Pam Grier, star of Jackie Brown, recently revealed one reason why iconic director Quentin Tarantino won't work with certain actors. Beginning with his 1992 heist-gone-wrong thriller Reservoir Dogs, Tarantino became one of the most revered directors in the filmmaking industry. His success with that film allowed him to create what many call his masterpiece with Roger Avary, Pulp Fiction. The film garnered him both the Academy Award for Best Screenplay and the prestigious Palme d'Or at Cannes.
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With his clout in Hollywood at an all-time high, Tarantino could have chosen to create anything he wanted. Instead of writing and producing an original project, he decided to adapt the Elmore Leonard novel Rum Punch into the crime-thriller Jackie Brown. Legendary exploitation actor Grier was cast in the lead as the titular character, costarring with Robert Forster, Samuel L. Jackson, Bridget Fonda, and Robert DeNiro. The film exemplified many of Tarantino's unique styles such as challenging camera movements, shocking twists, and most notably, lengthy carefully-crafted dialogue exchanges. Jackie Brown proved to be another success for Tarantino, with the film pulling in over $74 million at the box office and accumulating multiple award nominations for Grier, Jackson, and Forster.
In a recent interview on the Kermode & Mayo's Take podcast, Grier revealed one reason why Tarantino will not work with some actors. The actor shared that Tarantino likes to rehearse his scenes thoroughly before shooting. Grier claimed that if Tarantino is to work with an actor, they must be open to the rehearsal process. If not, then the director will not cast that actor in his films. Read what Grier said below.
“The people that get to work with him must rehearse. If you’re not into the rehearsal process, and many actors are not, they will not work with him. He will not, he doesn’t want to work with them.”
With only nine films written and directed by Tarantino, the director has created a style all his own, primarily exemplified by his catchy rhythmic dialogue. To perfectly pull off his witty and heavily stylized writing, rehearsing the lines as a cast may be essential to get the speech pattern and back-and-forth between the characters just right. Grier notes that the rehearsal process is so necessary to realizing Tarantino's vision that he will not even consider an actor for a role if they are not open to pre-filming rehearsal.
Tarantino's dialogue is iconic, with many crime thrillers that clearly pay homage to the director featuring similar-styled banter that has been colloquially labeled Tarantino-esque. Without rehearsing to perfect each scene, audiences may never have witnessed some of Tarantino's most lauded scenes such as Reservoir Dog's "Like a Virgin" monologue, Christoph Waltz's legendary opening scene of Inglourious Basterds, and John Travolta and Uma Thurman's dreamy date at Jackrabbit Slims in Pulp Fiction. With only one more film planned for Tarantino, but with no timeline revealed as to when that movie will be released, audiences have to wait to see what one of Hollywood's most celebrated directors has in store.