Elements,
1092
00:32:20,730 --> 00:32:21,689
budget, schedule, all that.
1093
00:32:21,689 --> 00:32:23,232
So we walk in with all the cards. If
1094
00:32:23,232 --> 00:32:24,942
TriStar takes a breath, we go somewhere
1095
00:32:24,942 --> 00:32:26,527
else. They took a breath.
1096
00:32:26,527 --> 00:32:26,986
And you went somewhere else.
1097
00:32:27,028 --> 00:32:29,197
And thank god. I remember at the time,
1098
00:32:29,197 --> 00:32:30,740
because we were both in the lot, it was a
1099
00:32:30,740 --> 00:32:32,617
big deal. It was like you
1100
00:32:32,617 --> 00:32:34,452
were going in to be a made man.
1101
00:32:34,994 --> 00:32:36,788
I was waiting for the phone call. You
1102
00:32:36,788 --> 00:32:37,997
were going to go in, turn the script.
1103
00:32:37,997 --> 00:32:40,124
What was the verdict? They said no. And
1104
00:32:40,124 --> 00:32:40,917
you were off the lot. You
1105
00:32:40,917 --> 00:32:41,501
were going somewhere else.
1106
00:32:41,918 --> 00:32:44,003
And I was left there by myself. I
1107
00:32:44,003 --> 00:32:45,421
remember thinking, "Wow, that really
1108
00:32:45,421 --> 00:32:48,216
sucks." But then it would not be the same
1109
00:32:48,216 --> 00:32:49,676
movie had you made it a TriStar.
1110
00:32:49,676 --> 00:32:50,677
Well, yeah. It wouldn't have been the
1111
00:32:50,677 --> 00:32:52,720
same movie because they just didn't have
1112
00:32:52,720 --> 00:32:53,805
the faith in it. They would
1113
00:32:53,805 --> 00:32:54,430
have thought it was weird.
1114
00:32:55,014 --> 00:32:57,100
What's funny is it was even weird to you.
1115
00:32:57,100 --> 00:32:58,726
I mean, even for you. And there was a
1116
00:32:58,726 --> 00:33:01,062
point, half of these dates because I
1117
00:33:01,062 --> 00:33:01,896
write everything down,
1118
00:33:01,896 --> 00:33:03,356
Sunday, May 1st, 1994.
1119
00:33:04,190 --> 00:33:05,900
We went to dinner. We talked movies. It
1120
00:33:05,900 --> 00:33:07,276
was about 2.30 in the morning. I'm about
1121
00:33:07,276 --> 00:33:08,319
to leave. And I asked you,
1122
00:33:09,362 --> 00:33:10,905
"Oh, how did Pope come out?"
1123
00:33:10,905 --> 00:33:11,906
Because I didn't get to see you get a
1124
00:33:11,906 --> 00:33:13,616
screening for a bunch of your director
1125
00:33:13,616 --> 00:33:14,492
friends. And I was in
1126
00:33:14,492 --> 00:33:16,327
Texas. So I wasn't there.
1127
00:33:16,828 --> 00:33:18,413
And you went, "Yeah, you know, I don't
1128
00:33:18,413 --> 00:33:20,206
know. I mean, it just, it still feels
1129
00:33:20,206 --> 00:33:21,916
like, it doesn't feel like a real movie."
1130
00:33:21,999 --> 00:33:22,917
And I said, "What do you mean?" And you
1131
00:33:22,917 --> 00:33:24,460
said, "Well, it still feels like a movie
1132
00:33:24,460 --> 00:33:25,795
Quentin would make. It doesn't feel like,
1133
00:33:26,045 --> 00:33:27,630
like, it still just doesn't feel like
1134
00:33:27,630 --> 00:33:28,631
I've made a real movie yet."
1135
00:33:29,382 --> 00:33:30,550
And, you know, maybe you try to be
1136
00:33:30,550 --> 00:33:31,884
supportive because I've seen how excited
1137
00:33:31,884 --> 00:33:34,137
you were from the beginning. And you
1138
00:33:34,137 --> 00:33:36,013
being a little down on it, it's just
1139
00:33:36,013 --> 00:33:37,223
like, "Oh, that's, you know, I was trying
1140
00:33:37,223 --> 00:33:38,558
to be a supportive friend going, "Oh,
1141
00:33:38,558 --> 00:33:39,934
that's okay. I mean, it should, should
1142
00:33:39,934 --> 00:33:41,686
be, you know, more like you."
1143
00:33:41,686 --> 00:33:43,938
But it did, didn't seem like, it didn't
1144
00:33:43,938 --> 00:33:45,523
seem like a real movie. It seemed like a
1145
00:33:45,523 --> 00:33:45,982
crazy Quentin movie.
1146
00:33:45,982 --> 00:33:47,984
It's what you called it. You were almost
1147
00:33:47,984 --> 00:33:49,444
disappointed that it was still felt like
1148
00:33:49,444 --> 00:33:50,903
it had too much of your hand in it, which
1149
00:33:50,903 --> 00:33:52,196
of course now you know that's the
1150
00:33:52,196 --> 00:33:53,072
blessing of what you do
1151
00:33:53,072 --> 00:33:54,115
and that's what it should be.
1152
00:33:54,657 --> 00:33:56,492
But at that early formative years of
1153
00:33:56,492 --> 00:33:58,494
yourself, that was essential that you
1154
00:33:58,494 --> 00:33:59,579
were at a place like Mirror Max.
1155
00:33:59,579 --> 00:34:01,122
But it's also interesting though, because
1156
00:34:01,122 --> 00:34:02,790
it's like, we all want to do something
1157
00:34:02,790 --> 00:34:04,375
different in like, you know, do our own
1158
00:34:04,375 --> 00:34:06,419
way. However, when you're watching it
1159
00:34:06,419 --> 00:34:08,546
with a regular old audience for the first
1160
00:34:08,546 --> 00:34:10,757
time, you don't really want it to be that
1161
00:34:10,757 --> 00:34:12,300
different. You kind of want them to
1162
00:34:12,300 --> 00:34:14,844
recognize it somewhat as a real movie
1163
00:34:14,844 --> 00:34:14,969
that, like, they might see.
1164
00:34:15,011 --> 00:34:19,140
You want people to be entertained at the
1165
00:34:19,140 --> 00:34:20,475
end of the day. You want to be. And all
1166
00:34:20,475 --> 00:34:22,018
of a sudden, you know, you wanted to be a
1167
00:34:22,018 --> 00:34:23,311
guitar doesn't sound like such a great
1168
00:34:23,311 --> 00:34:25,062
ambition. You got a bunch of people who
1169
00:34:25,062 --> 00:34:25,772
want to be entertained.
1170
00:34:26,522 --> 00:34:28,399
I just think it's so important for people
1171
00:34:28,399 --> 00:34:30,443
to hear that even you didn't know what it
1172
00:34:30,443 --> 00:34:32,487
was going to do because people don't,
1173
00:34:32,820 --> 00:34:34,405
something that's groundbreaking and
1174
00:34:34,405 --> 00:34:37,033
that's going to change cinema, you don't
1175
00:34:37,033 --> 00:34:38,993
recognize it. Nobody does.
1176
00:34:39,035 --> 00:34:40,453
I think the time that happened before
1177
00:34:40,453 --> 00:34:42,747
most famously was on Star Wars. George
1178
00:34:42,747 --> 00:34:44,332
Lucas got all his director friends to
1179
00:34:44,332 --> 00:34:47,794
look at it. It's DePaulman. Spielberg.
1180
00:34:48,920 --> 00:34:50,004
And they all were just like, oh, poor
1181
00:34:50,004 --> 00:34:52,048
George, he wasted his time with his
1182
00:34:52,048 --> 00:34:54,300
movie. What a fool's errand this was.
1183
00:34:54,842 --> 00:34:56,219
Spielberg recognized it for being
1184
00:34:56,219 --> 00:34:59,180
something that it could be. But I talked
1185
00:34:59,180 --> 00:35:00,640
to some of the directors because I wasn't
1186
00:35:00,640 --> 00:35:02,266
able to go to that screening that you had
1187
00:35:02,266 --> 00:35:03,434
for your director friends. And I was
1188
00:35:03,434 --> 00:35:04,852
curious. I called up a couple of the
1189
00:35:04,852 --> 00:35:05,978
people and say, well, how did it go?
1190
00:35:06,020 --> 00:35:08,189
And they said, yeah, I'm not sure. I
1191
00:35:08,189 --> 00:35:09,607
don't know. I don't know about this one.
1192
00:35:09,607 --> 00:35:10,775
They've never seen anything like it.
1193
00:35:10,775 --> 00:35:12,777
Never seen anything like it. It was like
1194
00:35:12,777 --> 00:35:14,403
that Star Wars. That was our Star Wars.
1195
00:35:14,403 --> 00:35:16,030
Pulp Fiction was like our Star Wars. Not
1196
00:35:16,030 --> 00:35:18,199
even we knew. But there was one person.
1197
00:35:18,199 --> 00:35:19,575
There was one. Who was the Spielberg in
1198
00:35:19,575 --> 00:35:21,160
the group? Oh, Catherine Bigelow.
1199
00:35:21,536 --> 00:35:24,539
Absolutely positively. She was its
1200
00:35:24,539 --> 00:35:28,167
biggest fan. She went nuts for Reservoir
1201
00:35:28,167 --> 00:35:30,211
Dogs at Telluride. And I'd always been a
1202
00:35:30,211 --> 00:35:31,879
fan of hers. Yeah. So you hooked me up
1203
00:35:31,879 --> 00:35:33,798
with her. Yeah. I was following around
1204
00:35:33,798 --> 00:35:34,966
Telluride the whole time.
1205
00:35:40,555 --> 00:35:42,640
That's what I talked to her about. Near
1206
00:35:42,640 --> 00:35:44,517
dark, near dark, near dark. All right.
1207
00:35:45,893 --> 00:35:47,937
For her to say that's awesome. She wanted
1208
00:35:47,937 --> 00:35:50,481
to put John Travolta in Strange Days
1209
00:35:50,481 --> 00:35:52,900
after seeing that movie. She screened it
1210
00:35:52,900 --> 00:35:56,904
for Jim Cameron. Apparently, like when
1211
00:35:56,904 --> 00:35:57,989
she did the screening, she goes, guys, you're in for treatment. And you don't even know what you're going to see. You don't even know what you're going to see. But I know what you're going to see.
1212
00:35:58,155 --> 00:36:06,664
And I can't wait to watch it with you
1213
00:36:06,664 --> 00:36:11,210
guys. Nobody else was saying that. After
1214
00:36:11,210 --> 00:36:14,589
my little director screening with my
1215
00:36:14,589 --> 00:36:17,300
friends, you know, there was even one of
1216
00:36:17,300 --> 00:36:20,595
them that was planning on, okay, I'm
1217
00:36:20,595 --> 00:36:21,971
going to have to have a hard talk with
1218
00:36:21,971 --> 00:36:23,973
Quentin. But I'll wait till he comes back from Con.
1219
00:36:25,016 --> 00:36:29,729
The palm door.
1220
00:36:34,859 --> 00:36:36,027
Goes to.
1221
00:36:40,865 --> 00:36:41,991
Pulp Fiction.
1222
00:36:41,991 --> 00:36:50,249
I was in the palm door. Literally, they
1223
00:36:50,249 --> 00:36:52,376
left a message. Well, I was actually
1224
00:36:52,376 --> 00:36:54,128
going to actually get a little tough with
1225
00:36:54,128 --> 00:36:58,174
you. I guess we can forget that. What the
1226
00:36:58,174 --> 00:37:03,054
hell do I know? What the hell did anybody
1227
00:37:03,054 --> 00:37:04,931
know at that time? It really changed
1228
00:37:04,931 --> 00:37:06,390
movies because I was still at Columbia.
1229
00:37:07,266 --> 00:37:08,976
I remember the executives when that movie
1230
00:37:08,976 --> 00:37:11,312
did what it did. They came and they went.
1231
00:37:11,729 --> 00:37:14,398
It was like when Easy Rider had come out
1232
00:37:14,398 --> 00:37:15,900
and suddenly the studios felt like
1233
00:37:15,900 --> 00:37:17,568
dinosaurs. They were like, we're trying
1234
00:37:17,568 --> 00:37:19,320
to make movies for youth. That's youth.
1235
00:37:19,654 --> 00:37:21,572
That's what people are meant to. And we
1236
00:37:21,572 --> 00:37:22,239
don't know how to do that.
1237
00:37:23,032 --> 00:37:25,326
There's nothing else coming out even on
1238
00:37:25,326 --> 00:37:27,244
our schedule that's remotely like that,
1239
00:37:27,244 --> 00:37:27,995
except maybe Desperado.
1240
00:37:28,037 --> 00:37:29,163
Yeah, right.
1241
00:37:29,538 --> 00:37:31,165
Because I'd already shot you in it.
1242
00:37:31,540 --> 00:37:35,169
But that was it. There was no nothing. So
1243
00:37:35,169 --> 00:37:37,546
it was really turned the industry and you
1244
00:37:37,546 --> 00:37:39,632
know, audiences were exhilarated to go to
1245
00:37:39,632 --> 00:37:41,092
the cinema again and they weren't going
1246
00:37:41,092 --> 00:37:41,759
to see anything like
1247
00:37:41,759 --> 00:37:43,094
that till your next movie.
1248
00:37:46,138 --> 00:37:49,433
You were the first real rock star
1249
00:37:49,433 --> 00:37:51,060
director. You were like
1250
00:37:51,060 --> 00:37:51,936
hanging out one of the Beatles.
1251
00:37:54,355 --> 00:37:55,606
Here we go. For a sec.
1252
00:37:59,235 --> 00:38:02,780
Here we go. For a sec.
1253
00:38:04,073 --> 00:38:08,369
Sam Jackson, how did that relationship
1254
00:38:08,369 --> 00:38:10,496
start? And it's like one of the great
1255
00:38:10,496 --> 00:38:11,998
partnerships, you know, De Niro and
1256
00:38:11,998 --> 00:38:14,583
Scorsese, John Woo and Chai-Yun Fat. Ron
1257
00:38:14,583 --> 00:38:15,710
Perlman and Guillermo Dothra
1258
00:38:15,710 --> 00:38:15,960
asked him this question too.
1259
00:38:17,003 --> 00:38:18,546
What is it about those kind of
1260
00:38:18,546 --> 00:38:20,965
partnerships that are so unique to
1261
00:38:20,965 --> 00:38:22,800
filmmakers or what's important to their
1262
00:38:22,800 --> 00:38:24,844
process or what does it mean to a
1263
00:38:24,844 --> 00:38:25,803
filmmaker when they do that?
1264
00:38:26,137 --> 00:38:27,763
And these actors, no matter how great
1265
00:38:27,763 --> 00:38:29,015
they are, they always seem to be better
1266
00:38:29,015 --> 00:38:29,557
when they're with their
1267
00:38:29,557 --> 00:38:31,350
director kind of part. What is that?
1268
00:38:31,642 --> 00:38:33,060
Well, I mean, there's a few things with
1269
00:38:33,060 --> 00:38:36,313
Sam. I mean, we like a lot of the same
1270
00:38:36,313 --> 00:38:37,940
kind of movies. All right. So it's not
1271
00:38:37,940 --> 00:38:38,983
like he doesn't get it.
1272
00:38:39,984 --> 00:38:42,778
He comes from theater. So he comes from,
1273
00:38:42,778 --> 00:38:46,365
you know, the work ethic of like the play
1274
00:38:46,365 --> 00:38:47,992
is the thing. That's what
1275
00:38:47,992 --> 00:38:48,993
that's what we're doing here.
1276
00:38:49,368 --> 00:38:50,578
Come on, let's get in the character.
1277
00:38:51,037 --> 00:38:53,748
He knows his dialogue left, right and
1278
00:38:53,748 --> 00:38:56,834
center, upwards and downwards. But then
1279
00:38:56,834 --> 00:38:59,503
the thing, the thing that makes our
1280
00:38:59,503 --> 00:39:04,216
relationship is just nobody says my
1281
00:39:04,216 --> 00:39:06,969
dialogue the way Sam Jackson does.
1282
00:39:08,012 --> 00:39:10,973
And I will strike down upon thee with
1283
00:39:10,973 --> 00:39:15,019
great vengeance and furious anger those
1284
00:39:15,019 --> 00:39:16,729
who attempt to poison
1285
00:39:16,729 --> 00:39:18,647
and destroy my brothers.
1286
00:39:19,273 --> 00:39:22,193
And you will know my name is the Lord
1287
00:39:22,193 --> 00:39:24,987
when I lay my vengeance upon thee.
1288
00:39:24,987 --> 00:39:31,660
Sam gets it 100 percent. I mean, he's a
1289
00:39:31,660 --> 00:39:33,621
terrific artist. He's a terrific actor.
1290
00:39:34,205 --> 00:39:36,123
Now, Christophe says my dialogue as good
1291
00:39:36,123 --> 00:39:37,792
as Sam Jackson, but he doesn't say this
1292
00:39:37,792 --> 00:39:39,001
in the Sam Jackson way.
1293
00:39:39,502 --> 00:39:41,253
He's like completely sings it in a
1294
00:39:41,253 --> 00:39:43,422
completely other tune. But the way
1295
00:39:43,422 --> 00:39:46,342
Christophe and Sam Jackson do it, they
1296
00:39:46,342 --> 00:39:49,929
turn it into the poetry that it was
1297
00:39:49,929 --> 00:39:50,971
always supposed to be.
1298
00:39:52,014 --> 00:39:54,892
They get the music in it and they sing
1299
00:39:54,892 --> 00:39:57,311
it. They sing the dialogue. They don't
1300
00:39:57,311 --> 00:40:00,106
say it. They sing it. And it just takes
1301
00:40:00,106 --> 00:40:01,357
off. It just takes
1302
00:40:01,357 --> 00:40:02,775
off. It's just it's alive.
1303
00:40:03,609 --> 00:40:04,068
Most definitely.
1304
00:40:06,320 --> 00:40:07,279
What's she going to do then?
1305
00:40:08,697 --> 00:40:11,033
Well, that's what I've been sitting here
1306
00:40:11,033 --> 00:40:14,120
contemplating. First, I'm going to
1307
00:40:14,120 --> 00:40:16,997
deliver this case to Marcellus. Then
1308
00:40:16,997 --> 00:40:18,374
basically, I'm just
1309
00:40:18,374 --> 00:40:18,999
going to walk the earth.
1310
00:40:18,999 --> 00:40:21,627
What you mean, walk the earth, you know,
1311
00:40:21,794 --> 00:40:22,878
like Kane and Kung Fu?
1312
00:40:23,587 --> 00:40:25,589
Sam's not like my buddy. Sam feels more
1313
00:40:25,589 --> 00:40:28,717
like he's like my grumpy, cantankerous
1314
00:40:28,717 --> 00:40:32,763
uncle. He's a total smartass. Absolute
1315
00:40:32,763 --> 00:40:35,432
smartass. All right. Talk to the whole
1316
00:40:35,432 --> 00:40:38,561
movie. Makes fun of
1317
00:40:38,561 --> 00:40:39,979
people all through the movie.
1318
00:40:39,979 --> 00:40:42,439
We'll be doing a scene where they're
1319
00:40:42,439 --> 00:40:44,400
actually like, oh, honey, I'm sorry,
1320
00:40:44,525 --> 00:40:46,110
honey, could you get out of my eyeline?
1321
00:40:46,110 --> 00:40:46,819
You're in my eyeline.
1322
00:40:48,195 --> 00:40:49,488
Ever do theater? I don't know.
1323
00:40:53,993 --> 00:40:55,244
He's like that. He's
1324
00:40:55,244 --> 00:40:56,162
entertaining on the scene.
1325
00:40:56,287 --> 00:40:58,998
Yeah. And I'll be standing up and
1326
00:40:58,998 --> 00:41:00,166
there'll be something like, you know,
1327
00:41:00,166 --> 00:41:02,042
this kind of rigging, all right. A pipey
1328
00:41:02,042 --> 00:41:04,628
rigging right above us. And I'm standing
1329
00:41:04,628 --> 00:41:07,381
up talking. Now, Quentin, you're about to
1330
00:41:07,381 --> 00:41:07,965
crack your head open.
1331
00:41:09,008 --> 00:41:11,844
On that big pipe. Not that I wouldn't
1332
00:41:11,844 --> 00:41:14,054
enjoy watching that, but I'm just going
1333
00:41:14,054 --> 00:41:15,598
to let you know you would
1334
00:41:15,598 --> 00:41:17,683
crack your head open on that pipe.
1335
00:41:18,684 --> 00:41:20,102
One of the most exciting times for me are
1336
00:41:20,102 --> 00:41:21,187
things when we met in the festival
1337
00:41:21,187 --> 00:41:23,397
circuit because you made it seem in
1338
00:41:23,397 --> 00:41:25,858
particular so fun. Movie making seemed
1339
00:41:25,858 --> 00:41:27,818
just so fun. And what I was surprised,
1340
00:41:28,027 --> 00:41:28,819
we're having a blast. You
1341
00:41:28,819 --> 00:41:28,986
were having a blast too.
1342
00:41:29,987 --> 00:41:32,448
And it was infectious and people it was
1343
00:41:32,448 --> 00:41:35,492
intoxicating. And after that movie, I
1344
00:41:35,492 --> 00:41:39,121
doubled as your bodyguard. It was insane.
1345
00:41:39,496 --> 00:41:41,207
People would just follow you everywhere.
1346
00:41:41,207 --> 00:41:42,208
They would just go crazy.
1347
00:41:44,001 --> 00:41:45,920
You were the first real rock star
1348
00:41:45,920 --> 00:41:47,713
director. We're like hanging
1349
00:41:47,713 --> 00:41:48,422
out with one of the Beatles.
1350
00:41:51,592 --> 00:41:52,426
That was the explosion of
1351
00:41:52,426 --> 00:41:52,968
independent cinema in the 90s.
1352
00:41:53,010 --> 00:41:58,432
A lot of people are making
1353
00:41:58,432 --> 00:41:59,391
really interesting noise.
1354
00:42:01,018 --> 00:42:02,937
Alison Anderson is doing her thing. Rick
1355
00:42:02,937 --> 00:42:05,439
Linklater is doing his thing. David
1356
00:42:05,439 --> 00:42:06,857
Fincher now does seven. Then
1357
00:42:06,857 --> 00:42:07,983
you come out with Desperado.
1358
00:42:09,401 --> 00:42:10,527
It's cool, I say.
1359
00:42:11,153 --> 00:42:12,238
What actually kind of gives that rock
1360
00:42:12,238 --> 00:42:14,990
star thing a little credence is younger
1361
00:42:14,990 --> 00:42:17,201
people started actually looking possibly
1362
00:42:17,201 --> 00:42:17,993
to filmmaking the way they had looked at starting a band before.
1363
00:42:18,994 --> 00:42:23,540
Starting a band wasn't the way to express
1364
00:42:23,540 --> 00:42:25,918
yourself. Getting a camera and trying to
1365
00:42:25,918 --> 00:42:27,628
make a movie. That was the
1366
00:42:27,628 --> 00:42:29,797
easier way to express yourself.
1367
00:42:31,924 --> 00:42:34,468
You weren't expecting that when you made
1368
00:42:34,468 --> 00:42:36,428
it. And to you it was just like another
1369
00:42:36,428 --> 00:42:36,971
movie that Quentin would make. How do you follow that up?
1370
00:42:38,013 --> 00:42:41,016
This is the zeitgeist moment. This is a
1371
00:42:41,016 --> 00:42:43,102
phenomenon. I'm not going to get another
1372
00:42:43,102 --> 00:42:46,772
phenomenon the next movie out. I go, I
1373
00:42:46,772 --> 00:42:47,731
should tell them for a loop.
1374
00:42:48,732 --> 00:42:49,858
And we're back at the director's chair
1375
00:42:49,858 --> 00:42:51,568
with Quentin Tarantino, volume two.
1376
00:42:55,072 --> 00:42:59,660
You used your influence right away to
1377
00:42:59,660 --> 00:43:02,079
champion forgotten filmmakers in films.
1378
00:43:02,538 --> 00:43:03,163
You created a label
1379
00:43:03,163 --> 00:43:03,998
called Rolling Thunder.
1380
00:43:04,039 --> 00:43:07,710
What was the idea behind that?
1381
00:43:08,210 --> 00:43:09,920
Well, Rolling Thunder was the fact that I
1382
00:43:09,920 --> 00:43:11,380
was going on the film festival circuit.
1383
00:43:11,380 --> 00:43:11,922
So I was seeing all
1384
00:43:11,922 --> 00:43:12,715
these different movies.
1385
00:43:13,340 --> 00:43:14,300
And finally I said, "How are you going to
1386
00:43:14,300 --> 00:43:16,176
give me my own label with a little tiny
1387
00:43:16,176 --> 00:43:18,554
budget and just let me buy what I want to
1388
00:43:18,554 --> 00:43:20,639
buy. And we can release it."
1389
00:43:20,973 --> 00:43:22,224
It wasn't about money, it was just about
1390
00:43:22,224 --> 00:43:25,561
doing it. And so the first movie that I
1391
00:43:25,561 --> 00:43:27,980
chose was Wong Kar-Wai's Chunky Express.
1392
00:43:28,981 --> 00:43:33,319
It had been around for five years. Nobody
1393
00:43:33,319 --> 00:43:37,156
wanted it. It was already on video in the
1394
00:43:37,156 --> 00:43:40,159
Chinatown market. And then we made almost
1395
00:43:40,159 --> 00:43:41,660
every top ten list that year.
1396
00:43:41,994 --> 00:43:44,913
Which I'm thinking set up Wong Kar-Wai as
1397
00:43:44,913 --> 00:43:46,665
an art house darling from that point on.
1398
00:43:47,958 --> 00:43:49,710
But I was also picking up older movies,
1399
00:43:50,085 --> 00:43:51,295
trying to present them in a different
1400
00:43:51,295 --> 00:43:53,589
light. I was a big Jack Hill fan. So we
1401
00:43:53,589 --> 00:43:55,299
released Switchblade Sisters because I
1402
00:43:55,299 --> 00:43:56,800
saw how well it played with audiences.
1403
00:43:58,010 --> 00:44:00,888
And frankly, the idea I had for Rolling
1404
00:44:00,888 --> 00:44:03,974
Thunder as this film distribution label
1405
00:44:03,974 --> 00:44:07,978
has finally found its perfect home as an
1406
00:44:07,978 --> 00:44:09,396
entire cable channel.
1407
00:44:09,980 --> 00:44:12,316
Showing the movies you guys show.
1408
00:44:15,319 --> 00:44:21,116
As if you made that
1409
00:44:21,116 --> 00:44:24,745
network just for me and me alone.
1410
00:44:25,996 --> 00:44:27,748
Well that's one thing you've always been
1411
00:44:27,748 --> 00:44:28,665
fantastic about is
1412
00:44:28,665 --> 00:44:29,958
just curating the content.
1413
00:44:29,958 --> 00:44:32,169
Like that cool friend, like you are to
1414
00:44:32,169 --> 00:44:33,962
me, who says, "This is what you should
1415
00:44:33,962 --> 00:44:35,547
see because, and this is the reason, and
1416
00:44:35,547 --> 00:44:36,715
this is why you're watching it."
1417
00:44:36,715 --> 00:44:37,883
You'll be very pleased to know Gordon
1418
00:44:37,883 --> 00:44:38,967
Lude was our biggest
1419
00:44:38,967 --> 00:44:40,677
ratings day of all time.
1420
00:44:40,677 --> 00:44:42,679
Oh man! That was so cool you had Gordon
1421
00:44:42,679 --> 00:44:44,390
Lude when it was like, "Oh my gosh, like
1422
00:44:44,390 --> 00:44:45,265
four of them in a row
1423
00:44:45,265 --> 00:44:46,975
all Sunday. How awesome!"
1424
00:44:47,017 --> 00:44:49,561
Who would ever have thought you would
1425
00:44:49,561 --> 00:44:52,022
turn on the television and have a
1426
00:44:52,022 --> 00:44:55,067
professionally done Gordon Lude day? I
1427
00:44:55,067 --> 00:44:56,360
could program a
1428
00:44:56,360 --> 00:44:57,861
Gordon Lude day on my VCR.
1429
00:44:59,071 --> 00:45:02,074
But to see it HD and project it that way,
1430
00:45:02,074 --> 00:45:03,200
I mean these are the movies you usually
1431
00:45:03,200 --> 00:45:05,285
have to scrounge to find or you'd have to
1432
00:45:05,285 --> 00:45:07,037
know somebody like you to see them
1433
00:45:07,037 --> 00:45:08,622
stringing them up in 16 millimeter. And
1434
00:45:08,622 --> 00:45:09,665
now here it is. You can see it.
1435
00:45:09,665 --> 00:45:10,290
That is awesome.
1436
00:45:12,000 --> 00:45:15,379
When you had to follow up Pulp Fiction,
1437
00:45:15,838 --> 00:45:18,882
it overperforms. Was it harder to get the
1438
00:45:18,882 --> 00:45:20,259
next thing going? How did you get past
1439
00:45:20,259 --> 00:45:21,343
that? Because I get a lot of people who
1440
00:45:21,343 --> 00:45:22,636
come to me and they're like,
1441
00:45:24,179 --> 00:45:26,098
"I did a video that I put on YouTube and
1442
00:45:26,098 --> 00:45:28,434
it's got 50 million hits and now I don't
1443
00:45:28,434 --> 00:45:29,351
know how to follow that up."
1444
00:45:30,018 --> 00:45:31,311
And I tell them your stories. "Well,
1445
00:45:31,311 --> 00:45:32,354
Quentin did Pulp Fiction. He didn't know
1446
00:45:32,354 --> 00:45:33,939
that was coming. He just kept going."
1447
00:45:34,273 --> 00:45:35,816
And then you break through. You got to
1448
00:45:35,816 --> 00:45:37,401
put yourself in the mindset, "Where was I
1449
00:45:37,401 --> 00:45:38,986
when I made that video? I wasn't thinking about 50 million hits.
1450
00:45:39,027 --> 00:45:42,156
I was just doing what I do." And if
1451
00:45:42,156 --> 00:45:43,323
you're trying to think about 50 million
1452
00:45:43,323 --> 00:45:44,283
hits, well, you're just going to be doing
1453
00:45:44,283 --> 00:45:46,076
sequels. You're never going to be able to
1454
00:45:46,076 --> 00:45:47,536
get back into the headspace you were at
1455
00:45:47,536 --> 00:45:48,495
where you created that.
1456
00:45:48,495 --> 00:45:49,955
How did you get back to the headspace?
1457
00:45:49,955 --> 00:45:51,540
And was it just, I know you were
1458
00:45:51,540 --> 00:45:54,835
struggling with the fact that people are
1459
00:45:54,835 --> 00:45:56,336
expecting Pulp Fiction too. And if I
1460
00:45:56,336 --> 00:45:57,337
don't make Pulp Fiction too, they're
1461
00:45:57,337 --> 00:45:57,796
going to be disappointed.
1462
00:45:58,046 --> 00:45:58,964
Yeah, but they're never
1463
00:45:58,964 --> 00:46:00,048
going to like Pulp Fiction too.
1464
00:46:00,048 --> 00:46:01,175
Yeah, so they're going to like Pulp
1465
00:46:01,175 --> 00:46:02,009
Fiction too. So what do I
1466
00:46:02,009 --> 00:46:02,968
do? How did you get past that?
1467
00:46:03,010 --> 00:46:05,554
I actually, it was such a big success. I
1468
00:46:05,554 --> 00:46:08,432
have to go underneath. Let me do a more
1469
00:46:08,432 --> 00:46:10,100
mature film. Let me do a more
1470
00:46:10,100 --> 00:46:13,479
character-based film. Let me do a movie
1471
00:46:13,479 --> 00:46:15,355
that people would
1472
00:46:15,355 --> 00:46:17,691
expect from me when I was 45.
1473
00:46:22,779 --> 00:46:28,202
You had the chance to walk away with a
1474
00:46:28,202 --> 00:46:28,911
half a million
1475
00:46:28,911 --> 00:46:29,995
dollars, would you tell me?
1476
00:46:30,037 --> 00:46:32,623
I had had the rights to some Elmore
1477
00:46:32,623 --> 00:46:34,166
Leonard books, and one of them was Rum
1478
00:46:34,166 --> 00:46:35,459
Punch, which became Jackie Brown.
1479
00:46:36,084 --> 00:46:37,628
I've been a big Elmore Leonard fan, and I
1480
00:46:37,628 --> 00:46:39,171
saw where what I thought a lot of the
1481
00:46:39,171 --> 00:46:41,507
Elmore Leonard adaptations go wrong is
1482
00:46:41,507 --> 00:46:43,425
like, you know, it's his long dialogues.
1483
00:46:43,425 --> 00:46:44,635
It's his weird digressions.
1484
00:46:44,927 --> 00:46:47,179
And you try to just streamline that and
1485
00:46:47,179 --> 00:46:48,639
like get to the point when now you lose
1486
00:46:48,639 --> 00:46:52,309
all the flavor that his books had. I had
1487
00:46:52,309 --> 00:46:54,019
the situation that I could let them talk
1488
00:46:54,019 --> 00:46:54,686
and let them be kind
1489
00:46:54,686 --> 00:46:54,978
of shaggy dog stories.
1490
00:46:55,020 --> 00:46:58,357
My only like structural things that I did
1491
00:46:58,357 --> 00:47:01,151
that were different was changing Jackie,
1492
00:47:01,151 --> 00:47:02,945
who was white, to black.
1493
00:47:04,071 --> 00:47:07,032
I just thought, who can be a woman in her
1494
00:47:07,032 --> 00:47:10,202
like late 40s? You could tell she used to
1495
00:47:10,202 --> 00:47:12,621
be really beautiful, still is. And you
1496
00:47:12,621 --> 00:47:14,248
kind of feel she could handle anything.
1497
00:47:14,456 --> 00:47:16,166
Why? That sounds like Pam Grier to me.
1498
00:47:16,708 --> 00:47:18,252
Jackie Brown. If I have to tell you to
1499
00:47:18,252 --> 00:47:19,211
shut up one more time,
1500
00:47:19,211 --> 00:47:19,962
I'm going to shut you up.
1501
00:47:20,003 --> 00:47:23,131
Oh, yeah. Once I came up with the idea of
1502
00:47:23,131 --> 00:47:24,716
casting Pam Grier, then it's like, oh,
1503
00:47:25,092 --> 00:47:27,135
this is almost like a Pam Grier movie,
1504
00:47:27,135 --> 00:47:28,679
but like a real Pam Grier movie, like a
1505
00:47:28,679 --> 00:47:30,222
realistic Pam Grier movie where she
1506
00:47:30,222 --> 00:47:32,266
actually holds a job as opposed to
1507
00:47:32,266 --> 00:47:33,600
walking around with a sawed off shotgun
1508
00:47:33,600 --> 00:47:34,726
burning the ghetto down to the ground.
1509
00:47:35,310 --> 00:47:38,855
And the big de Palma esque thing I threw
1510
00:47:38,855 --> 00:47:41,817
into it was the whole money switch. It
1511
00:47:41,817 --> 00:47:42,859
wasn't how he wrote it, but
1512
00:47:42,859 --> 00:47:44,319
it was how I saw it in my head.
1513
00:47:45,445 --> 00:47:46,780
Let's see the money switch happen from
1514
00:47:46,780 --> 00:47:47,990
beginning to end with each of them.
1515
00:47:48,991 --> 00:47:53,078
First, it's Jackie's. Then it's Lewis and
1516
00:47:53,078 --> 00:47:57,916
Melanie's. And then it's Max's.
1517
00:48:02,129 --> 00:48:03,422
By the time you see all three of them,
1518
00:48:03,422 --> 00:48:04,214
you put it all together.
1519
00:48:06,550 --> 00:48:08,552
And those are just your instincts as a
1520
00:48:08,552 --> 00:48:09,386
filmmaker's director.
1521
00:48:09,386 --> 00:48:11,346
It literally was just how I saw it. What
1522
00:48:11,346 --> 00:48:12,889
would be a cool way to do it. The first
1523
00:48:12,889 --> 00:48:14,057
time I read it and when I read it a
1524
00:48:14,057 --> 00:48:15,976
second time, it presented itself again.
1525
00:48:16,018 --> 00:48:18,729
I've got footage of you on a panel from
1526
00:48:18,729 --> 00:48:21,773
Toronto back in 1992 talking about that
1527
00:48:21,773 --> 00:48:23,066
you were a writer-director, but you
1528
00:48:23,066 --> 00:48:24,359
mainly think of yourself as a director
1529
00:48:24,359 --> 00:48:26,361
who writes himself stuff to direct.
1530
00:48:27,195 --> 00:48:28,864
I don't want to run any anger at this
1531
00:48:28,864 --> 00:48:30,157
one, so I'm writing too much of a
1532
00:48:30,157 --> 00:48:30,741
director who writes
1533
00:48:30,741 --> 00:48:31,908
stuff for himself to do.
1534
00:48:32,159 --> 00:48:33,368
Do you still think of yourself that way?
1535
00:48:33,619 --> 00:48:36,580
As proud as I am of my movies, I think
1536
00:48:36,580 --> 00:48:39,499
writing has become more and more and more
1537
00:48:39,499 --> 00:48:40,876
and more important to me.
1538
00:48:41,376 --> 00:48:43,503
That first real flash of excitement is
1539
00:48:43,503 --> 00:48:44,880
always when I'm writing something that
1540
00:48:44,880 --> 00:48:46,590
should go this way and then all of a
1541
00:48:46,590 --> 00:48:48,300
sudden inspiration happens
1542
00:48:48,300 --> 00:48:49,343
and it goes somewhere else.
1543
00:48:49,343 --> 00:48:51,386
And I'm party to it. And I didn't expect
1544
00:48:51,386 --> 00:48:52,763
it to happen. It just happens. Like, oh,
1545
00:48:52,763 --> 00:48:54,473
that's real talent. That's what happens.
1546
00:48:55,015 --> 00:48:56,642
That's what real writers do.
1547
00:48:57,392 --> 00:48:59,686
In the case of, say, Jackie Brown, and,
1548
00:48:59,686 --> 00:49:01,188
you know, I have to be careful how I say
1549
00:49:01,188 --> 00:49:01,980
this because I
1550
00:49:01,980 --> 00:49:03,982
absolutely love Jackie Brown.
1551
00:49:04,024 --> 00:49:08,654
It's one of my best movies. I think it's
1552
00:49:08,654 --> 00:49:09,988
really, really terrific. And
1553
00:49:09,988 --> 00:49:11,782
I have deep affection for it.
1554
00:49:12,240 --> 00:49:13,950
Having said that, I don't think I was
1555
00:49:13,950 --> 00:49:15,744
really put on earth to really
1556
00:49:15,744 --> 00:49:17,329
adapt other people's novels.
1557
00:49:17,746 --> 00:49:18,997
Now when you have so much material.
1558
00:49:18,997 --> 00:49:20,582
Yeah, I think I was like, you know, I was
1559
00:49:20,582 --> 00:49:22,501
here to face the blank
1560
00:49:22,501 --> 00:49:24,586
page and pull stuff out of me.
1561
00:49:24,586 --> 00:49:26,546
Find whatever story or genre I want to
1562
00:49:26,546 --> 00:49:27,881
deal with and do just my
1563
00:49:27,881 --> 00:49:27,964
own little version of it.
1564
00:49:28,006 --> 00:49:31,218
But I was there to, you know, start from
1565
00:49:31,218 --> 00:49:33,720
nothing. And then at the end have a
1566
00:49:33,720 --> 00:49:35,597
finished movie, starting with that pen
1567
00:49:35,597 --> 00:49:36,848
and that blank piece of paper.
1568
00:49:37,182 --> 00:49:39,643
That is my progress. That is my that is
1569
00:49:39,643 --> 00:49:41,186
my journey. That's my heart of darkness.
1570
00:49:41,520 --> 00:49:42,729
That's what I'm really here to do.
1571
00:49:43,355 --> 00:49:45,941
The material you have sitting around this
1572
00:49:45,941 --> 00:49:47,859
house when I walk around, the stuff you
1573
00:49:47,859 --> 00:49:49,111
choose to throw out,
1574
00:49:49,486 --> 00:49:49,986
most people would kill for.
1575
00:49:50,987 --> 00:49:53,573
Myself included. I find scraps of
1576
00:49:53,573 --> 00:49:55,367
handwritten paper that I would go, what
1577
00:49:55,367 --> 00:49:56,326
is this? Oh, it's an
1578
00:49:56,326 --> 00:49:57,994
idea that's half baked.
1579
00:49:57,994 --> 00:49:59,371
And you start reading it going like, I
1580
00:49:59,371 --> 00:50:01,248
just Xerox this. I could make a whole
1581
00:50:01,248 --> 00:50:03,333
series of films off these three pages.
1582
00:50:04,167 --> 00:50:05,794
Remember Three Amigos when you were
1583
00:50:05,794 --> 00:50:06,503
drinking the water and
1584
00:50:06,503 --> 00:50:08,588
the other guys are starving.
1585
00:50:11,133 --> 00:50:12,884
Oh, yeah, I don't need that. In the
1586
00:50:12,884 --> 00:50:13,719
desert like that and
1587
00:50:13,719 --> 00:50:14,511
the water is going in.
1588
00:50:16,012 --> 00:50:17,305
That's what it feels like. Seeing those
1589
00:50:17,305 --> 00:50:18,598
scenes tossed out. This is
1590
00:50:18,598 --> 00:50:19,599
more where that came from.
1591
00:50:20,016 --> 00:50:23,645
I have video of you from November 23rd,
1592
00:50:23,645 --> 00:50:25,856
1994 on the set of four rooms. You took
1593
00:50:25,856 --> 00:50:27,357
me into a little room. You can I read you
1594
00:50:27,357 --> 00:50:29,067
part of this new script
1595
00:50:29,067 --> 00:50:30,068
I'm writing called Kill Bill.
1596
00:50:30,902 --> 00:50:36,074
And I sat down, I turn on my video
1597
00:50:36,074 --> 00:50:37,743
camera, which by the way, that was like
1598
00:50:37,743 --> 00:50:39,453
eight years before I could kill Bill.
1599
00:50:40,704 --> 00:50:42,748
And you started reading me the opening
1600
00:50:42,748 --> 00:50:44,416
sequence of that movie. This is still
1601
00:50:44,416 --> 00:50:48,086
black. Yeah, they have a wall covered in
1602
00:50:48,086 --> 00:50:49,171
red blood and brains.
1603
00:50:50,756 --> 00:50:52,591
The camera pans off the wall to a young
1604
00:50:52,591 --> 00:50:54,801
man dressed in a tuxedo lying dead on the
1605
00:50:54,801 --> 00:50:57,345
floor, blown apart by a shotgun glass.
1606
00:50:58,472 --> 00:51:02,559
And a woman's voice. That's Tim, Arthur's
1607
00:51:02,559 --> 00:51:05,061
best friend. We move to a plump dead
1608
00:51:05,061 --> 00:51:07,063
young woman in a frilly pink dress,
1609
00:51:07,063 --> 00:51:08,482
wedding bouquet in her dead hand.
1610
00:51:09,149 --> 00:51:10,609
That's my best friend from work, Erica.
1611
00:51:11,985 --> 00:51:15,197
We move past a bloody dead little boy. I
1612
00:51:15,197 --> 00:51:16,656
don't know who that is. Some little kid
1613
00:51:16,656 --> 00:51:17,199
like us. I don't
1614
00:51:17,199 --> 00:51:17,991
remember him being there.
1615
00:51:18,992 --> 00:51:22,537
We move over and see a pretty young woman
1616
00:51:22,537 --> 00:51:25,707
wearing a white wedding gown, two bullet
1617
00:51:25,707 --> 00:51:27,709
holes in her body and one in her head.
1618
00:51:28,168 --> 00:51:29,920
We slowly zoom into her dead looking
1619
00:51:29,920 --> 00:51:33,006
face. I laid in a coma for five years.
1620
00:51:33,799 --> 00:51:35,509
While I woke, every
1621
00:51:35,509 --> 00:51:35,967
emotion in me was dead.
1622
00:51:37,010 --> 00:51:41,056
Every emotion that is except one. Desire.
1623
00:51:42,057 --> 00:51:43,475
The desire for revenge.
1624
00:51:44,559 --> 00:51:45,936
Then we dissolve, because we're going
1625
00:51:45,936 --> 00:51:48,021
into a dead looking face, we dissolve to
1626
00:51:48,021 --> 00:51:49,481
a matching closeup of the young woman,
1627
00:51:50,148 --> 00:51:51,858
interior car moving sunset.
1628
00:51:52,776 --> 00:51:54,069
The young woman's behind the wheel of a
1629
00:51:54,069 --> 00:51:55,987
big car, white wedding gown on.
1630
00:51:56,530 --> 00:51:58,573
Outrageous orange and red sunset process
1631
00:51:58,573 --> 00:51:59,825
shot playing in the back window.
1632
00:52:00,367 --> 00:52:00,992
She's talking into the camera.
1633
00:52:01,993 --> 00:52:06,122
Did you put a dress back on? Yeah. One
1634
00:52:06,122 --> 00:52:09,042
man did all this to me. I've killed 18
1635
00:52:09,042 --> 00:52:10,210
men in the last week.
1636
00:52:11,044 --> 00:52:11,962
Didn't feel a thing.
1637
00:52:13,171 --> 00:52:16,049
Those 18 dead bodies were just 18 steps.
1638
00:52:16,508 --> 00:52:20,470
Steps I climbed to get to him. And to him
1639
00:52:20,470 --> 00:52:21,888
is where I'm driving, because there's no
1640
00:52:21,888 --> 00:52:22,973
one left worth killing except him.
1641
00:52:23,014 --> 00:52:26,560
The him I'm talking about's name is Bill.
1642
00:52:27,352 --> 00:52:29,771
And when I get to where I'm going, about
1643
00:52:29,771 --> 00:52:32,691
20 minutes from now, I'm gonna kill Bill.
1644
00:52:34,025 --> 00:52:35,443
And then the music,
1645
00:52:35,443 --> 00:52:37,404
then the title song begins.
1646
00:52:38,405 --> 00:52:40,615
I was like Mickey and Rocky too, "What
1647
00:52:40,615 --> 00:52:42,784
are we waiting for? Let's go shoot it
1648
00:52:42,784 --> 00:52:43,994
right now. I'll help you.
1649
00:52:44,327 --> 00:52:44,995
Let's start shooting now."
1650
00:52:44,995 --> 00:52:47,455
We could have taken that and shot that.
1651
00:52:47,455 --> 00:52:48,665
It would have been fantastic. Now the
1652
00:52:48,665 --> 00:52:50,542
movie you did was even better, but that
1653
00:52:50,542 --> 00:52:54,921
was still May 4th, 1999.
1654
00:52:55,422 --> 00:52:57,549
It was 6.30 in the morning. So it was
1655
00:52:57,549 --> 00:52:59,801
4.30 your time. So you weren't up early,
1656
00:52:59,801 --> 00:53:01,636
you're up late. I was up all night
1657
00:53:01,636 --> 00:53:02,429
editing and the phone
1658
00:53:02,429 --> 00:53:03,388
rang and I knew it was you.
1659
00:53:03,638 --> 00:53:05,140
Because nobody else would call in the
1660
00:53:05,140 --> 00:53:06,933
middle of the night. I was about to call
1661
00:53:06,933 --> 00:53:07,976
it and you said, "I got something to read you. Could you listen?"
1662
00:53:08,018 --> 00:53:10,353
That's the most thrilling call you could
1663
00:53:10,353 --> 00:53:11,646
ever get. It's Quentin calling you up
1664
00:53:11,646 --> 00:53:13,189
saying, "Can I read you
1665
00:53:13,189 --> 00:53:13,982
something that I wrote?"
1666
00:53:14,316 --> 00:53:16,109
And you read me the opening of
1667
00:53:16,109 --> 00:53:20,155
"Inglorious Basterds" back
1668
00:53:20,155 --> 00:53:22,741
11, 12 years before you made it.
1669
00:53:23,533 --> 00:53:25,035
Is that part of your process to read
1670
00:53:25,035 --> 00:53:26,870
stuff out to people? I never knew how I
1671
00:53:26,870 --> 00:53:27,996
was supposed to react. Was I supposed to
1672
00:53:27,996 --> 00:53:30,415
get feedback? I just enjoyed it so much.
1673
00:53:30,957 --> 00:53:33,460
Do you do that a lot? Do you call a bunch
1674
00:53:33,460 --> 00:53:34,711
of people to hear it
1675
00:53:34,711 --> 00:53:34,961
out loud for yourself?
1676
00:53:35,003 --> 00:53:40,216
That's exactly it. Frankly, the only
1677
00:53:40,216 --> 00:53:41,676
feedback I wanted is, "That's great."
1678
00:53:43,094 --> 00:53:44,220
That's all I'm getting.
1679
00:53:44,721 --> 00:53:45,513
You're going to be laughing.
1680
00:53:46,014 --> 00:53:48,850
But the truth of the matter is, I'm doing
1681
00:53:48,850 --> 00:53:50,018
it for two reasons. I'm
1682
00:53:50,018 --> 00:53:52,103
excited by it, so I want to share it.
1683
00:53:52,604 --> 00:53:55,482
But the real reason I'm doing it is I
1684
00:53:55,482 --> 00:53:57,233
could walk around my house and pace
1685
00:53:57,233 --> 00:53:59,319
around and act it out
1686
00:53:59,319 --> 00:54:02,989
forever. It won't help me any.
1687
00:54:03,031 --> 00:54:06,284
But if I read it to you, I'm hearing it
1688
00:54:06,284 --> 00:54:09,871
through your ears. So then I hear the bad
1689
00:54:09,871 --> 00:54:12,207
notes. I hear where I'm losing you. I
1690
00:54:12,207 --> 00:54:14,084
hear where I got you. I hear the laughs.
1691
00:54:15,210 --> 00:54:18,129
But if I'm reading it to you, I don't
1692
00:54:18,129 --> 00:54:20,423
need your feedback because I'm you now.
1693
00:54:20,840 --> 00:54:22,467
And I'm hearing it through your ears.
1694
00:54:22,467 --> 00:54:25,011
In 2001, you read me "Kill Bill" again.
1695
00:54:25,679 --> 00:54:26,680
And you read me a new
1696
00:54:26,680 --> 00:54:27,973
opening, a new way of seeing it.
1697
00:54:29,015 --> 00:54:31,685
We not only see she is a bride, but she's
1698
00:54:31,685 --> 00:54:32,978
eight months pregnant.
1699
00:54:33,436 --> 00:54:34,312
Look at the morning.
1700
00:54:34,896 --> 00:54:35,313
Interior, wedding
1701
00:54:35,313 --> 00:54:37,107
chapel day, overhead shot.
1702
00:54:39,943 --> 00:54:43,989
We hear step, step, step,
1703
00:54:44,990 --> 00:54:46,866
till a man we haven't seen yet enters the
1704
00:54:46,866 --> 00:54:49,077
shot right next to the fallen bride.
1705
00:54:49,786 --> 00:54:51,371
He lowers down next to her on his
1706
00:54:51,371 --> 00:54:54,124
haunches, holding a white handkerchief
1707
00:54:54,124 --> 00:54:55,166
with the name "Bill"
1708
00:54:55,583 --> 00:54:55,959
stoned in the corner,
1709
00:54:57,002 --> 00:54:59,462
and begins tenderly wiping away the blood
1710
00:54:59,462 --> 00:55:00,964
from the young bride's face.
1711
00:55:01,548 --> 00:55:03,717
While still in her close-up, the bride
1712
00:55:03,717 --> 00:55:05,677
speaks for the first time in the picture.
1713
00:55:05,677 --> 00:55:07,303
She looks up at the man standing over her
1714
00:55:07,303 --> 00:55:09,055
and says, "Bill, it's your baby."
1715
00:55:09,889 --> 00:55:13,518
A beat after she says the word "baby," we
1716
00:55:13,518 --> 00:55:16,104
hear a bang, and the bride receives a
1717
00:55:16,104 --> 00:55:17,230
bullet on the side of her head.
1718
00:55:17,605 --> 00:55:19,858
Cut to black screen, before
1719
00:55:19,858 --> 00:55:20,984
film by Quentin Ternstein.
1720
00:55:21,985 --> 00:55:25,864
How does that go about when you pick up
1721
00:55:25,864 --> 00:55:27,574
the old version? Are you just at a
1722
00:55:27,574 --> 00:55:28,491
different place and
1723
00:55:28,491 --> 00:55:30,243
think of a new way to do it?
1724
00:55:30,744 --> 00:55:32,954
You don't seem to be precious about
1725
00:55:32,954 --> 00:55:34,706
anything like that. As good as it is, you
1726
00:55:34,706 --> 00:55:36,458
don't go, "Wow, it's so good."
1727
00:55:36,708 --> 00:55:38,209
You have the confidence to say, "I'm
1728
00:55:38,209 --> 00:55:39,419
going to completely start over."
1729
00:55:39,753 --> 00:55:41,838
No, by the time I was ready to do "Kill
1730
00:55:41,838 --> 00:55:44,090
Bill" again, well, now I had some
1731
00:55:44,090 --> 00:55:44,966
different concerns. Now I had other things I wanted to do.
1732
00:55:45,008 --> 00:55:49,304
I still liked the idea of Uma, still
1733
00:55:49,304 --> 00:55:50,722
liked the idea of her being an assassin,
1734
00:55:51,222 --> 00:55:53,183
still liked that whole
1735
00:55:53,183 --> 00:55:54,642
revenge story structure.
1736
00:55:55,226 --> 00:55:57,937
But now I had different fish to fry. I
1737
00:55:57,937 --> 00:55:58,730
think the first story was
1738
00:55:58,730 --> 00:56:00,023
more of a femmic heat-ish.
1739
00:56:00,023 --> 00:56:01,691
So now, when you came back, you
1740
00:56:01,691 --> 00:56:02,984
reimagined it. What
1741
00:56:02,984 --> 00:56:04,444
made it become this thing?
1742
00:56:04,986 --> 00:56:07,280
Yakuza was a samurai movie, it was anime,
1743
00:56:07,614 --> 00:56:07,989
it was a spaghetti-west.
1744
00:56:07,989 --> 00:56:09,741
You know, I think at the time you said,
1745
00:56:10,200 --> 00:56:13,286
"All these tools that I've seen, they're
1746
00:56:13,286 --> 00:56:14,079
kind of in my toolbox,
1747
00:56:14,079 --> 00:56:14,913
I can use any of them."
1748
00:56:14,913 --> 00:56:16,998
Anything that's visual language, whether
1749
00:56:16,998 --> 00:56:18,374
it's from a comic book or a movie, I
1750
00:56:18,374 --> 00:56:20,001
should feel free to use it.
1751
00:56:20,001 --> 00:56:20,585
That was my goal,
1752
00:56:20,877 --> 00:56:22,128
"Kill Bill as one unit."
1753
00:56:23,880 --> 00:56:25,381
Not "Kill Bill 1 and 2," but "Kill Bill
1754
00:56:25,381 --> 00:56:26,216
as the way I wrote it
1755
00:56:26,216 --> 00:56:27,133
and the way I shot it."
1756
00:56:28,009 --> 00:56:30,678
That's my vision to the utmost.
1757
00:56:33,264 --> 00:56:35,725
That is the full-on Quentin movie, the
1758
00:56:35,725 --> 00:56:37,894
full-on artistic experience of what I'm
1759
00:56:37,894 --> 00:56:39,938
trying to offer, like distilled to just
1760
00:56:39,938 --> 00:56:41,356
completely cinematic form.
1761
00:56:44,484 --> 00:56:46,528
That became the new reason to do it,
1762
00:56:46,903 --> 00:56:49,531
along with coming up with a killer
1763
00:56:49,531 --> 00:56:52,450
vehicle for Uma, where I could present
1764
00:56:52,450 --> 00:56:54,619
her as, "I'm the grind house Josephine
1765
00:56:54,619 --> 00:56:56,579
Sternberg, and she's my samurai
1766
00:56:56,579 --> 00:56:57,997
sword-wielding Marlene Dietrich."
1767
00:56:58,998 --> 00:57:01,084
We actually came up with the idea, more
1768
00:57:01,084 --> 00:57:02,377
or less, together, in a bar in Santa
1769
00:57:02,377 --> 00:57:03,294
Monica called the Daily
1770
00:57:03,294 --> 00:57:05,004
Pint, playing shuffleboard.
1771
00:57:05,004 --> 00:57:06,339
I come like, "Well, you're an assassin,
1772
00:57:07,423 --> 00:57:09,134
and you're fighting these guys, and
1773
00:57:09,134 --> 00:57:12,053
there's a killer list. Each one of these
1774
00:57:12,053 --> 00:57:15,056
guys represents almost a different genre
1775
00:57:15,056 --> 00:57:17,142
in cinema, so when you go there, it's the
1776
00:57:17,142 --> 00:57:19,060
Kung Fu movie, and the Black Fotation
1777
00:57:19,060 --> 00:57:19,727
movie, and this one's
1778
00:57:19,727 --> 00:57:19,978
maybe a Redneck movie."
1779
00:57:20,979 --> 00:57:22,605
It's strange being your friend sometimes,
1780
00:57:22,605 --> 00:57:24,440
because you get to know you just as the
1781
00:57:24,440 --> 00:57:25,775
person that you are, you love cinema,
1782
00:57:25,984 --> 00:57:28,236
you're a very loyal friend, you're just
1783
00:57:28,236 --> 00:57:29,529
the coolest guy on the Earth, it's almost
1784
00:57:29,529 --> 00:57:30,363
like knowing Clark Kent.
1785
00:57:30,738 --> 00:57:32,198
And then you go movie like that, and you
1786
00:57:32,198 --> 00:57:33,908
realize, "Oh, I forget, he's Superman
1787
00:57:33,908 --> 00:57:36,661
also." I forget he can do that too,
1788
00:57:37,328 --> 00:57:38,872
because you only make a movie every 2 or
1789
00:57:38,872 --> 00:57:41,499
3 years, and when you do it, and I turn
1790
00:57:41,499 --> 00:57:43,376
to you during the premiere, I say, "How
1791
00:57:43,376 --> 00:57:44,669
the fuck did you do this? I
1792
00:57:44,669 --> 00:57:44,961
have no idea how you did this."
1793
00:57:45,003 --> 00:57:46,796
And you just went, "Well, come on, you
1794
00:57:46,796 --> 00:57:48,381
know how I did it." It's like, "No, I
1795
00:57:48,381 --> 00:57:50,175
have no idea how you did it." I think
1796
00:57:50,175 --> 00:57:50,800
it's probably during the
1797
00:57:50,800 --> 00:57:51,634
House of Blue Leaves sequence.
1798
00:57:52,135 --> 00:57:58,099
That was me throwing my hat into the
1799
00:57:58,099 --> 00:58:02,854
action filmmaking ring in a big way.
1800
00:58:03,897 --> 00:58:05,398
I'm a big fan of action directors, and
1801
00:58:05,398 --> 00:58:06,649
the first time I do it, I don't want to
1802
00:58:06,649 --> 00:58:07,984
be a piker, I want to be as good as them.
1803
00:58:07,984 --> 00:58:12,655
I mean, you were so painstaking in how
1804
00:58:12,655 --> 00:58:14,574
you shot it. Even shot you shot it in
1805
00:58:14,574 --> 00:58:17,118
Hong Kong, you did it the way they would
1806
00:58:17,118 --> 00:58:18,536
do it. You were there a
1807
00:58:18,536 --> 00:58:21,497
long time to get it exactly.
1808
00:58:22,040 --> 00:58:23,374
I think you would even shoot in one
1809
00:58:23,374 --> 00:58:25,335
direction, get a shot, turn around, shoot
1810
00:58:25,335 --> 00:58:26,794
the next cut, then turn around.
1811
00:58:27,086 --> 00:58:29,297
That's the Hong Kong
1812
00:58:29,297 --> 00:58:31,633
way. The American way is...
1813
00:58:31,966 --> 00:58:33,927
Cover one direction, cover the other way. We're shooting in this room, we cut the
1814
00:58:33,927 --> 00:58:35,386
room in half, and we do everything on
1815
00:58:35,386 --> 00:58:36,971
this side first, and then we do
1816
00:58:36,971 --> 00:58:37,889
everything on that side.
1817
00:58:39,265 --> 00:58:40,808
That was kind of how we first started
1818
00:58:40,808 --> 00:58:42,560
doing some of the action, because that
1819
00:58:42,560 --> 00:58:43,603
was the only way I knew how
1820
00:58:43,603 --> 00:58:44,938
to do it, the American way.
1821
00:58:45,605 --> 00:58:48,858
That's not really their way, because you
1822
00:58:48,858 --> 00:58:51,194
have to hold so much stuff in your head.
1823
00:58:51,486 --> 00:58:52,403
You can't be organic.
1824
00:58:53,238 --> 00:58:54,530
And no one can ever keep all that stuff
1825
00:58:54,530 --> 00:58:55,365
in their head to make
1826
00:58:55,365 --> 00:58:55,990
all the editing work.
1827
00:58:56,032 --> 00:58:57,784
So what you do is like you're having a
1828
00:58:57,784 --> 00:59:00,370
big old Jackie Chan fight, where he's
1829
00:59:00,370 --> 00:59:02,330
taking on everybody in the tea house.
1830
00:59:02,580 --> 00:59:05,208
You break everything down to two, three,
1831
00:59:05,208 --> 00:59:06,584
or four fight movies.
1832
00:59:07,001 --> 00:59:10,296
The doubles, kind of just do it a bunch
1833
00:59:10,296 --> 00:59:12,966
of times for you. You kind of watch it
1834
00:59:12,966 --> 00:59:14,968
from every kind of different angles, and
1835
00:59:14,968 --> 00:59:16,177
then I make my choice.
1836
00:59:16,719 --> 00:59:18,346
I go, "Okay, so I'm thinking about, we
1837
00:59:18,346 --> 00:59:20,473
get a camera here, and maybe get one over
1838
00:59:20,473 --> 00:59:23,059
your shoulder here, and maybe one over
1839
00:59:23,059 --> 00:59:23,977
here, and then maybe another one."
1840
00:59:24,018 --> 00:59:26,646
And then I go to Bob Richardson, the
1841
00:59:26,646 --> 00:59:28,648
cameraman, and say, "So
1842
00:59:28,648 --> 00:59:29,357
what do you think, Bob?"
1843
00:59:29,357 --> 00:59:30,566
He goes, "Oh, I think that sounds good.
1844
00:59:30,900 --> 00:59:32,360
Maybe one over here. Okay, yeah, cool."
1845
00:59:32,735 --> 00:59:34,862
Then I go to Yuen Wuping, the fight
1846
00:59:34,862 --> 00:59:35,863
choreographer, "What do you think?"
1847
00:59:35,989 --> 00:59:38,199
"Oh, I like it, I like it, I like it. Oh,
1848
00:59:38,283 --> 00:59:39,534
my, my nerve. Oh, great."
1849
00:59:39,742 --> 00:59:41,327
Now, we wouldn't put them all right there
1850
00:59:41,327 --> 00:59:43,705
at the time. I was very specific about we
1851
00:59:43,705 --> 00:59:45,164
weren't going to use two cameras.
1852
00:59:45,540 --> 00:59:47,458
We would just do one camera. And so we
1853
00:59:47,458 --> 00:59:48,209
would just kind of move
1854
00:59:48,209 --> 00:59:48,960
them around, get all that.
1855
00:59:49,043 --> 00:59:52,213
But what you also do is, say you've done
1856
00:59:52,213 --> 00:59:54,799
four moves. That last move you did, that
1857
00:59:54,799 --> 00:59:57,135
fourth move, well, that becomes the first
1858
00:59:57,135 --> 00:59:59,304
move of the next three or four.
1859
01:00:01,639 --> 01:00:04,559
So you can always cut it. Then also,
1860
01:00:04,559 --> 01:00:05,810
because you're fighting in order,
1861
01:00:06,352 --> 01:00:07,061
anything that happens
1862
01:00:07,061 --> 01:00:08,688
to the costumes is fine.
1863
01:00:08,980 --> 01:00:10,606
Because it's happening on camera, and
1864
01:00:10,606 --> 01:00:11,607
it's right there. It
1865
01:00:11,607 --> 01:00:11,983
completely works in continuity.
1866
01:00:12,025 --> 01:00:15,528
And also, you can change your mind about
1867
01:00:15,528 --> 01:00:16,821
the fight. You know, you can be like,
1868
01:00:16,821 --> 01:00:17,989
"Oh, you know, we're on this class for
1869
01:00:17,989 --> 01:00:19,157
two months. I'm getting sick of this
1870
01:00:19,157 --> 01:00:20,533
place. All right, let's
1871
01:00:20,533 --> 01:00:21,284
go fight in that hallway."
1872
01:00:24,954 --> 01:00:26,831
You're not trying to predict anything
1873
01:00:26,831 --> 01:00:27,915
that's going to happen on the other side
1874
01:00:27,915 --> 01:00:28,708
of the room four days
1875
01:00:28,708 --> 01:00:30,209
from now or a week from now.
1876
01:00:31,336 --> 01:00:32,670
Everything is kind of working because
1877
01:00:32,670 --> 01:00:33,880
she's leaving a trail of death and
1878
01:00:33,880 --> 01:00:35,298
destruction behind her. But it's all
1879
01:00:35,298 --> 01:00:37,675
right there. We just keep adding to it.
1880
01:00:39,719 --> 01:00:41,012
Compose the score for you for a dollar.
1881
01:00:42,013 --> 01:00:43,681
I felt like my girlfriend had just broken
1882
01:00:43,681 --> 01:00:44,474
up with me, but my
1883
01:00:44,474 --> 01:00:46,184
girlfriend was the planet Earth.
1884
01:00:48,811 --> 01:00:50,313
Here we go. For a sec.
1885
01:00:53,733 --> 01:00:57,570
Here we go. For a sec.
1886
01:00:58,363 --> 01:00:59,864
And action.
1887
01:01:00,948 --> 01:01:03,117
Kill Bill 2. I got to work on your crew
1888
01:01:03,117 --> 01:01:04,952
for a bit. I composed the score for you
1889
01:01:04,952 --> 01:01:07,747
for a dollar. If you can ever work for
1890
01:01:07,747 --> 01:01:08,706
Quentin for a dollar,
1891
01:01:08,706 --> 01:01:08,998
take that opportunity.
1892
01:01:09,040 --> 01:01:12,460
It will be a wealth of experience.
1893
01:01:14,420 --> 01:01:15,838
You know, he doesn't like doing the score
1894
01:01:15,838 --> 01:01:17,215
thing. If I offer him the doing, he's
1895
01:01:17,215 --> 01:01:20,259
just going to say no. If I do it for a
1896
01:01:20,259 --> 01:01:23,513
dollar, he can't say no to that.
1897
01:01:24,972 --> 01:01:26,933
And it's like, use it if you want. If you
1898
01:01:26,933 --> 01:01:28,101
don't want it, throw it out. It'll be
1899
01:01:28,101 --> 01:01:30,103
great practice for me because I'll get
1900
01:01:30,103 --> 01:01:31,020
the best footage in the
1901
01:01:31,020 --> 01:01:31,979
world to make music to.
1902
01:01:32,230 --> 01:01:32,855
Bang, bang!
1903
01:01:33,981 --> 01:01:37,735
I knew the material that was going to be
1904
01:01:37,735 --> 01:01:39,862
much more emotional and needed music.
1905
01:01:40,905 --> 01:01:43,866
You're dead, Mommy. So die.
1906
01:01:43,866 --> 01:01:45,451
It was the only time I should really use
1907
01:01:45,451 --> 01:01:47,495
genuine original music where somebody was
1908
01:01:47,495 --> 01:01:50,415
actually scoring scenes for me.
1909
01:01:50,415 --> 01:01:51,249
But it was interesting to know. I was the
1910
01:01:51,249 --> 01:01:52,625
director to go work for another director
1911
01:01:52,625 --> 01:01:54,419
and sit and to see how much of the
1912
01:01:54,419 --> 01:01:56,462
process is so inside your head.
1913
01:01:56,462 --> 01:01:58,423
We sat in the room with people in the
1914
01:01:58,423 --> 01:01:59,966
music, spotting. We were thinking out loud, well, maybe we can do this.
1915
01:02:00,007 --> 01:02:05,221
You didn't really give a direct order,
1916
01:02:05,638 --> 01:02:06,973
but you could see you were
1917
01:02:06,973 --> 01:02:08,266
kind of still thinking of ideas.
1918
01:02:08,516 --> 01:02:09,725
And I was writing furiously everything
1919
01:02:09,725 --> 01:02:10,601
you said. No one else
1920
01:02:10,601 --> 01:02:11,477
was writing anything down.
1921
01:02:12,186 --> 01:02:14,856
After you left the room, you guys got to
1922
01:02:14,856 --> 01:02:16,441
write everything he says. He's not going
1923
01:02:16,441 --> 01:02:17,233
to remember that he
1924
01:02:17,233 --> 01:02:18,359
just was thinking out loud.
1925
01:02:18,734 --> 01:02:20,278
He's going to remember that he gave an
1926
01:02:20,278 --> 01:02:21,779
order because he actually came up with
1927
01:02:21,779 --> 01:02:22,697
the idea right then.
1928
01:02:22,989 --> 01:02:24,490
I know because I do that. I don't realize
1929
01:02:24,490 --> 01:02:25,825
how I'm not really
1930
01:02:25,825 --> 01:02:26,993
communicating order sometimes.
1931
01:02:27,034 --> 01:02:30,163
I kind of remember saying it in the room,
1932
01:02:30,163 --> 01:02:31,372
but it was a what if.
1933
01:02:32,915 --> 01:02:34,584
Three months later, when it's not there,
1934
01:02:34,584 --> 01:02:35,460
I'm going to say, where the
1935
01:02:35,460 --> 01:02:36,711
hell is this? I asked for it.
1936
01:02:36,711 --> 01:02:38,921
You didn't ask for it. You mentioned it
1937
01:02:38,921 --> 01:02:40,548
as a perhaps, but you're not going to
1938
01:02:40,548 --> 01:02:41,549
remember it as a perhaps.
1939
01:02:42,133 --> 01:02:45,636
So it was very much like, oh, my God, now
1940
01:02:45,636 --> 01:02:46,429
I can see why there's
1941
01:02:46,429 --> 01:02:47,180
so much miscommunication.
1942
01:02:47,680 --> 01:02:49,015
When I don't give direct orders enough,
1943
01:02:49,265 --> 01:02:50,850
two people don't write shit down. They
1944
01:02:50,850 --> 01:02:51,559
got to write shit down
1945
01:02:51,559 --> 01:02:51,976
when I'm saying that stuff.
1946
01:02:52,018 --> 01:02:54,395
Actually, Ubin said the same thing when
1947
01:02:54,395 --> 01:02:55,396
we were doing Kill Bill,
1948
01:02:55,396 --> 01:02:56,939
walking around with my first A.T.
1949
01:02:57,398 --> 01:02:58,900
It's like it's the other day where the
1950
01:02:58,900 --> 01:03:00,985
pizza and everything. Oh, yeah, maybe in
1951
01:03:00,985 --> 01:03:02,111
the fight, maybe they do
1952
01:03:02,111 --> 01:03:03,571
this and do that, you know.
1953
01:03:04,405 --> 01:03:07,700
She's like, hey, pizza face, put down the
1954
01:03:07,700 --> 01:03:10,119
pizza, grab a fucking pen. He's fucking
1955
01:03:10,119 --> 01:03:11,329
telling you what's going on.
1956
01:03:11,579 --> 01:03:13,039
Literally, you're telling him. You didn't
1957
01:03:13,039 --> 01:03:16,125
say do this, but you are. That was in
1958
01:03:16,125 --> 01:03:17,960
your remembrance of the day.
1959
01:03:18,002 --> 01:03:21,047
You were the it was a direct order. And I
1960
01:03:21,047 --> 01:03:22,882
still say that if I first
1961
01:03:22,882 --> 01:03:24,217
take things, it's the same guy.
1962
01:03:24,467 --> 01:03:29,013
A pizza face, grab a fucking pen. So what
1963
01:03:29,013 --> 01:03:30,014
can you tell me about Grindhouse?
1964
01:03:39,273 --> 01:03:40,775
Get proof was a really thrilling
1965
01:03:40,775 --> 01:03:43,986
experience. Ladies, that was fun.
1966
01:03:43,986 --> 01:03:46,697
I love having my little director of
1967
01:03:46,697 --> 01:03:48,241
photography membership
1968
01:03:48,241 --> 01:03:49,784
card. Yeah, that's really cool.
1969
01:03:49,784 --> 01:03:51,577
I don't think I could really do it on any
1970
01:03:51,577 --> 01:03:53,454
other movie that wouldn't have kind of
1971
01:03:53,454 --> 01:03:55,039
the Grindhouse label.
1972
01:03:56,123 --> 01:03:57,917
The photography wasn't bad, but it didn't
1973
01:03:57,917 --> 01:03:59,544
have to be good, per
1974
01:03:59,544 --> 01:04:00,545
se. You just had to do it.
1975
01:04:00,711 --> 01:04:03,673
I used the sun. I shot in the sun. I had
1976
01:04:03,673 --> 01:04:04,966
as many sun flares as possible.
1977
01:04:06,008 --> 01:04:09,512
Your composition is so fantastic, though.
1978
01:04:09,512 --> 01:04:11,013
How did you come up with your sense of
1979
01:04:11,013 --> 01:04:12,682
center-plunging things
1980
01:04:12,682 --> 01:04:14,475
and using your aspect ratio?
1981
01:04:14,475 --> 01:04:15,810
The way you frame is very... I remember
1982
01:04:15,810 --> 01:04:18,563
actually trying to do Quentin framing
1983
01:04:18,563 --> 01:04:19,480
when we did "Dustle Don."
1984
01:04:19,480 --> 01:04:22,233
There's a scene in the hotel room when...
1985
01:04:22,233 --> 01:04:23,526
Yeah, and shot through the door.
1986
01:04:23,526 --> 01:04:25,820
So there's frames inside of frames and
1987
01:04:25,820 --> 01:04:26,779
everything. And you came over and you
1988
01:04:26,779 --> 01:04:28,573
said, that's a really interesting shot.
1989
01:04:28,573 --> 01:04:29,865
I'm trying to shoot like you. I would
1990
01:04:29,865 --> 01:04:31,492
never have thought to ever shoot this
1991
01:04:31,492 --> 01:04:33,494
way, but I'm realizing this is probably
1992
01:04:33,494 --> 01:04:33,995
how Quentin would shoot it.
1993
01:04:33,995 --> 01:04:36,539
Because it's kind of written to be very
1994
01:04:36,539 --> 01:04:37,206
voyeuristic. And it's kind of the more
1995
01:04:37,206 --> 01:04:38,874
Quentin-esque sequences in the film.
1996
01:04:38,874 --> 01:04:42,044
Yeah, very much. How did you come up with
1997
01:04:42,044 --> 01:04:44,255
your own visual style? Being somebody who
1998
01:04:44,255 --> 01:04:45,756
wasn't a photographer.
1999
01:04:46,090 --> 01:04:47,758
Well, I wasn't a photographer. I loved
2000
01:04:47,758 --> 01:04:48,718
movies. Even a still photographer.
2001
01:04:48,718 --> 01:04:51,178
And I loved shots in movies. And I loved
2002
01:04:51,178 --> 01:04:52,805
the visual quality of the films.
2003
01:04:53,014 --> 01:04:54,348
But I've never seen your shots in any
2004
01:04:54,348 --> 01:04:55,391
other movies. Your shots
2005
01:04:55,391 --> 01:04:56,350
are very unique to you.
2006
01:04:56,350 --> 01:04:58,477
Well, I mean, I see the movie in my mind.
2007
01:04:59,770 --> 01:05:00,563
Before I'd make the
2008
01:05:00,563 --> 01:05:01,981
movie, I'd watch the movie.
2009
01:05:02,023 --> 01:05:04,108
I've got a genuine vision. I have a
2010
01:05:04,108 --> 01:05:06,360
vision for the film. And I'm doing that
2011
01:05:06,360 --> 01:05:08,613
vision. That's how I see it.
2012
01:05:08,613 --> 01:05:10,448
I don't even think that I do anything
2013
01:05:10,448 --> 01:05:11,449
that special. It's just
2014
01:05:11,449 --> 01:05:12,491
literally the way I see it.
2015
01:05:12,491 --> 01:05:13,034
Just how you see it, yeah.
2016
01:05:13,242 --> 01:05:15,369
But it made me appreciate a great artist
2017
01:05:15,369 --> 01:05:16,245
like Bob Vintressen a
2018
01:05:16,245 --> 01:05:17,580
lot more than I did before.
2019
01:05:18,039 --> 01:05:19,915
Alright, I appreciated him before.
2020
01:05:20,249 --> 01:05:21,208
Once you had to sit there
2021
01:05:21,208 --> 01:05:22,585
and think about like exposure.
2022
01:05:23,085 --> 01:05:25,671
Yeah, exactly. Or even like Bob doesn't
2023
01:05:25,671 --> 01:05:27,089
have equipment in the shot. You know,
2024
01:05:27,089 --> 01:05:28,341
like, "Hey, there's
2025
01:05:28,341 --> 01:05:29,925
equipment in the shot. Move it out."
2026
01:05:30,009 --> 01:05:31,427
Well, you're the still photographer.
2027
01:05:31,886 --> 01:05:33,471
Where do you suppose I put the light?
2028
01:05:34,639 --> 01:05:35,139
I go, "Just leave it
2029
01:05:35,139 --> 01:05:35,765
there. We'll erase it."
2030
01:05:37,016 --> 01:05:39,310
Bob, I can say, "Move that shit."
2031
01:05:39,310 --> 01:05:39,852
Right, right, right.
2032
01:05:40,436 --> 01:05:42,855
I think at the end of the day, the reason
2033
01:05:42,855 --> 01:05:46,651
I ended up shooting Grindhouse was
2034
01:05:46,651 --> 01:05:48,653
basically just to impress Bob.
2035
01:05:49,195 --> 01:05:51,364
Alright. So he would take me a little
2036
01:05:51,364 --> 01:05:53,824
more seriously on the next movie.
2037
01:05:54,283 --> 01:05:55,993
It's freaking impressive. I mean, the
2038
01:05:55,993 --> 01:05:58,996
action, the framing, it's you.
2039
01:05:59,038 --> 01:06:01,332
So I think that was what thrills me the
2040
01:06:01,332 --> 01:06:04,460
most when I see Death Proof is that shot
2041
01:06:04,460 --> 01:06:05,378
going with the legs.
2042
01:06:11,008 --> 01:06:11,842
A huge title.
2043
01:06:12,426 --> 01:06:13,803
Director of Photography, Quinn Tarantino.
2044
01:06:13,803 --> 01:06:15,680
I'm just like very proud of that. I
2045
01:06:15,680 --> 01:06:16,263
convinced you to do that.
2046
01:06:16,263 --> 01:06:18,057
I never would have had the guts to do
2047
01:06:18,057 --> 01:06:20,643
that without your faith in me.
2048
01:06:20,643 --> 01:06:22,019
And you're like, "You'll get through it.
2049
01:06:22,436 --> 01:06:23,270
You'll be a little nervous at the
2050
01:06:23,270 --> 01:06:24,313
beginning, but you'll get through it."
2051
01:06:24,313 --> 01:06:24,980
I love that.
2052
01:06:25,981 --> 01:06:28,150
I remember the audience we saw that with,
2053
01:06:28,150 --> 01:06:29,819
that first Friday night audience.
2054
01:06:29,819 --> 01:06:30,903
That's probably the best screening we've
2055
01:06:30,903 --> 01:06:32,738
ever been to because it was the
2056
01:06:32,738 --> 01:06:33,906
experience we always wanted.
2057
01:06:33,906 --> 01:06:37,159
That screening was amazing. It was the
2058
01:06:37,159 --> 01:06:37,785
Grammys Chinese
2059
01:06:37,785 --> 01:06:40,079
Theater filled up, sold out.
2060
01:06:40,830 --> 01:06:42,415
But one time that happened that weekend.
2061
01:06:43,499 --> 01:06:45,584
First show. They stood in line.
2062
01:06:46,627 --> 01:06:48,838
Everybody hooting and hollering.
2063
01:06:48,838 --> 01:06:51,590
We got a standing ovation for the freeze
2064
01:06:51,590 --> 01:06:52,633
frame at the end with the girls.
2065
01:06:55,010 --> 01:06:56,470
We had a good Friday actually, frankly,
2066
01:06:56,512 --> 01:06:57,138
to tell you the truth.
2067
01:06:57,805 --> 01:06:59,223
Not just in that theater. The whole
2068
01:06:59,223 --> 01:07:00,474
weekend was a good Friday.
2069
01:07:01,100 --> 01:07:03,018
And that was the extent of the audience.
2070
01:07:03,894 --> 01:07:06,355
They showed up and that was it.
2071
01:07:07,606 --> 01:07:09,900
But I don't want anyone to get me wrong.
2072
01:07:10,359 --> 01:07:11,736
I couldn't be prouder of Grindhouse. I
2073
01:07:11,736 --> 01:07:13,112
couldn't be prouder of both of our films.
2074
01:07:13,654 --> 01:07:14,488
But it was like the first
2075
01:07:14,488 --> 01:07:16,157
one I'd had that was a flop.
2076
01:07:16,574 --> 01:07:17,742
It didn't shake me as far
2077
01:07:17,742 --> 01:07:19,118
as my feelings for the movie.
2078
01:07:19,410 --> 01:07:20,828
It did shake me to think that I might
2079
01:07:20,828 --> 01:07:21,871
never have a hit again.
2080
01:07:23,038 --> 01:07:24,331
Because actually when you have a big
2081
01:07:24,331 --> 01:07:26,000
flop, you almost can't ever
2082
01:07:26,000 --> 01:07:27,460
imagine having a hit again.
2083
01:07:27,460 --> 01:07:28,669
They'll never show up again.
2084
01:07:29,044 --> 01:07:30,546
Right, right. They got burned once.
2085
01:07:30,546 --> 01:07:31,046
They're not going to come back.
2086
01:07:31,046 --> 01:07:32,923
Frankly, we were also a little cocky.
2087
01:07:32,923 --> 01:07:36,385
We had gotten used to going off into
2088
01:07:36,385 --> 01:07:39,096
uncharted territory with you as Sin City
2089
01:07:39,096 --> 01:07:41,515
and me with Kiel Bill and hacking our way
2090
01:07:41,515 --> 01:07:42,892
through and people following us.
2091
01:07:42,892 --> 01:07:43,559
And we kind of thought
2092
01:07:43,559 --> 01:07:44,810
they would follow us anywhere.
2093
01:07:45,519 --> 01:07:47,938
And no, they won't follow you everywhere.
2094
01:07:49,023 --> 01:07:53,068
We needed to give them a little bit more
2095
01:07:53,068 --> 01:07:53,819
of a reason, a little bit
2096
01:07:53,819 --> 01:07:54,528
more of an understanding.
2097
01:07:55,321 --> 01:07:58,032
All good. But I felt like my girlfriend
2098
01:07:58,032 --> 01:07:59,158
had just broken up with me.
2099
01:07:59,158 --> 01:08:01,035
But my girlfriend was the planet Earth.
2100
01:08:03,412 --> 01:08:04,830
What's your measure of success? Because
2101
01:08:04,830 --> 01:08:05,664
when you have an idea,
2102
01:08:06,040 --> 01:08:06,916
like for me, that could
2103
01:08:06,916 --> 01:08:07,917
have easily been Sin City.
2104
01:08:07,917 --> 01:08:09,710
When I made Sin City, I thought, okay, no
2105
01:08:09,710 --> 01:08:10,377
one's going to get this.
2106
01:08:10,377 --> 01:08:11,253
It's going to go in the theater. It's
2107
01:08:11,253 --> 01:08:12,588
black and white. It's an anthology.
2108
01:08:12,838 --> 01:08:14,340
It's all voice over. No one's going to
2109
01:08:14,340 --> 01:08:15,299
get it. They'll get it on video.
2110
01:08:15,966 --> 01:08:16,592
But that's fine. I just
2111
01:08:16,592 --> 01:08:17,676
wanted to make it so badly.
2112
01:08:18,010 --> 01:08:18,469
I was surprised,
2113
01:08:18,469 --> 01:08:19,678
actually. People caught on.
2114
01:08:19,678 --> 01:08:20,304
I thought they would just
2115
01:08:20,304 --> 01:08:21,347
think it just looked weird.
2116
01:08:21,806 --> 01:08:23,808
But I have to say, I get a big, giant
2117
01:08:23,808 --> 01:08:24,892
kick out of the fact
2118
01:08:24,892 --> 01:08:26,352
that, okay, we do Grindhouse.
2119
01:08:28,020 --> 01:08:28,604
The movie comes out.
2120
01:08:28,604 --> 01:08:29,438
It doesn't do so well.
2121
01:08:30,397 --> 01:08:32,983
And you wouldn't hear of
2122
01:08:32,983 --> 01:08:34,401
it, man. You move right.
2123
01:08:34,401 --> 01:08:35,361
Okay. You know, like, I'm
2124
01:08:35,361 --> 01:08:37,196
doubling down. I'm tripling down.
2125
01:08:37,404 --> 01:08:38,864
I'm quadrupling down.
2126
01:08:39,114 --> 01:08:40,658
Machete. Machete kills.
2127
01:08:41,158 --> 01:08:43,160
El Rey, motherfuckers. El Rey.
2128
01:08:45,454 --> 01:08:46,330
I can't get away from
2129
01:08:46,330 --> 01:08:47,665
it faster than I am.
2130
01:08:48,123 --> 01:08:49,416
Okay, well, you know, that Inglourious
2131
01:08:49,416 --> 01:08:50,793
Basterds, I couldn't find an end to it.
2132
01:08:51,210 --> 01:08:52,545
I'm finding an end to it.
2133
01:08:53,879 --> 01:08:54,505
People thought I was
2134
01:08:54,505 --> 01:08:55,714
going through writer's block.
2135
01:08:55,714 --> 01:08:56,924
I was going through the opposite. I
2136
01:08:56,924 --> 01:08:57,800
couldn't stop writing.
2137
01:09:01,011 --> 01:09:01,971
Here we go. For sake.
2138
01:09:05,391 --> 01:09:09,895
Here we go. For sake.
2139
01:09:10,771 --> 01:09:11,981
And action.
2140
01:09:12,982 --> 01:09:15,651
Inglourious Basterds. Tell me about that.
2141
01:09:17,653 --> 01:09:19,780
After Jackie Brown, I put
2142
01:09:19,780 --> 01:09:20,990
Kill Bill off to the side.
2143
01:09:21,657 --> 01:09:23,075
And I started writing Inglourious
2144
01:09:23,075 --> 01:09:24,118
Basterds, and that became this
2145
01:09:24,118 --> 01:09:25,035
never-ending process,
2146
01:09:25,035 --> 01:09:26,704
because people thought I was going
2147
01:09:26,704 --> 01:09:27,663
through writer's block.
2148
01:09:27,663 --> 01:09:28,873
I was going through the opposite. I
2149
01:09:28,873 --> 01:09:29,665
couldn't stop writing.
2150
01:09:29,999 --> 01:09:30,875
I'd have a hundred-page
2151
01:09:30,875 --> 01:09:32,626
script and no end in sight.
2152
01:09:33,085 --> 01:09:34,044
So I was trying to keep
2153
01:09:34,044 --> 01:09:35,379
taming it, and I couldn't.
2154
01:09:36,088 --> 01:09:37,590
Great material, you know,
2155
01:09:37,590 --> 01:09:38,549
like that opening scene.
2156
01:09:38,799 --> 01:09:39,717
I wrote that. That was the
2157
01:09:39,717 --> 01:09:40,509
first thing I ever wrote.
2158
01:09:42,011 --> 01:09:45,222
[cheering]
2159
01:09:45,222 --> 01:09:48,475
My idea at the time, because it was just
2160
01:09:48,475 --> 01:09:50,019
so big and so unwieldy,
2161
01:09:50,269 --> 01:09:51,520
was to do it as a miniseries.
2162
01:09:52,104 --> 01:09:53,063
And that really was what
2163
01:09:53,063 --> 01:09:54,231
I was planning on doing.
2164
01:09:55,441 --> 01:09:56,567
You've written a lot from that.
2165
01:09:56,567 --> 01:09:57,943
Yeah, I've written a lot. I mean, that's
2166
01:09:57,943 --> 01:09:59,028
a hell of a lot of writing, though,
2167
01:09:59,028 --> 01:10:00,154
I'd have to be doing from
2168
01:10:00,154 --> 01:10:02,156
like a six-hour miniseries.
2169
01:10:02,364 --> 01:10:04,116
And I'm writing, like the
2170
01:10:04,116 --> 01:10:05,326
day before the day, almost.
2171
01:10:05,993 --> 01:10:06,577
I'm getting ready to
2172
01:10:06,577 --> 01:10:07,661
start that hard work.
2173
01:10:08,454 --> 01:10:09,747
And Luc Besson was in town,
2174
01:10:09,747 --> 01:10:10,664
and we went out to dinner,
2175
01:10:10,998 --> 01:10:12,708
and I'm telling him
2176
01:10:12,708 --> 01:10:14,126
about my big miniseries,
2177
01:10:14,126 --> 01:10:14,919
and glorious bastards
2178
01:10:14,919 --> 01:10:15,753
that I'm going to do.
2179
01:10:15,753 --> 01:10:17,463
And the producer guy is just like, "Oh,
2180
01:10:17,463 --> 01:10:19,256
yeah, look, that sounds awesome."
2181
01:10:19,840 --> 01:10:21,300
That's the way to do it,
2182
01:10:21,300 --> 01:10:22,718
Quentin. That's the way to do it.
2183
01:10:23,093 --> 01:10:24,386
And Luc's like, "Yeah, I
2184
01:10:24,386 --> 01:10:25,346
don't know. I don't know."
2185
01:10:25,971 --> 01:10:26,305
He's French.
2186
01:10:27,556 --> 01:10:28,933
But why? What's the matter?
2187
01:10:29,850 --> 01:10:31,518
I don't know. I mean, you know...
2188
01:10:33,395 --> 01:10:36,065
You are one of the few filmmakers left
2189
01:10:36,065 --> 01:10:37,066
out there that makes me
2190
01:10:37,066 --> 01:10:37,983
want to leave my house
2191
01:10:38,984 --> 01:10:41,278
and go to a cinema and sit in the cinema
2192
01:10:41,278 --> 01:10:42,404
and watch it on the screen.
2193
01:10:43,155 --> 01:10:45,157
Anybody else like to watch the DVD, I can
2194
01:10:45,157 --> 01:10:46,992
sit on TV. It'd be fine. I'm good.
2195
01:10:47,576 --> 01:10:49,620
But you know, you make me want to leave
2196
01:10:49,620 --> 01:10:50,663
the house and go see cinema.
2197
01:10:51,288 --> 01:10:52,665
And now you tell me I'm going to have to
2198
01:10:52,665 --> 01:10:55,834
wait four years, five years
2199
01:10:55,834 --> 01:10:56,961
before I can do that again?
2200
01:10:57,378 --> 01:10:58,879
I'm sorry. I'm not so excited.
2201
01:10:59,630 --> 01:11:00,005
Oh, funny.
2202
01:11:01,340 --> 01:11:04,134
And you know, every once in a while,
2203
01:11:04,385 --> 01:11:05,970
somebody tells you something.
2204
01:11:06,011 --> 01:11:07,930
Somebody says something to
2205
01:11:07,930 --> 01:11:10,891
you that you can never unhear.
2206
01:11:12,351 --> 01:11:13,394
And once he said that,
2207
01:11:13,394 --> 01:11:14,937
I couldn't unhear it.
2208
01:11:15,479 --> 01:11:17,481
And I kept thinking about it, and I kept
2209
01:11:17,481 --> 01:11:18,565
thinking about it, and I
2210
01:11:18,565 --> 01:11:19,566
kept thinking about it.
2211
01:11:20,150 --> 01:11:21,819
This is my time to do movies.
2212
01:11:22,945 --> 01:11:25,906
Let me try one more
2213
01:11:25,906 --> 01:11:28,784
time to make it a movie.
2214
01:11:29,410 --> 01:11:31,161
Don't just throw up my hands and say, "I
2215
01:11:31,161 --> 01:11:32,287
give up," and make this
2216
01:11:32,287 --> 01:11:33,998
incredibly sprawling epic.
2217
01:11:34,039 --> 01:11:36,000
Let me try one more
2218
01:11:36,000 --> 01:11:38,585
time. And that was the movie.
2219
01:11:42,131 --> 01:11:43,674
And it was so fast. I mean, you did that
2220
01:11:43,674 --> 01:11:45,968
very quickly, considering how usually
2221
01:11:45,968 --> 01:11:48,178
your movies go, even the fast ones.
2222
01:11:48,595 --> 01:11:50,431
Well, there was kind of was, again, I was
2223
01:11:50,431 --> 01:11:51,890
coming off of a flop.
2224
01:11:52,141 --> 01:11:54,184
I wanted to, you know,
2225
01:11:54,184 --> 01:11:55,436
I had to prove myself.
2226
01:11:55,686 --> 01:11:57,104
There's a silver lining to everything.
2227
01:11:57,521 --> 01:11:57,980
There really is.
2228
01:11:57,980 --> 01:12:01,400
Oh, and it made me want to tame myself. I
2229
01:12:01,400 --> 01:12:05,320
wasn't quite so effing sure about myself.
2230
01:12:05,738 --> 01:12:07,573
I had to really make this into a movie.
2231
01:12:08,198 --> 01:12:09,658
I mean, I just think you were still so
2232
01:12:09,658 --> 01:12:11,910
bold, considering that you came off of
2233
01:12:11,910 --> 01:12:13,495
Grindhouse to go in.
2234
01:12:13,495 --> 01:12:15,831
And what you did was, it's a bold film. I
2235
01:12:15,831 --> 01:12:17,458
mean, you went full on.
2236
01:12:18,584 --> 01:12:21,170
I wouldn't be surprised 20 years from
2237
01:12:21,170 --> 01:12:23,213
now, Inglourious Basterds is probably
2238
01:12:23,213 --> 01:12:24,798
like the one they talk about the most.
2239
01:12:29,011 --> 01:12:30,179
I think this just
2240
01:12:30,179 --> 01:12:31,305
might be my masterpiece.
2241
01:12:31,764 --> 01:12:32,473
Django and Chained.
2242
01:12:33,599 --> 01:12:43,942
I had the idea of doing a movie where a
2243
01:12:43,942 --> 01:12:44,985
slave becomes a bounty
2244
01:12:44,985 --> 01:12:46,779
hunter for a long, long time.
2245
01:12:46,779 --> 01:12:48,238
And I even had the name Django and
2246
01:12:48,238 --> 01:12:50,532
Chained for a long, long, long time.
2247
01:12:50,532 --> 01:12:52,576
And it happened kind of
2248
01:12:52,576 --> 01:12:53,994
completely all on its own.
2249
01:12:54,036 --> 01:12:56,455
I was doing the press on Inglourious
2250
01:12:56,455 --> 01:12:57,623
Basterds. I've been going around the
2251
01:12:57,623 --> 01:12:59,291
world banging the drum on that.
2252
01:13:00,000 --> 01:13:01,960
And one of the last areas we opened up
2253
01:13:01,960 --> 01:13:04,421
theatrically, commercially, was Japan.
2254
01:13:04,922 --> 01:13:05,923
Spaghetti Westerns are still really
2255
01:13:05,923 --> 01:13:07,007
popular in Japan. They
2256
01:13:07,007 --> 01:13:08,717
call them macaroni westerns.
2257
01:13:08,717 --> 01:13:10,219
They have almost all the
2258
01:13:10,219 --> 01:13:11,595
soundtracks available on DVD.
2259
01:13:12,262 --> 01:13:13,889
And I find out that there's this one
2260
01:13:13,889 --> 01:13:16,100
soundtrack store that you specialize in
2261
01:13:16,100 --> 01:13:17,142
nothing but soundtracks.
2262
01:13:18,852 --> 01:13:19,520
Like kind of a store.
2263
01:13:20,020 --> 01:13:21,897
And so go there on my day
2264
01:13:21,897 --> 01:13:25,359
off, buy a buttload of stuff.
2265
01:13:26,360 --> 01:13:26,777
You know, it's like
2266
01:13:26,777 --> 01:13:29,488
Christmas in July. So happy.
2267
01:13:30,280 --> 01:13:33,033
Get a little record player. Go back to my
2268
01:13:33,033 --> 01:13:34,368
hotel room and it's my day off.
2269
01:13:34,368 --> 01:13:36,078
I'm just listening to the soundtracks.
2270
01:13:36,078 --> 01:13:36,995
I'm just playing all
2271
01:13:36,995 --> 01:13:38,080
these great composers.
2272
01:13:38,956 --> 01:13:42,960
Morricone, Riz Ortani, Louise Boccolab.
2273
01:13:43,001 --> 01:13:47,339
And then the first scene, literally
2274
01:13:47,339 --> 01:13:48,340
what's in the movie, the
2275
01:13:48,340 --> 01:13:51,844
first scene of Django comes to me.
2276
01:13:53,512 --> 01:13:56,557
He's on the chain gang, a slave walking
2277
01:13:56,557 --> 01:13:58,809
in unison. It's cold, breath.
2278
01:14:00,310 --> 01:14:03,021
And then Schulz, just showing up in the
2279
01:14:03,021 --> 01:14:04,857
distance with his lantern and then the
2280
01:14:04,857 --> 01:14:05,899
whole scene happens.
2281
01:14:06,316 --> 01:14:08,610
Who's that stumbling around in the dark?
2282
01:14:09,153 --> 01:14:10,070
I'm Dr. King Schulz.
2283
01:14:10,320 --> 01:14:11,071
This is my horse Fritz.
2284
01:14:11,989 --> 01:14:14,199
And the next thing I know, I'm writing
2285
01:14:14,199 --> 01:14:15,576
it. And I don't even have my
2286
01:14:15,576 --> 01:14:17,244
notebook or my crap with me.
2287
01:14:17,244 --> 01:14:19,580
I'm just like using the hotel stationery.
2288
01:14:20,664 --> 01:14:23,500
And in just this fevered thing, I write
2289
01:14:23,500 --> 01:14:25,043
out that first scene.
2290
01:14:25,377 --> 01:14:26,837
I just get the characters talking to each
2291
01:14:26,837 --> 01:14:29,131
other. They do the whole thing. Boom.
2292
01:14:30,257 --> 01:14:30,716
What's your name?
2293
01:14:36,013 --> 01:14:36,180
Django.
2294
01:14:38,140 --> 01:14:38,724
Then you're exactly
2295
01:14:38,724 --> 01:14:39,975
the one I'm looking for.
2296
01:14:40,017 --> 01:14:42,227
I felt like it was similar to the
2297
01:14:42,227 --> 01:14:44,104
Inglourious Bastards here. Now I've got
2298
01:14:44,104 --> 01:14:45,272
to do it. This is a
2299
01:14:45,272 --> 01:14:46,148
great way to open a movie.
2300
01:14:47,274 --> 01:14:48,442
When did it start that you would use
2301
01:14:48,442 --> 01:14:49,526
scores from other movies?
2302
01:14:52,070 --> 01:14:53,071
Here we go. For a sec.
2303
01:14:56,450 --> 01:15:00,120
Here we go. For a sec.
2304
01:15:00,996 --> 01:15:02,414
And action.
2305
01:15:03,207 --> 01:15:04,833
So for music, when did it start that you
2306
01:15:04,833 --> 01:15:06,251
would use scores from other movies?
2307
01:15:06,627 --> 01:15:08,337
It all started on Jackie Brown.
2308
01:15:10,005 --> 01:15:14,009
[music]
2309
01:15:15,010 --> 01:15:16,637
Harvey Weinstein was like, there's not
2310
01:15:16,637 --> 01:15:18,347
enough music in it. I think you really
2311
01:15:18,347 --> 01:15:20,766
need to put a score. I
2312
01:15:20,766 --> 01:15:21,683
think you need to hire a score.
2313
01:15:22,017 --> 01:15:23,685
It's too late, Harvey. We've just gone
2314
01:15:23,685 --> 01:15:25,103
too far. I'm not going to hire some guy
2315
01:15:25,103 --> 01:15:25,896
that could write a
2316
01:15:25,896 --> 01:15:27,606
score in the next four days.
2317
01:15:27,606 --> 01:15:30,108
That's not how I'm going to do a movie.
2318
01:15:30,484 --> 01:15:31,109
You know, the first time
2319
01:15:31,109 --> 01:15:31,985
I worked with a composer.
2320
01:15:33,070 --> 01:15:35,072
He goes, well, isn't there some old movie
2321
01:15:35,072 --> 01:15:36,907
that you like that you could just use the
2322
01:15:36,907 --> 01:15:37,991
score that already exists?
2323
01:15:38,033 --> 01:15:40,369
I guess I could do that. That's not such
2324
01:15:40,369 --> 01:15:42,871
a dumb idea. Can I do that?
2325
01:15:43,205 --> 01:15:44,623
Well, yeah, I guess if I license it, I
2326
01:15:44,623 --> 01:15:45,499
can do anything I want.
2327
01:15:46,416 --> 01:15:47,251
Well, that's a whole different
2328
01:15:47,251 --> 01:15:49,127
proposition because that's now I'm not
2329
01:15:49,127 --> 01:15:50,295
waiting for some guy to
2330
01:15:50,295 --> 01:15:51,880
show up and, you know, and...
2331
01:15:52,089 --> 01:15:52,798
Hope you like it.
2332
01:15:52,798 --> 01:15:53,840
...deliver me the soul of my
2333
01:15:53,840 --> 01:15:55,217
movie and I better like it.
2334
01:15:55,300 --> 01:15:56,760
That's just like me using the other
2335
01:15:56,760 --> 01:15:57,552
songs. I'm just
2336
01:15:57,552 --> 01:15:59,388
choosing. Well, so happens.
2337
01:15:59,680 --> 01:16:01,807
I had Roy Ayers soundtrack
2338
01:16:01,807 --> 01:16:03,976
to Coffee. I had that record.
2339
01:16:04,017 --> 01:16:06,436
And, you know, it was a nice symbiotic
2340
01:16:06,436 --> 01:16:07,271
relationship with the
2341
01:16:07,271 --> 01:16:08,355
whole Pam Grier connection.
2342
01:16:08,855 --> 01:16:12,276
So I just used the Coffee score all
2343
01:16:12,276 --> 01:16:14,278
throughout the movie. Just if he didn't
2344
01:16:14,278 --> 01:16:15,404
write it, I didn't use it.
2345
01:16:15,904 --> 01:16:18,824
And it worked out really good. You know,
2346
01:16:18,824 --> 01:16:20,284
when you know the music beforehand,
2347
01:16:20,659 --> 01:16:21,535
you're going to use...
2348
01:16:21,535 --> 01:16:22,327
It's not an afterthought.
2349
01:16:22,327 --> 01:16:23,120
You're like orchestrating.
2350
01:16:23,120 --> 01:16:24,663
Yeah, you can orchestrate the shots and
2351
01:16:24,663 --> 01:16:25,455
the cutting so they
2352
01:16:25,455 --> 01:16:26,707
really go hand in hand.
2353
01:16:27,124 --> 01:16:29,293
I remember I was using Street Life in
2354
01:16:29,293 --> 01:16:30,502
that song Street Life when Jackie Brown
2355
01:16:30,502 --> 01:16:30,961
comes into the thing.
2356
01:16:31,003 --> 01:16:33,463
Well, I know I'm using Street Life so I
2357
01:16:33,463 --> 01:16:35,507
could actually set the shots up so I
2358
01:16:35,507 --> 01:16:38,677
know, okay, when the symbols do this,
2359
01:16:39,219 --> 01:16:40,429
this is going to happen.
2360
01:16:42,014 --> 01:16:43,682
And then she walks out of frame and we're
2361
01:16:43,682 --> 01:16:44,391
going to pick her up
2362
01:16:44,391 --> 01:16:45,642
as the drums do this.
2363
01:16:46,852 --> 01:16:48,395
Well, you know, on the day, this piece of
2364
01:16:48,395 --> 01:16:49,604
music you're using, you can
2365
01:16:49,604 --> 01:16:51,565
get even more clever with it.
2366
01:16:51,940 --> 01:16:52,983
Yeah, because you almost
2367
01:16:52,983 --> 01:16:54,151
like pre-scoring the movie.
2368
01:16:54,401 --> 01:16:55,944
Frank, I thought, well, I don't see any
2369
01:16:55,944 --> 01:16:57,195
reason to change. I
2370
01:16:57,195 --> 01:16:57,988
like doing it this way.
2371
01:16:57,988 --> 01:16:59,865
When I heard your use of
2372
01:16:59,865 --> 01:17:01,700
Sam Fier and the Pan Flute.
2373
01:17:04,661 --> 01:17:06,538
Jerry Goldsmith's Under Fire. It's never
2374
01:17:06,538 --> 01:17:07,956
been used better, even in Under Fire.
2375
01:17:09,124 --> 01:17:09,791
That's the way you used it
2376
01:17:09,791 --> 01:17:11,251
in Django. It's fantastic.
2377
01:17:11,668 --> 01:17:13,086
I've been waiting for years. That's
2378
01:17:13,086 --> 01:17:13,795
always been one of my
2379
01:17:13,795 --> 01:17:15,255
actually favorite soundtracks.
2380
01:17:15,505 --> 01:17:16,673
That's one of my favorite Jerry Goldsmith
2381
01:17:16,673 --> 01:17:17,299
soundtracks and that's
2382
01:17:17,299 --> 01:17:18,050
saying a hell of a lot.
2383
01:17:18,634 --> 01:17:20,177
And I refuse to shorten it too.
2384
01:17:20,510 --> 01:17:21,678
Yeah, because if you shorten it, it
2385
01:17:21,678 --> 01:17:23,639
builds so wonderfully that you're able to
2386
01:17:23,639 --> 01:17:25,432
put it in the movie and
2387
01:17:25,432 --> 01:17:26,975
use it the correct way.
2388
01:17:27,017 --> 01:17:28,810
To really build that. That's what I
2389
01:17:28,810 --> 01:17:30,187
really loved about it. I kept waiting for
2390
01:17:30,187 --> 01:17:31,396
the edit because I know
2391
01:17:31,396 --> 01:17:32,314
that piece really well.
2392
01:17:32,939 --> 01:17:33,940
And it's like he's going to have to cut
2393
01:17:33,940 --> 01:17:36,610
it and you don't and it's so cathartic.
2394
01:17:36,610 --> 01:17:38,028
And everyone kept talking about, well, we
2395
01:17:38,028 --> 01:17:39,446
need to shorten it down, you know,
2396
01:17:39,446 --> 01:17:40,530
because it's a big long movie.
2397
01:17:40,530 --> 01:17:41,823
They need to shorten it down. And from
2398
01:17:41,823 --> 01:17:42,991
time to time, people would talk about,
2399
01:17:42,991 --> 01:17:44,534
well, what about that trip to Canyonland?
2400
01:17:44,534 --> 01:17:47,537
Does it need to be so long? And I never
2401
01:17:47,537 --> 01:17:49,039
said no, no, no, but I just would never
2402
01:17:49,039 --> 01:17:49,998
take anything out there.
2403
01:17:50,999 --> 01:17:52,209
Good.
2404
01:17:53,043 --> 01:17:56,546
On September 28th, 1993, I visited the
2405
01:17:56,546 --> 01:17:57,881
set of Pulp Fiction. It was the day that
2406
01:17:57,881 --> 01:17:59,341
you were playing Jimmy. You're in a robe.
2407
01:18:00,133 --> 01:18:02,219
But Sonny Chiba was there that day, too.
2408
01:18:02,219 --> 01:18:03,679
I remember you having lunch with him and
2409
01:18:03,679 --> 01:18:04,888
telling him, we're going
2410
01:18:04,888 --> 01:18:05,680
to do something together.
2411
01:18:05,680 --> 01:18:07,099
We're going to do something together. And
2412
01:18:07,099 --> 01:18:08,642
we were looking at Sonny and I got to
2413
01:18:08,642 --> 01:18:10,185
meet him and just thinking, wow, I wonder
2414
01:18:10,185 --> 01:18:12,020
what Quentin, if Quentin will ever get
2415
01:18:12,020 --> 01:18:13,271
the chance to make something for him.
2416
01:18:13,980 --> 01:18:15,315
He wore a pain in lip service. He worked
2417
01:18:15,315 --> 01:18:17,609
with him later and made him
2418
01:18:17,609 --> 01:18:18,985
a great part and killed Bill.
2419
01:18:19,986 --> 01:18:28,745
In your mind, do you catalog some actors
2420
01:18:28,745 --> 01:18:29,996
that you've always wanted to work with
2421
01:18:29,996 --> 01:18:31,873
that you still would love to work with?
2422
01:18:31,873 --> 01:18:33,625
And how do you keep track
2423
01:18:33,625 --> 01:18:34,543
of some of these people?
2424
01:18:34,543 --> 01:18:35,919
There's all these different actors that I
2425
01:18:35,919 --> 01:18:37,421
grew up watching and loving and
2426
01:18:37,421 --> 01:18:39,589
appreciating. And, you know, there's big
2427
01:18:39,589 --> 01:18:39,965
actors I wanted to work with.
2428
01:18:40,006 --> 01:18:43,635
There's also people that I thought should
2429
01:18:43,635 --> 01:18:45,637
be showcased more in American movies,
2430
01:18:45,846 --> 01:18:48,056
like Sonny Chiba or actors that I've
2431
01:18:48,056 --> 01:18:49,057
always liked like Robert
2432
01:18:49,057 --> 01:18:51,059
Forrest or Michael Park.
2433
01:18:51,059 --> 01:18:52,227
So I thought, should have done better.
2434
01:18:52,602 --> 01:18:54,187
And I could give them an opportunity to
2435
01:18:54,187 --> 01:18:56,398
give them a cool kind of scene. It's not
2436
01:18:56,398 --> 01:18:57,441
what they're used to doing now.
2437
01:18:57,983 --> 01:18:58,859
And finding that
2438
01:18:58,859 --> 01:18:59,860
little light in their eyes.
2439
01:19:00,527 --> 01:19:02,237
One of my favorite quotes you gave me on
2440
01:19:02,237 --> 01:19:03,447
directing was, sometimes being a good
2441
01:19:03,447 --> 01:19:04,698
director is just being a good audience.
2442
01:19:05,240 --> 01:19:06,700
What pieces of advice would you give a
2443
01:19:06,700 --> 01:19:08,618
filmmaker on how to work with actors?
2444
01:19:09,035 --> 01:19:10,787
One, don't be intimidated by your actors.
2445
01:19:11,121 --> 01:19:12,706
Don't be scared. You're
2446
01:19:12,706 --> 01:19:13,540
there to find it together.
2447
01:19:14,499 --> 01:19:16,418
But I actually think one of the best
2448
01:19:16,418 --> 01:19:19,588
things that a film director today can do
2449
01:19:19,588 --> 01:19:21,756
for an actor is not be
2450
01:19:21,756 --> 01:19:22,799
stuck in Video Village.
2451
01:19:23,717 --> 01:19:25,510
Not be watching it on a monitor, not be
2452
01:19:25,510 --> 01:19:27,888
watching it on a TV set, sitting in a
2453
01:19:27,888 --> 01:19:30,223
chair, oftentimes in a whole other room
2454
01:19:30,223 --> 01:19:32,726
than where the scene's taking place.
2455
01:19:33,018 --> 01:19:35,729
That's a fairly new phenomenon, and it's
2456
01:19:35,729 --> 01:19:36,813
completely taken over.
2457
01:19:37,522 --> 01:19:39,191
And I mean, so much so that I really
2458
01:19:39,191 --> 01:19:41,485
wouldn't want to be starting all over
2459
01:19:41,485 --> 01:19:44,154
again as an actor with the directors
2460
01:19:44,154 --> 01:19:46,490
watching my work from another room.
2461
01:19:46,490 --> 01:19:50,619
Hey, do this. Do a camera look. Could you
2462
01:19:50,619 --> 01:19:51,786
tell him to go and do a camera look?
2463
01:19:52,454 --> 01:19:53,914
I think you should be
2464
01:19:53,914 --> 01:19:55,290
sitting right by the camera.
2465
01:19:55,999 --> 01:19:56,208
Action!
2466
01:19:57,542 --> 01:20:01,713
If you watch the acting right next to the
2467
01:20:01,713 --> 01:20:04,591
camera, right in front of the actors,
2468
01:20:05,258 --> 01:20:09,721
it's as if they are acting just and
2469
01:20:09,721 --> 01:20:12,390
solely and utterly only for you.
2470
01:20:14,935 --> 01:20:16,603
The rest of the crew doesn't matter. The
2471
01:20:16,603 --> 01:20:19,105
audience later in the theater doesn't
2472
01:20:19,105 --> 01:20:20,774
matter. It's a million miles away. Maybe
2473
01:20:20,774 --> 01:20:21,399
it will never happen.
2474
01:20:22,317 --> 01:20:25,779
They are acting only for you. When you're
2475
01:20:25,779 --> 01:20:27,906
standing there by the camera, and they've
2476
01:20:27,906 --> 01:20:30,033
all acted in front of you, when you say
2477
01:20:30,033 --> 01:20:34,287
cut, cut, they all turn and
2478
01:20:34,287 --> 01:20:36,206
look at you. What do you think?
2479
01:20:37,707 --> 01:20:39,417
Now that's what I'm talking about.
2480
01:20:40,001 --> 01:20:40,961
Let's do one more like that.
2481
01:20:40,961 --> 01:20:41,836
That was a great one, Mark.
2482
01:20:42,087 --> 01:20:42,295
Cool?
2483
01:20:43,421 --> 01:20:45,006
So this is a segment in the show called
2484
01:20:45,006 --> 01:20:46,383
Questions from Other Directors.
2485
01:20:48,009 --> 01:20:50,095
Here we go. For a sec.
2486
01:20:52,597 --> 01:20:56,893
Action!
2487
01:20:59,896 --> 01:21:01,523
So this is a segment in the show called
2488
01:21:01,523 --> 01:21:03,400
Questions from Other Directors, where I
2489
01:21:03,400 --> 01:21:04,943
put a call out to other
2490
01:21:04,943 --> 01:21:06,319
directors to ask you questions.
2491
01:21:08,738 --> 01:21:10,865
Joe Dante has a question for you. What's
2492
01:21:10,865 --> 01:21:11,533
the most takes you've
2493
01:21:11,533 --> 01:21:12,367
ever done in a movie?
2494
01:21:12,701 --> 01:21:14,619
It was an effect take I was trying to do
2495
01:21:14,619 --> 01:21:16,871
in Kill Bill. She's fighting the crazy
2496
01:21:16,871 --> 01:21:19,165
88, and we were doing it the
2497
01:21:19,165 --> 01:21:20,000
old-fashioned way, the Shang-Sha way.
2498
01:21:21,001 --> 01:21:23,670
You take a Chinese condom and you fill it
2499
01:21:23,670 --> 01:21:25,839
full of the phony blood, and the actors
2500
01:21:25,839 --> 01:21:27,090
just have it in their hand.
2501
01:21:27,632 --> 01:21:29,593
And so when you slice the sword, the
2502
01:21:29,593 --> 01:21:32,304
actor squeezes the Chinese condom and the
2503
01:21:32,304 --> 01:21:34,055
blood explodes, and it looks awesome.
2504
01:21:34,764 --> 01:21:37,100
So the effect I was trying to do is the
2505
01:21:37,100 --> 01:21:40,645
camera is over the shoulder behind one of
2506
01:21:40,645 --> 01:21:43,815
the female crazy 88, and Uma has got her
2507
01:21:43,815 --> 01:21:46,443
sword slashing like her throat.
2508
01:21:47,402 --> 01:21:49,613
And what the girl's supposed to do is
2509
01:21:49,613 --> 01:21:51,031
she's got the condom full of blood in her
2510
01:21:51,031 --> 01:21:52,782
hand, and she's supposed to clutch it in
2511
01:21:52,782 --> 01:21:55,619
her throat as she squeezes the condom.
2512
01:21:56,202 --> 01:21:57,954
And so you never saw the throat slash
2513
01:21:57,954 --> 01:21:59,372
itself, because the camera
2514
01:21:59,372 --> 01:22:00,624
was behind the girl's head.
2515
01:22:01,166 --> 01:22:03,084
But after Uma does it and she grabs her
2516
01:22:03,084 --> 01:22:04,252
throat, you're going to
2517
01:22:04,252 --> 01:22:06,212
see, like, the blood go...
2518
01:22:07,756 --> 01:22:08,965
Every time we did it,
2519
01:22:09,215 --> 01:22:10,050
the blood went down.
2520
01:22:10,425 --> 01:22:10,967
Oh, I see the same thing.
2521
01:22:11,009 --> 01:22:12,886
It never went that way.
2522
01:22:14,054 --> 01:22:15,096
And so we kept doing it
2523
01:22:15,096 --> 01:22:16,473
again, doing it again.
2524
01:22:17,098 --> 01:22:19,100
Take 22, take 23.
2525
01:22:19,559 --> 01:22:20,143
We've changed her
2526
01:22:20,143 --> 01:22:21,770
clothes three different times.
2527
01:22:22,979 --> 01:22:24,689
So now she's off for the fourth change.
2528
01:22:26,149 --> 01:22:29,235
And I'm walking by myself, one of those
2529
01:22:29,235 --> 01:22:30,278
dark moments of the soul.
2530
01:22:31,196 --> 01:22:34,991
Do I commit, say, failure and move on?
2531
01:22:35,992 --> 01:22:37,369
Or if I don't, how
2532
01:22:37,369 --> 01:22:38,411
long is it going to take?
2533
01:22:39,329 --> 01:22:40,830
And how far am I
2534
01:22:40,830 --> 01:22:43,458
prepared to triple down on it?
2535
01:22:44,000 --> 01:22:50,215
And I swear, it was as if Shang-Shan came
2536
01:22:50,215 --> 01:22:51,132
to me and he said,
2537
01:22:51,549 --> 01:22:53,718
"Quentin, hang in there.
2538
01:22:53,718 --> 01:22:55,720
You have no idea how long you think. This
2539
01:22:55,720 --> 01:22:57,222
is very difficult. It's
2540
01:22:57,222 --> 01:22:57,889
going to happen, though.
2541
01:22:58,181 --> 01:22:59,766
It has to happen one
2542
01:22:59,766 --> 01:23:02,978
way or... You're due.
2543
01:23:03,019 --> 01:23:06,773
It's going to go up at some point. You
2544
01:23:06,773 --> 01:23:08,566
can't quit. Hang in there.
2545
01:23:09,401 --> 01:23:11,486
Do it six more times. See what happens."
2546
01:23:12,195 --> 01:23:14,364
And then, like, you know, maybe the fifth
2547
01:23:14,364 --> 01:23:15,156
time or so, then it
2548
01:23:15,156 --> 01:23:16,241
finally did it the right way.
2549
01:23:17,742 --> 01:23:18,910
So, I got 30 takes.
2550
01:23:19,244 --> 01:23:20,120
It was probably at 34.
2551
01:23:20,662 --> 01:23:20,954
Wow.
2552
01:23:23,248 --> 01:23:24,541
Jackie Chan still has me
2553
01:23:24,541 --> 01:23:25,834
beat, though, in Dragon Lore.
2554
01:23:25,834 --> 01:23:27,419
That hacky sack thing was a thousand
2555
01:23:27,419 --> 01:23:28,795
takes. That was the most takes ever done.
2556
01:23:31,423 --> 01:23:32,132
Guillermo del Toro
2557
01:23:32,132 --> 01:23:33,883
has a question for you.
2558
01:23:34,175 --> 01:23:35,844
Who, in your opinion, is the ultimate
2559
01:23:35,844 --> 01:23:37,804
badass actor of all time?
2560
01:23:38,430 --> 01:23:39,639
There's a lot of guys you could say, but
2561
01:23:39,639 --> 01:23:41,433
I have to say, right now, I'm in
2562
01:23:41,433 --> 01:23:42,684
particularly, right now,
2563
01:23:42,684 --> 01:23:44,102
over the last few years, I've been on a
2564
01:23:44,102 --> 01:23:46,730
real Lee Van Cleef kick.
2565
01:23:46,730 --> 01:23:48,523
I mean, I really wish I could have worked
2566
01:23:48,523 --> 01:23:49,774
with Lee Van Cleef in
2567
01:23:49,774 --> 01:23:53,820
that, like, 69, 70 time period.
2568
01:23:54,612 --> 01:23:55,029
I don't know if you've
2569
01:23:55,029 --> 01:23:56,030
ever noticed this, you know.
2570
01:23:56,698 --> 01:23:57,782
Lee Van Cleef is a dead
2571
01:23:57,782 --> 01:23:58,992
ringer for Snoop Dogg.
2572
01:23:59,993 --> 01:24:04,122
They look exactly alike. I mean, as if
2573
01:24:04,122 --> 01:24:05,415
they are the same guy.
2574
01:24:08,209 --> 01:24:09,586
Francis Ford Coppola asked
2575
01:24:09,586 --> 01:24:10,754
him for a question for you.
2576
01:24:11,254 --> 01:24:12,547
He said, "Even though all your films, of
2577
01:24:12,547 --> 01:24:13,965
course, reveal very much about you,
2578
01:24:13,965 --> 01:24:15,467
would you ever consider making a film
2579
01:24:15,467 --> 01:24:17,051
that depicts more about your
2580
01:24:17,051 --> 01:24:18,636
own life, feelings, and times
2581
01:24:18,636 --> 01:24:21,139
without that almost protective layer of
2582
01:24:21,139 --> 01:24:22,140
genre? Would you ever
2583
01:24:22,140 --> 01:24:22,891
think about doing that?"
2584
01:24:24,100 --> 01:24:26,060
I would think about doing that, but at
2585
01:24:26,060 --> 01:24:27,479
the same time, though,
2586
01:24:28,980 --> 01:24:35,612
I like that protective layer of genre.
2587
01:24:35,945 --> 01:24:37,113
At the same time, I do know what he
2588
01:24:37,113 --> 01:24:39,032
means, and I know where he's coming from,
2589
01:24:39,032 --> 01:24:40,867
and I know the journey he's been on. That
2590
01:24:40,867 --> 01:24:41,785
was part of his thing.
2591
01:24:41,785 --> 01:24:44,078
I remember him thinking, you know, "I
2592
01:24:44,078 --> 01:24:45,246
want to see people make a
2593
01:24:45,246 --> 01:24:46,623
movie about, like, you know,
2594
01:24:46,873 --> 01:24:48,541
no one makes a movie about how they feel
2595
01:24:48,541 --> 01:24:49,250
about their brother."
2596
01:24:49,626 --> 01:24:51,586
And that could be a very personal thing.
2597
01:24:51,878 --> 01:24:53,087
You know, the kind of things that you
2598
01:24:53,087 --> 01:24:54,255
would imagine, you know,
2599
01:24:54,255 --> 01:24:55,965
little novels being based on.
2600
01:24:56,007 --> 01:24:58,009
And that's where he's going with it, and
2601
01:24:58,009 --> 01:24:58,635
I think that's where he's
2602
01:24:58,635 --> 01:24:59,636
going with that question.
2603
01:25:00,845 --> 01:25:05,600
And right now, I really like taking my
2604
01:25:05,600 --> 01:25:08,061
story, what I have to say, my tale, my
2605
01:25:08,061 --> 01:25:09,312
little autobiographies,
2606
01:25:09,813 --> 01:25:13,441
but sticking them in crazy genre worlds
2607
01:25:13,441 --> 01:25:15,443
and having it reflect that way.
2608
01:25:15,902 --> 01:25:17,695
Maybe when I get older, then I will be
2609
01:25:17,695 --> 01:25:19,531
like, "No, let's do this on the surface.
2610
01:25:19,948 --> 01:25:22,492
This is about a guy in love, or this is
2611
01:25:22,492 --> 01:25:23,368
about a guy who doesn't
2612
01:25:23,368 --> 01:25:23,993
know what he wants to do,
2613
01:25:23,993 --> 01:25:25,954
or this is about a guy who feels he's
2614
01:25:25,954 --> 01:25:27,080
failed, or this is about
2615
01:25:27,080 --> 01:25:27,997
a guy who didn't have kids
2616
01:25:27,997 --> 01:25:29,165
and wishes he had kids now."
2617
01:25:29,457 --> 01:25:31,709
Maybe I want to tell that story later,
2618
01:25:31,918 --> 01:25:32,919
but I don't want to tell it now.
2619
01:25:32,919 --> 01:25:35,755
Now I want to be completely tell you the
2620
01:25:35,755 --> 01:25:36,589
truth and be completely
2621
01:25:36,589 --> 01:25:39,926
personal, but inside of a genre.
2622
01:25:40,468 --> 01:25:44,430
I mean, Kill Bill was insanely personal.
2623
01:25:45,348 --> 01:25:47,851
I don't necessarily want you to know why
2624
01:25:47,851 --> 01:25:48,977
it's so damn personal
2625
01:25:49,018 --> 01:25:51,521
and why it was ripped
2626
01:25:51,521 --> 01:25:54,148
from my heart and my soul.
2627
01:25:54,399 --> 01:25:56,860
I want to create a little subterfuge.
2628
01:25:57,485 --> 01:26:01,197
So it's not just the story of a squint
2629
01:26:01,197 --> 01:26:03,032
and farantino filmmaker, and this is
2630
01:26:03,032 --> 01:26:04,242
what's happening in his life.
2631
01:26:04,701 --> 01:26:06,995
So I bury it inside of a bunch of other
2632
01:26:06,995 --> 01:26:10,039
stuff, but it's still all very real, and
2633
01:26:10,039 --> 01:26:12,876
it's still coming from me.
2634
01:26:13,668 --> 01:26:14,377
But there's another
2635
01:26:14,377 --> 01:26:15,962
question that's sort of like that.
2636
01:26:17,297 --> 01:26:19,716
That's like, "Well, when are you ever
2637
01:26:19,716 --> 01:26:20,341
going to do a comedy?"
2638
01:26:21,050 --> 01:26:22,677
"What the hell are you talking about? All
2639
01:26:22,677 --> 01:26:24,429
my movies are really funny. I'll put my
2640
01:26:24,429 --> 01:26:25,430
comedies against anybody
2641
01:26:25,430 --> 01:26:27,015
who's out there, laugh for laugh."
2642
01:26:27,015 --> 01:26:29,058
"Yeah, yeah, but when are you going to
2643
01:26:29,058 --> 01:26:30,852
just do a full bore straight up comedy?"
2644
01:26:31,102 --> 01:26:33,980
"You mean like pulp fiction, which
2645
01:26:33,980 --> 01:26:35,398
belongs in the comedy section?"
2646
01:26:35,398 --> 01:26:36,482
"I mean there's not really a dramatic
2647
01:26:36,482 --> 01:26:37,734
moment in pulp fiction."
2648
01:26:37,734 --> 01:26:38,484
"Bring out the guilt."
2649
01:26:39,444 --> 01:26:40,528
"Like they're a little dramatic, but
2650
01:26:40,528 --> 01:26:41,321
they're more outrageous."
2651
01:26:42,071 --> 01:26:42,989
"And I still think they're funny anyway."
2652
01:26:43,031 --> 01:26:45,325
"I think people, when they talk about
2653
01:26:45,325 --> 01:26:48,119
comedy, they have a very narrow view of
2654
01:26:48,119 --> 01:26:49,120
comedy, and I'm trying
2655
01:26:49,120 --> 01:26:50,663
to expand that view."
2656
01:26:50,872 --> 01:26:52,624
"This is what you get for
2657
01:26:52,624 --> 01:26:54,167
fucking who value kuzas!"
2658
01:26:54,834 --> 01:26:56,669
"Go home to your mother!"
2659
01:26:56,961 --> 01:26:58,713
"But then you get somebody saying, okay,
2660
01:26:58,713 --> 01:27:01,758
I guess what we're trying to say is, will
2661
01:27:01,758 --> 01:27:03,551
you ever do a comedy without violence?"
2662
01:27:07,639 --> 01:27:08,181
"What's your flinching?"
2663
01:27:10,391 --> 01:27:10,850
"You mean like the
2664
01:27:10,850 --> 01:27:11,976
Three Stooges? Alright."
2665
01:27:13,019 --> 01:27:15,480
"Kuz slapstick is violence? Alright, well
2666
01:27:15,480 --> 01:27:17,732
no, I'll get more social commentary."
2667
01:27:18,066 --> 01:27:19,651
"Jango isn't a slave."
2668
01:27:20,568 --> 01:27:22,487
"Jango is a free man, you understand?"
2669
01:27:22,487 --> 01:27:23,613
"You won't ask to
2670
01:27:23,613 --> 01:27:24,739
treat him like wise folks?"
2671
01:27:25,490 --> 01:27:25,740
"No."
2672
01:27:26,324 --> 01:27:27,825
"Okay, would you ever do like a Billy
2673
01:27:27,825 --> 01:27:29,160
Wilder-like comedy?"
2674
01:27:29,619 --> 01:27:31,746
"Billy Wilder, you mean like, some like
2675
01:27:31,746 --> 01:27:33,665
it hot, which has two different machine
2676
01:27:33,665 --> 01:27:34,999
gun massacres in it?"
2677
01:27:36,084 --> 01:27:36,918
"Violence doesn't
2678
01:27:36,918 --> 01:27:38,503
make it any less funny."
2679
01:27:38,836 --> 01:27:40,129
"Maybe in somebody else's
2680
01:27:40,129 --> 01:27:41,756
hands it does, but not for me."
2681
01:27:42,465 --> 01:27:44,759
"Peter Bogdanovich, one of my all-time
2682
01:27:44,759 --> 01:27:46,803
favorite filmmakers, has a question for
2683
01:27:46,803 --> 01:27:47,637
you. Who has been the
2684
01:27:47,637 --> 01:27:49,138
greatest influence in your work?"
2685
01:27:49,347 --> 01:27:50,765
"You know, at the end of the day, I think
2686
01:27:50,765 --> 01:27:53,476
the one artist that I think is the most
2687
01:27:53,476 --> 01:27:57,271
influential to me, and my work, has got
2688
01:27:57,271 --> 01:27:57,981
to be Sergio Leone."
2689
01:27:58,982 --> 01:28:02,944
"That kind of half-assed operatic quality
2690
01:28:02,944 --> 01:28:05,363
that he brought, and the way the music
2691
01:28:05,363 --> 01:28:08,199
takes over, and kind of set pieces,
2692
01:28:08,199 --> 01:28:10,159
directing via set piece a lot of times."
2693
01:28:11,995 --> 01:28:13,913
"I think he is the filmmaker that you can
2694
01:28:13,913 --> 01:28:15,248
spot the most in my work."
2695
01:28:20,920 --> 01:28:22,547
"You know, that kind of operatic quality
2696
01:28:22,547 --> 01:28:22,964
I'm trying to bring."
2697
01:28:24,007 --> 01:28:25,925
"Edgar Wright, how does it feel to have a
2698
01:28:25,925 --> 01:28:27,468
style that audiences and critics can
2699
01:28:27,468 --> 01:28:29,345
identify, and how important is it to
2700
01:28:29,345 --> 01:28:30,221
create a body or work
2701
01:28:30,221 --> 01:28:31,222
that is uniquely you?"
2702
01:28:31,639 --> 01:28:35,393
"It feels magnificent. I wouldn't want it
2703
01:28:35,393 --> 01:28:38,980
any other way. To be able to work in this
2704
01:28:38,980 --> 01:28:42,108
art form at a level of genuine artist.
2705
01:28:43,359 --> 01:28:44,777
And your filmography is not a hit or miss
2706
01:28:44,777 --> 01:28:46,904
thing. You have a vision."
2707
01:28:47,488 --> 01:28:50,324
"Tell him fuck you to him, and then throw
2708
01:28:50,324 --> 01:28:52,160
it to everybody all around."
2709
01:28:53,036 --> 01:28:53,745
"You have a voice."
2710
01:28:53,995 --> 01:28:54,287
"Tina!"
2711
01:28:55,997 --> 01:29:01,210
"You have a sound, and each new film is
2712
01:29:01,210 --> 01:29:03,880
your new conversation. And each new film
2713
01:29:03,880 --> 01:29:04,881
is what you have to
2714
01:29:04,881 --> 01:29:05,798
add to the conversation."
2715
01:29:05,965 --> 01:29:06,507
"Kill the Nazis!"
2716
01:29:09,010 --> 01:29:10,928
"And to actually have it be recognized,
2717
01:29:11,929 --> 01:29:14,015
not just by critics, not just by your
2718
01:29:14,015 --> 01:29:15,308
fans, but by the world."
2719
01:29:15,308 --> 01:29:16,476
"The Palme d'Or."
2720
01:29:16,476 --> 01:29:17,769
"Our original screenplay."
2721
01:29:17,769 --> 01:29:19,437
"And the Oscar goes to..."
2722
01:29:19,479 --> 01:29:20,438
"Grenton Tarantino."
2723
01:29:20,438 --> 01:29:20,980
"Mr. Tarantino."
2724
01:29:21,981 --> 01:29:24,108
"That's playing the
2725
01:29:24,108 --> 01:29:26,152
game at the highest level."
2726
01:29:26,736 --> 01:29:29,280
"That's Bobby Fischer chess, and everyone
2727
01:29:29,280 --> 01:29:30,907
else is fucking around with checkers."
2728
01:29:31,491 --> 01:29:32,700
"Who's to war time?"
2729
01:29:33,326 --> 01:29:33,868
"Why?"
2730
01:29:34,827 --> 01:29:40,083
"Because we love making movies!"
2731
01:29:42,418 --> 01:29:43,961
"You're an inspiration to us all. You're
2732
01:29:43,961 --> 01:29:44,921
a dear friend of mine
2733
01:29:44,921 --> 01:29:46,130
and the El Rey Network."
2734
01:29:46,130 --> 01:29:46,547
"Yes."
2735
01:29:47,006 --> 01:29:49,050
"I'm very pleased to have you here with
2736
01:29:49,050 --> 01:29:50,093
us today on the director's
2737
01:29:50,093 --> 01:29:51,511
chair. Thank you, Seymour."
2738
01:29:51,552 --> 01:29:52,887
"It's my pleasure, mate. Thanks so much."
2739
01:29:53,679 --> 01:29:54,138
"Thanks, guys."
216101
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