Original subtitles

They call it, uh, the Royale with Cheese.

Quentin Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction"

hit the zeitgeist like a lightning bolt.

I said goddamn.

He broke all the rules.

- I know how good it is. - Kneel down.

This is so out there.

While "Jackie Brown's" response

felt more like a static shock.

Falsely accused of intent.

Audiences wanted "Pulp Fiction" or "Reservoir Dogs,"

and it's neither of those.

Boring, isn't it?

I can sit through it once.

Tarantino took six years off,

because he said that he was too famous.

He felt like he was chasing "Pulp Fiction."

It's about the journey.

It's not about the destination.

The auteur came roaring back

with his biggest--

Kung fu epic.

It was the longest script ever.

Bloodiest.

Always had blood flying, blood splats,

blood coming outta this, blood coming out of that.

You're one blood-spattered angel.

I had to not look.

Most dangerous.

I'd counted the bruises over my body and had 30.

I couldn't breathe

and I was like, I might actually die.

Most ambitious.

An international crew, an international cast.

But there would be challenges.

Put together a schedule.

They nearly fired me on the spot.

Police showed up.

And challengers.

I think Harvey may have killed that.

He's Harvey Weinstein, for Christ's sake.

He was scary.

We were getting beat up behind the scenes

by the Miramax executives.

We're all about to get put to the test

in every way possible.

Wiggle your big toe.

"Kill Bill" could either mark

the return of the king-

Tarantino took six years off.

Wakey wakey.

Miramax wanted to find out

if he's still a viable asset for 'em.

Priceless.

That was gonna be the big test.

Or the end of Tarantino's reign.

A box office flop.

It's the movie he was born to make.

Natural born killer.

It's all of his loves, his passions, desires.

His references are all in "Kill Bill."

And we let 'em think we don't like it.

It's the ultimate Tarantino film.

Baby, you ain't kidding.

Uma took off.

The car was going 35 miles an hour,

and the camera was mounted behind her head.

She's a badass behind the wheel of a dope car.

She didn't wanna drive the car.

It was very fucked up.

While filming "Pulp Fiction--"

Uma Thurman began to experience an existential crisis.

While they were making "Pulp Fiction,"

Thurman said overtly that she wasn't sure about acting.

That was my 15 minutes.

She wasn't sure if it was a career

that she really wanted to stick with.

Quentin Tarantino,

he was a little disturbed by this.

He wanted to sort of assure her that she had a future.

Tarantino's bait to keep Uma in the game?

A new project.

And they started kind of talking about this idea.

He's got such passion and enthusiasm.

He's not a person you can say no to.

This spitball began

with her character Mia Wallace,

but became much more.

'Cause the character of Mia Wallace,

she herself was an actor.

I heard you did a pilot.

About this cool gang of deadly kick-ass women.

It was a show about a team

of female secret agents called Fox Force Five.

Tarantino was inspired

by the very real 1975 television movie-

"Force-Five."

I thought it was more of a cult.

As well as the 70s girls with guns movement.

What's the name of the island?

These combined influences

would inspire more than just a footnote

in "Pulp Fiction."

Part of the genesis of "Kill Bill"

is the Fox Force Five dialogue.

Fox, as in we're a bunch of foxy chicks.

Force, as in we're a force to be reckoned with.

And five is in there's one, two, three,

four, five of us.

They kind of started discussing, you know,

well, what if we could do a movie

that was kind of like that,

but was rooted very much

in those Blaxploitation cinema?

Gonna blow the back of your head off.

A female revenge film.

Of the 70s, 60s, 80s.

And Hong Kong martial arts cinema.

During the shoot of "Pulp Fiction,"

they kept kind of like throwing ideas

around to each other,

and they started to talk about this character idea.

And Tarantino had this sort of image

of how to open the film.

Black and white, closeup,

woman lying on the floor looking up.

And that's how we first see her.

But Uma thought,

what if the massacre happened--

- At my wedding. - He loved it.

Bill.

Tarantino instantly says, "Kill Bill."

That's the name of the movie.

So he comes up with the name

and comes up with who the villain's going to be

without truly knowing the whole stakes

at which they're gonna play with.

He'd been reading this script to me

as he was writing it,

and it was a constant back and forth.

By the end of that shoot,

Tarantino had about 30 pages,

the start of a script.

But soon, Tarantino's attention

would turn to another woman.

Jackie Brown.

And while Pam Grier

might be the queen of revenge films,

Jackie Brown was--

Such a love story between Robert Forrester and Pam Grier.

I'll send you a postcard.

Saving his revenge for Uma, only--

Jackie Brown gets kind of pushed to the side

by some people, not by critics, but by some fans.

He got a little beat up by it.

But he also knew that people were gonna try

to pigeonhole him into, "Is this the next "Pulp Fiction"?

So he didn't worry about it.

But I wasn't trying to crank it up for that.

Quentin focused more on writing.

Focus, as it turns out,

would be a problem for Tarantino.

So, you know, he mentioned a Western set in a prison.

But soon there would be a shiny new idea.

Like a British crime movie.

Oh, wait, another idea.

A "Pulp Fiction." Pre-cool.

Spends years writing these scripts

thinking about something else also.

Unlike some people who get writer's block,

he actually gets writer's diarrhea.

Oh, the toilet is at it again.

He's got that script rolling in his head,

rolling his head.

There are plenty of cures for writer's block.

Sadly, modern medicine has failed writer's diarrhea.

He just can't stop.

He just, ideas keep coming and keep coming.

They never really came to anything.

After courting several ideas,

Tarantino realized what needed to be done.

I am gonna "Kill Bill."

Not quite yet.

Tarantino ended up obsessively working

on the World War II movie.

He worked on that for years.

I've been waiting a long time.

He just ended up getting bigger and bigger and bigger.

Tarantino kept writing

in hopes of an ending that never came.

He couldn't finish it.

He had to set that aside.

We wait.

And there was no better place

to wait things out than--

Miramax Oscar party.

It was there Quentin's muse appeared.

Uma was there.

Since "Pulp Fiction,"

Uma's career was blooming.

Poison Ivy.

She was in demand and working nonstop.

She said to him, "Hey Quentin,

whatever happened to 'Kill Bill?'"

So he went back and he pulled out that 30 page script.

He looked through it and he went,

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I can do this."

To make sure this script

actually had an ending, Tarantino gave himself--

A deadline.

And not just any deadline.

He phoned up Thurman and he said,

"Right, I'm gonna write this by your birthday.

It's gonna be a birthday present."

So he had until the end of April to write it.

Whether we were laughing or arguing

or whatever was going on,

that the doing of this character together

was like a continuation of a really long conversation.

When it came to story ideas,

he knew exactly where to lift inspiration.

One of the plot strands

that he had had for "Inglourious Basterds"

was the character of Shosanna.

I have a message for Germany.

You know, she had like a kill list

that she saw as responsible for the death of her family.

You are all going to die.

That came from "Kill Bill,"

went into "Inglourious Basterds,"

then came out of "Inglourious Basterds,"

went back to "Kill Bill."

With a rapidly approaching deadline--

He thought it'd be quite a small, short movie.

It took him 15 months.

In those 15 months,

Tarantino began to explore genres

beyond grindhouse revenge flicks.

He is such a cinephile.

He had a huge love of Chinese cinema.

Kung fu movies.

Japanese samurai.

Spaghetti Western.

Mostly, I guess, eastern influences.

There's "Lady Snowblood."

Just so many things that got thrown in there.

It's a list as long as your arm.

He saw the greatness in these genres,

decided to combine them to pay homage to them.

Wherever he's going

with his switching of genres,

changing of tableau style,

my job was to make sure that I stayed anchored.

As Quentin continued to shuffle between genres,

more genres meant more three hole punched pages.

222 pages.

It was long.

Most scripts are like 120, 110.

222 pages is a lot of--

Writer's diarrhea.

And the reason?

Not only am I telling a story,

I'm also creating a mythology.

He's like, "No, this is how I want to tell my stories."

And it became this huge, big,

sprawling pushing four hours thing.

Between--

Writer's diarrhea.

Quentin writes what he calls the Bible.

For most writers, delivering a script

of that size would be career suicide.

You don't have a future.

Quentin has the ability to hand a script in like that

because the producers know him

and he's got a track record.

And in "Kill Bill," there was a lot of story to tell.

Tarantino finished the script.

He goes back to Thurman and says,

"Hey, I've got it now. We can do it."

In return, Uma had news for Quentin.

She was pregnant.

She couldn't do it.

Great for Uma, not so much for Quentin,

and definitely not for producer Harvey Weinstein.

You know, they talked about Miramax

being the house that Quentin built.

The 90s, Tarantino's got either a project

he's written or directed that is coming out

that feels like every other year.

But the 90s were over.

His cash cow, Quentin Tarantino took six years off.

Which means it had been five years

since that Tarantino sized payday.

Harvey didn't want to wait longer.

He's feeling like,

hey, let's get this movie out.

You know, he wants to find out

if he's still a viable asset for him.

The Weinsteins sort of leaned on him to recast the role.

And Weinstein knew exactly who he wanted

to take Uma's place.

He wanted Daryl Hannah to play The Bride.

I'll be there soon.

And Quentin said, "No, no, no, no, no."

Oh, you don't owe her shit.

Quentin Tarantino

and Harvey Weinstein were in a standoff

and it remained to be seen who would blink first.

Uma's not playing The Bride,

then "Kill Bill" does not get made.

On the way to production,

"Kill Bill" hit a baby bump in the road

with Uma Thurman.

When they were getting ready

to start the shoot, she was pregnant.

Congratulations.

So when Harvey suggested

Quentin recast The Bride-

He was like, "No, this is a movie with Q&U."

She created the character with Tarantino.

She gets the credit in the story for helping

to create the character of The Bride.

He was not gonna do it with anyone else

other than Thurman.

He's one of the few people

that Weinsteins would bow to.

Weinstein conceded,

pushing production a year,

which meant more time for casting.

Everyone wants to be in a Tarantino film.

When it came to casting,

Tarantino didn't look to Hollywood,

but rather Hollywood video.

Quentin Tarantino was in the video store

when we had those.

And he said he was walking by

and saw my film "Two Can Play That Game."

The color of red on the cover

of the DVD caught his attention.

Oh, hey.

And he said he turned and looked

and said, "Vivica Fox."

Mm-mm.

To which Vivica said--

Yes!

But it wouldn't be that easy.

"So I'm gonna give you an audition,

but my style of auditioning is different.

I'm gonna come to your house."

I think Quentin, his audition style

is that he wants to make sure

that you come from a stable environment.

"I wanna audition you,

and I wanna audition you in your kitchen."

So when do we do this?

Kitchens seem to hold

a special place in Quentin's heart.

You gonna make some phone calls?

His Academy Award is on the counter in the kitchen.

It's just sitting there, surrounded by dirty dishes.

And as for Vivica's kitchen audition.

They called and said, "You got the role."

Thank you, Lord!

Oh my goodness.

You shout to the heavens.

Not everyone had to audition in a kitchen.

Some didn't even need to audition.

When he loves his heroes,

if he's able to put them into his movies,

he absolutely goes out and does it.

And Tarantino's fandom

can be seen throughout his work.

Basically, I'm just gonna walk the earth.

What you mean walk the earth?

You know, like Caine in "Kung Fu."

Better known as-

David Carradine.

I'm the man.

Well, the funny thing about David

is he, you know, I mean he was "Kung Fu."

Carradine started acting

the year Quentin was born,

and had over 240 credits,

including the dystopian action movie "Death Race 2000,"

and the TV series "Kung Fu."

But he didn't really know martial arts.

Gotcha.

He knew the moves of it,

and he could make it look really good,

but he didn't really know what he was doing.

This picture, I was working my ass off--

Can I say that?

All the way through.

You don't settle down,

I'm gonna have to put one in your kneecap.

So casting a real master

of martial arts would lead to--

Oh my God, Sonny Chiba.

Who's Sonny Chiba?

"Street Fighter," "Return of the Street Fighter."

And it just so happened,

"Kill Bill" featured a character named-

Hattori Hanzo.

You see where this is going?

Sonny Chiba plays Hattori Hanzo.

Real people are talked about in Tarantino films,

and all of a sudden they show up in his films.

It was 'cause he loves these people.

They were idols of his,

and he was able to use his power at the time

to give them a rebirth in cinema.

You know who else

tends to show up in Tarantino films?

Me.

People in Tarantino films.

Mr. Blonde.

Quentin puts a stack of papers in front of me.

He goes, "Go ahead, you read that."

I read it and he goes,

"Okay, that's it, your Budd."

There's just one problem.

And he goes, "What am I gonna do?

I gave Michael Parks the part."

Michael Parks had appeared

in "From Dusk Till Dawn."

I think I'm going to get tanked tonight.

And was on his way

to becoming a Tarantino regular.

Well, I guess you better tell him.

Not wanting to burn the Parks bridge,

Tarantino decided to call an audible.

Give me a figure.

Mike has two parts in the movie.

He's the sheriff.

This ain't no squirrelly amateur.

Then he runs the whorehouse in Mexico.

Only on the condition that you call me Esteban.

And while Harvey couldn't cast Daryl Hannah,

The Bride wasn't the only roll up for grabs.

Elle Driver, who was one of the other divas.

While the cinema has no shortage

of one-eyed killers,

Tarantino was particularly inspired by--

"They Call Her One Eye."

Which was like a triple X Swedish movie.

It was banned in the UK,

at least until the early 90s.

It remains to be seen

if Harvey insisted Hannah get the role.

But one actress insists it was Harvey

that insisted she did not get the role.

Quentin talked to me about doing "Kill Bill"

and the Daryl Hannah part.

There was a period like he actually wanted me in that role.

I think, I think Harvey may have killed that.

I was meeting Harvey at the Beverly Hills Hotel.

I'm supposed to meet him in the Polo Lounge.

"Mr. Weinstein will meet you upstairs."

And I was like, mm,

like immediately like eh, that's weird.

"Go up." My heart was racing,

as soon as it was like danger, danger.

So I knew not to go in that room.

That was fucking trippy.

One battle Quentin wasn't going to lose

was the role given to--

Lucy Liu.

Now if any of you sons of bitches

got anything else to say, now's the fucking time.

I just try to make the characters

as three-dimensional as I possibly can.

It's important to make sure

that the character is likable.

Even if she did something in the past

that wasn't such a great idea at the time.

Silly rabbit.

Trix are for- Kids.

And "Kill Bill's" action sequences

were going to be no playground

if Tarantino was to achieve-

Astonishing stunts mixed with the martial arts.

He would need to go straight to the source.

And so began legend.

He liked Jackie Chan's first movies,

more stylized fighting.

The secret behind Jackie Chan's movies?

Yuen Woo-ping.

- Otherwise known as-- - Master Woo.

And what did he know?

I know kung fu.

He was in Australia working on "The Matrix."

He is the master of martial arts cinema.

The Hong Kong filmmaker

was reluctant to work with Westerners,

but Master Woo's collaboration

with the Wachowskis gave Quentin hope.

The next day, we're in a conference room

and Quentin's literally like throwing himself

on the ground and acting out the various sequences

in the film for Yuen Woo-ping.

Yuen Woo-ping said yes.

With Woo-ping lined up,

it was time to find who'd get wired up.

My name is Zoe, that, but I know

Stunt person, actress, friend.

Hollywood just seemed unattainable to me.

Somehow I heard that there was an audition

for "Kill Bill."

Tryouts were held

in Tarantino's training facility,

as there wasn't enough room-

In my kitchen.

I remember walking to the audition,

I look across, Daryl Hannah, I saw Uma, I met Quentin.

I had no intention of getting the job.

What am I doing here?

Quentin wasn't looking

for the perfect stunt double, rather--

When I ate shit and laughed about it

and then ate shit again,

Quentin was like, "She'll do," you know.

Read the script and was like,

"Wait, so what is all this I'm possibly gonna do?"

And then I read it again,

and I'm like, "I don't know how we're gonna do it but--"

Training.

They literally turned us into a killing machine.

"Kill Bill" had the potential

to show Quentin Tarantino in a whole new light.

"Kill Bill" is that moment in time

that he distanced himself

from just being the director of "Pulp Fiction."

I'm gonna get divorced.

Never done a real action scene.

In his first three films, there's barely action.

To those that believed

the wordsmith was out of his depth--

Silly Caucasian girl likes to play with samurai swords.

Tarantino's message was clear.

You don't think I can do this?

Hold my beer and watch me.

"Kill Bill" was meant to be a mashup

of cinema's most visual genres,

which meant Quentin needed

a director of photography that could do it all.

Robert Richardson was our cinematographer.

Bob's a great cinematographer.

So if Hollywood's elite turns to Richardson,

who does Richardson turn to?

Bob calls up and I'm always eager to answer that phone.

And he said, "I read this script.

It's probably the best script I've ever read.

I had to write him a letter."

He said, "I want to do this film with you."

They met and so he offered him the movie,

and we stepped in.

And so we were off to the races.

More specifically--

Pack your parachute, we're going to China.

Master Woo didn't ask for focus,

he demanded it.

My punches had to be precise.

My kicks vital.

Fabulous knife choreography.

Incredible physical feats.

The rigorous training began to take its toll.

Awesomely challenging.

Soon the only thing

Vivica would be hitting was the wall.

I got frustrated halfway through training,

'cause I got tired of being critiqued.

When do you wanna die?

If Vivica was looking for a cheerleader,

she was on the wrong set.

"You did this wrong."

You did, you know, da-da-da-da-da-da-da.

"You gotta do higher kicks."

Like, are we doing anything right?

And Quentin was like, "I'm gonna keep pointing out

what you're doing wrong so that you become excellent."

But I can't.

Yeah.

It was then Vivica was reminded

of the difference between Master Woo

and Quentin Tarantino.

Uma was like, "Vivica--"

You can stop right there.

"He can fire your ass,

so you might wanna chill out over there."

I'm a different person now.

Besides, compared to Uma,

Vivica had little to complain about.

Uma gave birth months before we were gonna start shooting.

And she was like breastfeeding and training and this.

It was definitely tough for her.

But Uma's hardship was lost

on her 20-year-old partner.

Had I have understood that,

I would've just been in her trailer every day being like,

"Would you like to cry into my hands?

Can I get you a tissue?

Do you need something to eat?

Would you like a cigarette?"

Not sure the newborn mother

needed a cigarette.

Meanwhile, the cast weren't the only ones being pushed

to their limit as production neared.

I read the script and it's all over the place.

It's Mexico.

In China.

Los Angeles.

The desert of California.

And Japan.

If I had to make a list

of impossible things that could never happen.

What is this?

This was a very difficult picture to make.

How are we gonna do this?

Unfortunately for William,

it was his job to schedule it.

The first schedule I put together,

I believe it was about 120, 125 days.

But before going to Quentin,

it would need to be rubber stamped

by producer Lawrence Bender.

Like 125 days, what are you talking about?

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

How long does this shit take?

They nearly fired me on the spot.

If you're unconvinced a particular plan of action

I've decided is the wisest, tell me so.

"Make it a 98 day schedule."

I'm like, "Okay, all right, all right."

So I go back to the drawing board a bit.

As William cut the schedule.

There you go.

- Yes. - By 20%.

Yeah, how about, how about that?

I take this 98 day schedule to Quentin.

He looks at the first day,

"That's great, that's great."

Oh my god, this is great.

Not only was it Quentin's first action film--

Okinawa. One way.

It was Tarantino's first time

filming outside of the US.

What about the other 17 weeks?

He's like, "You know, I don't really know.

I've never done this before.

So we're just gonna have to see."

Whether it was optimism or naivete,

the time had come to call action,

or as the locals would say-

Kai pai.

We went to China on "Kill Bill"

so we can get the essence of shen qi.

Ironically, training with Pai Mei

would be the only sequence actually set in China.

House of Blue Leaves,

we had scouted a place in Tokyo.

One ticket to Tokyo, please.

There was just one complication--

Tattooed fellas not wanting us to shoot there.

Power struggle with the other Yakuza clans.

Turns out someone wanted to wet their beak.

You pay this guy here,

and you pay this guy here,

and then you pay this guy.

And then pretty soon they said,

"Oh, you gotta give us another million dollars,

another million dollars."

Tarantino decided

to take matters into his own hands.

Actually, it was more like-

Quentin said, "Nah, we're outta here."

Meanwhile, back in Beijing,

preparations were underway

for the film's most ambitious scene.

House of Blue Leaves sequence was scheduled

for three weeks.

Three weeks?

It was an impossible task.

I think he always knew it.

Quentin's cinematographer...

Bob Richardson.

...didn't exactly expedite the timeline.

They only shoot one camera.

It's not like a Michael Bay movie

where you have 23 cameras rolling for this one thing

and you're like, "Yep, no,

that's how we're gonna stay on schedule."

That's how Quentin likes it.

Turns out most of the things

Quentin liked also happened to take the longest.

There's no digital effects.

It's all practical.

I remember, you know, us all being skeptical

of these very on camera gags.

For which Quentin once again

turned to his longtime collaborators K.N.B.

"Reservoir Dogs" may have been the first car interior--

A lot of blood.

This blood's scaring the shit out of me, Larry.

I don't know how much blood we used.

What you talking about?

But it wouldn't be the last.

Oh!

To be destroyed by K.N.B.

Bloody, you know, brain matter.

Are you sure this is absolutely necessary?

So when "Kill Bill" came up,

and we bring just tons of stuff,

bodies and parts and blood rigs, everything.

Now the House of Blue Leaves sequence is shot in sequence.

So it took like a good week or so

to get to Sophie's arm getting cut off,

which is the very first gag.

For those keeping score at home,

that's one week down, only two left to go.

And we did some tests,

and Quentin wasn't that keen.

It wasn't enough.

So how much more could Quentin want?

500 gallons of blood.

And time and money were running out.

We can't afford it.

Special effects guru Howard Berger

was struggling with "Kill Bill's"

most ambitious fight sequence,

the House of Blue Leaves.

I'm being too conservative.

We need to make this like

basically like Shogun Assassin.

Opting for the "more is more" approach,

Quentin threw down the gauntlet.

Make it crazy big,

like 30 foot sprays coming out of people's arms.

Challenge accepted.

I'm on it, I got it.

I rigged something up.

I had big fire extinguishers.

300 pounds of pressure.

Blood shooting out.

And I showed it to Quentin,

he's like, "That's what I've been talking about."

And we would do about 40 gags, 40 blood gags a day.

So, 40 blood gags a day

multiplied by two blood filled fire extinguishers per gag,

carry the one, comes out to--

Tons and tons of blood.

Blood everywhere.

It was so great.

And at one point, we were running out.

Quentin was running out of time,

running out of money,

but running out of blood wasn't an option.

And I went to the production manager,

I said, "Hey, we have to order more blood."

And she's like, "We can't afford it."

And I was like, "Why would you even say that?

Should we be chopping your head off?"

It's not a question, it's a statement.

Production continued to feel the tight grip

of Harvey Weinstein's hand squeezing the budget.

Just spend the money, for goodness sake.

So stupid.

Howard and Company did their best

to shield Quentin from Weinstein's budget agenda,

allowing Tarantino to focus on filmmaking.

I heard somebody calling my name and I looked up,

and it was my friend Zoe Bell,

who I had worked with on "Hercules and Xena"

way back when in New Zealand when she was 17.

And at only 20 years old,

the Kiwi was still a Hollywood rookie.

It was my first time away from home,

my first time on a movie set.

I didn't think I was gonna be doing any of the fight stuff

or any of the wire stuff.

I assumed it wasn't gonna be me.

I went to Quentin one day,

I said, "You know, you can wire Zoe Bell."

Me? What the hell?

I'm not doing the fight stuff.

I bet you if you give her a chance,

you'll just use Zoe to double Uma the whole show.

Huh? Me?

And then he tried her.

And I was shitting my pants.

The first piece of choreography I did

is side roll over another dude.

That whole run up the banister, that's Zoe.

He's like, "Oh my god, she's incredible."

Quentin saw me in the whole outfit

and was like, that's The Bride.

"Kill Bill" is when Quentin

first started requiring the same thing of me as an actor.

As Tarantino continued filming,

his influences were on full display.

On the duel between O-Ren Ishii and The Bride.

And it appears a certain "Lady Snowblood"

had just been pick-pocketed.

If you look at "Snowblood,"

you can definitely see the DNA of "Kill Bill."

Like "Lady Snowblood,"

The Bride didn't just kill, she killed with style.

When we were talking about the Lucy Liu decapitation--

So it's a forced perspective makeup.

I put a bald cap on Lucy's head,

and then we glued this piece onto Lucy and painted it.

Photographed a specific way straight on,

it looks like the top of her head's cut off.

The budget wasn't immune

from losing a bit off the top either.

So we were going over almost immediately.

I don't think anyone had fully anticipated

how long it was going to take to shoot.

- Well? - Three weeks.

Not everyone was upset about the backlog.

I was just a pig in shit the whole time.

I was like, please make it longer.

Not my money we're burning. You know?

But money was being burnt.

How much?

Which put pressure on--

Bob Richardson, who is known as the white-haired devil.

We're doing a scene as described in the script.

It was silhouetted.

Quentin described it as a silhouette,

and Bob prepared a silhouette.

And we're doing wide shot,

and then it's time to move in.

Quentin says, "We need to light their faces."

Bob's like, "Well, that's not a silhouette."

Quentin said, "No, you know,

we need to be able to, you know,

see their eyes or see their lips or something."

"But you'd said silhouette.

Do you want a silhouette or not a silhouette?"

"Yeah, silhouette, silhouette.

Is this beyond your lexicon?"

That pissed Bob off.

And Bob's like--

So that's when I was like,

"Hey, okay fellas, okay,

we're a little semantic here."

Quintin said, "Ian!"

He goes, "You tell him."

And Bob's like, "Ian, you tell him."

I was like--

And everybody went to their separate corners

and we did it.

It's a beautiful scene.

The schedule issue would become a budget issue,

which would become a Harvey Weinstein issue.

He was scary.

Everybody was scared shitless of him.

"How the fuck can you let this happen?

What the fuck? Is this a movie

or is this a fucking day camp?

What are you doing? What's going on?"

He's Harvey Weinstein, for Christ sake.

I mean he is the biggest,

most powerful producer in Hollywood.

Other people have told me the story

that it was meant to be two weeks

and it ended up being eight.

I don't know who scheduled

that fight for two weeks.

It was hopeful at best.

The man stuck between Quentin

and an enraged Weinstein--

Lawrence Bender.

Although at the time,

Bender's disposition wasn't quite as sunny.

Miramax was coming down quite a bit

on Lawrence and Bennett,

and Lawrence and Bennett were coming down on me.

I was under a lot of pressure because we're going over.

There was no one left

to shield Quentin from Harvey.

He was not pleased with the fact

that we were still gonna be shooting there

'cause of money.

Quentin said, "Why don't you go

to the editing room and see Sally,

and she's gonna show you some stuff."

And he is like, "Fine, but I'll tell you,"

da-da-da-da-da.

The only thing Quentin trusted

more than his footage was his editor Sally Menke,

who knew exactly what Harvey needed to see.

And he thought the footage was so incredible

that he's like, "I don't even care.

Just keep shooting,

and you have a blank check,

and I'll see you when you decide to come back."

And that was it.

While Harvey Weinstein

may have been momentarily appeased,

Quentin's editor Sally Menke

called with concerns from her bay.

It's getting kinda long.

Unfinished business.

You know, you got another half of the movie to shoot

and you're already pretty deep into your time.

Quentin had won the battle

for more time on set,

but the war for "Kill Bill's" runtime was just beginning.

Harvey was keen on getting it at a certain length,

and he wasn't gonna take any other answers.

Post-production was drowning

in "Kill Bill" footage.

Pretty much everything that he wrote, we filmed.

All that stuff was so tremendous,

there was no way they were gonna cut it.

But where Sally Menke saw a problem-

What are you gonna cut?

I'm gonna cut something off.

Harvey Weinstein saw an opportunity.

Quentin came up to me one day and he goes,

"Can you believe that Harvey Weinstein

wants me to split this damn thing into two parts?"

He goes, "I'm not gonna do that."

He goes, "Do you think I should do that?"

Well, maybe.

This would solve Tarantino's runtime problem.

He goes, "I'm never gonna do that.

That's never gonna happen."

But what would his partner think?

Uma, who is the co-writer,

she says, "That's perfect.

Don't listen to that guy."

Whether it was Uma or Sally--

I don't care.

Be that as it may--

Someone was about to be disappointed.

And Quentin's like,

"No, I think I know where I could break it."

So it became "Kill Bill..." "Kill Bill..."

Separate it and make twice as much money.

Lucy Liu said--

The price you pay--

"Quentin, does this mean we'd get paid

twice the amount of money?"

Tell me about it.

But we got a little bonus check out of the deal.

With filming in China complete,

production returned to the States

where a beautiful Pasadena home was about to be destroyed.

He wanted it bloody.

Tarantino had chosen a practical location

for the Battle of the Moms.

Our fight scene didn't have a lot of tricks.

It was a brawl.

Like she comes in.

Each day, we've tore up a different part of the house.

That choreography was no joke.

Vivica was doing her own stunts.

I'm like, "I trained for six damn months,

I'm doing it."

The stunt double literally used to be pissed at me.

She's like, "Am I gonna get to work today?"

I was like, "No, maybe not."

But there came a point

where a line had to be drawn.

There's this scene where she kicks me

and I go over the couch, crashed through the glass table.

I wanted to do it and Quentin was like,

"Absolutely not."

Ultimately, Vivica's double got the stunt

and a little something extra.

My stunt double ended up getting four stitches.

That's not to say Vivica went unscathed.

My very last day of filming,

I counted the bruises over my body and had 30,

but I was proud of those bruises.

But for The Bride, the hits kept coming.

Just between us girls.

Just between these girls,

and of course their doubles-

The trailer is just like boom, boom, boom.

That was a scrap.

First of all, he prepares you completely thoroughly.

Over-trains you, over-educates you,

fills you with everything that you could possibly need,

knows exactly what he wants.

Up until the very last minute,

the fight was to end with the death of Elle Driver.

Quentin comes in one morning and goes,

"I had a dream last night.

We're not gonna kill Elle."

What's the terms?

Uma's gonna pull out her other eye.

And I said, "But isn't that shooting today?"

And he's like, "Yeah."

There's always room for inspiration,

so if something comes to him,

we all rally to make it work.

As he said, "Howard, what's worse?

Like we can kill her,

but what's worse is she's blind,

trapped in the middle of the desert

in a trailer with a black mamba."

I mean, it doesn't get worse than that.

You are so right.

And as they say,

teamwork makes the dream work,

or in this case, the nightmare work.

It's my foot.

You know, the eyeball.

Gross.

It was gross to me.

If Uma's feet had any more screen time,

they'd get their own SAG card.

In character, my foot's like,

"Die bitch," and above the lens I'm like, ew!

I had broken a toenail in training,

that's how I recognized that it's definitely my foot.

If a new idea comes

and it's better than what was in the script,

that's what he's gonna shoot.

As was evident in Bill and Budd's exchange.

That woman deserves her revenge.

I mean, I made that up.

"That girl, she deserves her revenge,

but then again-"

We deserve to die.

You know, who I love and I really miss a lot

is David Carradine.

He was one hell of an actor.

Great, great guy.

Oh, she got us, baby.

Mom got us.

When he'd come to visit me in my trailer,

I'm all cool and I'm sitting there,

and he started telling me

that Uma's gonna come after me.

But you've got to get over being mad at me

and start becoming afraid of me.

I had a Winchester,

and instead of coming out the door

I was supposed to come out,

I came out the back door.

And he goes like that, and he shakes his head,

and he walks off the set.

And everybody's like, "Where's David?

Where? Where's Carradine?

Where'd he go?"

And he came back to the set

and he had a holster on with a pistol in it.

And he goes, "You're gonna come out that door,

I'm gonna be like this.

You point that thing at me,

I'm gonna shoot you back."

Another scene at the trailer

would hit a little different.

Zoe Bell was about to find her limit,

putting the film and her life in jeopardy.

I missed the mat by quite a bit, if I remember.

Instead of landing on her mat,

Zoe came skidding.

Onto the desert floor,

which is effectively like asphalt at that point.

I couldn't get oxygen.

So when I came up, I couldn't breathe

and I was like, I might still die

and this could still be bad.

I had thoughts flying through my head like,

"I can't die from being winded.

That's lame."

But her wrist was another story.

I dunno what's wrong with it, but it's fucked.

Zoe may have trained for martial arts movies--

Now I'm a master of movie fu.

But Mr. Miyagi's hand clap

only worked on the other side

of the screen, which meant--

All right, we're going to the hospital.

Zoe ended up in a cast,

bringing her time on "Kill Bill" to a premature end.

The movie's called "Kill Bill."

I'm like, I don't even get to kill him

after all of these months.

Like what the hell?

With production nearly complete,

Tarantino looked to film the few remaining odds and ends,

including a shot of The Bride

tearing through the Mexican countryside.

We were ready to shoot.

Uma said, eh, she's from New York

and she hasn't driven that much,

and she was a little hesitant.

And Quentin said, "Fine, we'll get Zoe to drive."

But I had a cast on,

so you know, driving was, I couldn't.

Quentin said, "Let's just go,

we'll use Uma, you know.

Well, she can do it."

With production so close to the end,

Quentin made the call.

She didn't wanna drive the car

on that day, but it's really her.

And against her better judgment,

Uma put pedal to metal.

She slid right into a palm tree head on, head on.

With prodtion nearly wrapped,

Tarantino convinced Uma, against her better judgment,

to get behind the wheel.

And it stopped her like a load of bricks.

And she got hurt pretty bad.

Uma would suffer permanent injuries

to her neck and knees, as well as a concussion.

'Cause he made her do it

because it should have been a stunt double

driving the car from that shot.

I then was furious.

I should be there.

I felt responsible.

Quentin didn't really seem like it was a big deal.

He was more kind of like,

well, you know, stuff like that happens,

and you know, I'm sorry,

and you know, he was over it.

He was like, he was over it the same day.

Uma had put on a brave face

in front of the crew.

She never told us, she never complained about it.

But behind closed doors.

Her and Quentin were very angry

with each other for quite a while after that.

Regret.

The incident put a strain

on Uma and Quentin's relationship,

one that wouldn't be resolved until 2018.

It took her a long time to get over it.

It was between them in a really weird way.

Some things, once you do,

they can never be undone.

Quentin and longtime producer

Lawrence Bender's relationship

was also strained to a breaking point.

We were getting beat up so much,

you know, behind the scenes that,

you know, it was difficult for him

not to take the perspective

of the studio a little bit more than I had seen.

Even Harvey, you know, beat us up,

you know, when Quentin wasn't around.

That pressure I guess gets felt,

and I think that put a bit

of a strain on their relationship.

I kind of get the sense that

they had just kind of run their course at that point.

Lawrence had his other interests,

as it wasn't just Quentin anymore,

he was Lawrence Bender Productions.

And the lack of focus had resulted

in a budget and filming overrun.

I did the 125 day.

We wound up making it 98 day.

We wound up shooting 154 days.

And sold for 154 days

for a total of 56 days over schedule.

But "Kill Bill" wasn't done yet.

It was a massive assembly, it was.

It appeared the sheer volume of work

had taken its toll on Quentin.

"Kill Bill" was a difficult post.

Sally called me one day and was like,

"There are days he's a little different.

What's happening?"

Regardless, Quentin was off

and Sally Menke knew it.

That's just who she was.

She cared about him and she wanted to help him,

but sometimes felt like she was unable to,

and I say, "You will tomorrow."

Even though filming was complete,

animated footage was still on its way from Japan.

I think it's all sort of in keeping

with every sequence is an homage

to another style of filmmaking.

That was done by Production I.G,

who had done "Ghost in the Shell."

Production I.G's version of the characters

did not look much like

the live action version of the characters,

and there was some debate about that.

Quentin loved it.

Like he's like, "This is what they do,

like let them do their thing."

With editing finished,

it was time to introduce the world to The Bride.

You should give her away.

Part one was released on October 10th, 2003.

The budget for the entire "Kill Bill" saga was $60 million.

Not bad considering "Volume 1"

would bring in $180 million.

Very successful. It did really well.

While most sequels take years,

six months later, "Kill Bill" would once again

take theaters by storm with "Volume 2."

"Volume 1" sets up all that mythology,

and then "Volume 2," you get to know the people more.

The follow up broke 150 million

on a $30 million budget,

bringing the combined gross to 330 million.

Part of the reason it worked

was there's still a cache to Tarantino,

and I think audiences were primed

for the division into two.

It's literally impossible for a film

to be that successful without speculation of a follow-up,

an idea Tarantino entertained.

Thinking about 15 years,

maybe doing another "Kill Bill" movie

that would be about what happened

to Vivica Fox's daughter, Nikki.

My daughter will be on a revenge mission

finding Uma 'cause she said-

When you grow up,

if you still feel raw about it,

I'll be waiting.

Quentin understandably wanted to wait

until the kids were old enough to kill on camera.

He gets renewed and invigorated with it in 2019

when now Maya Hawk has become an actress herself,

Uma's daughter.

And he thinks, you know, it'd kind of be cool

to have Uma's daughter play her daughter

in the film now that she actually has acting chops

because they're mother and daughter in real life.

Oh yeah, I would love to.

But he finally puts it to bed

where he just said it took so much out of him

doing it the last time,

and now being a married man

and at the time with really two small children,

he doesn't have the energy

to move forward with "Kill Bill: Volume 3."

As for Tarantino's next project-

Now comes the $64,000 question.

Quentin had unfinished business

on the battlefield.

World War II movie, couldn't finish it.

But with his mojo back,

Tarantino was ready to finish what he started and that's-

Killing Nazis.