Quentin Tarantino took the opportunity to publicly thank late Hollywood legend Robert Redford for his immeasurable contribution to independent film while being feted by the Burbank International Film Festival on Sunday night.
Redford, who passed away Sept. 16 at the age of 89, founded the Sundance Film Festival and Sundance Institute, which became the most important avenue for indie movies to be nourished and be showcased in the U.S., and was arguably the actor-activist’s deepest and most pervasive impact on Hollywood.
Tarantino was present at the Marriott Burbank accepting the festival’s Vanguard Award and then sat down with The Hollywood Reporter’s Scott Feinberg for a career-spanning conversation. When the discussion hit the filmmaker’s early 1990s career rise, Tarantino reminisced about his time at Sundance and its lasting impression on him. “None of us independent filmmakers would be where we are without the Sundance Film Institute,” he said.
Tarantino attended Sundance’s Directors Lab in 1991 while in the early stages of making his breakthrough debut feature, Reservoir Dogs. Tarantino recalled being in awe of just being at the Institute and at the filmmaking giants that mentored him.
“I’m dealing with Terry Gilliam, I’m dealing with Volker Schlöndorff, I’m dealing with Stanley Donen,” he marveled. “Stanley Donen, Volker Schlöndorff and Terry Gilliam are in my editing room as I’m editing my first scene on videocassette!”
And that first night, at a reception, he had a realization.
“A lot of money and a lot of people are dedicating their time just for us, just to give us the chance [to make an independent film],” he said, recalling his thinking. “They were saying ‘You’re young, and we might get on your case, we might bust your balls, but we see you.’ I just couldn’t believe something could be that artistically philanthropic.”
And the crowd in the ballroom applauded his sentiment, he added, “So thank you very much, Mr. Redford.”
Tarantino’s conversation with Feinberg had the audience enraptured and, of course, entertained, as he regaled the crowd with tales of the making of his movies or taking deep dives into his artistic process.
Quentin Tarantino at the Burbank Film Festival.
Borys Kit
The auteur talked of how when casting his classic Pulp Fiction, star Bruce Willis wanted to play the role of hitman Vincent, although he wanted the Die Hard actor to play the boxer Butch. The two went back and forth and Tarantino pleaded for Willis to read the script one more time, telling him the role, and he himself reminded Tarantino of Aldo Ray and another actor from the 1950s. A final call was set for 8 a.m. the next day.
“He got on the phone,” Tarantino recalled, and said, “Quentin, the shortest sentence in the Bible is ‘Jesus wept.’ The shortest sentence in Hollywood is ‘I’m in.’”
Then there was the following description of his relationship with Samuel L. Jackson, the actor who, as Feinberg pointed out, enjoys a degree of leeway with Tarantino’s dialogue like no other actor.
“When I’m writing dialogue, I’m writing music, I’m writing poetry, I’m writing a little hip-hop, and I’m writing stand-up comedy. And life. I’m really trying to capture the cadence of real life,” he explained in a measured tone. “So when he says the dialogue, I hear the music. When he says the dialogue, I hear poetry. When he says the dialogue, I hear the comedy, I hear the hip-hop, I hear the rhythm.”
Tarantino touched upon not wanting to be a “flareball” in explaining his decision to adapt the Elmore Leonard novel that became Jackie Brown. He also described his relationship with Uma Thurman as “I was Leone, and she was my Eastwood,” referring to the classic cinematic collaboration between director Sergio Leone and then-Western actor Clint Eastwood.
He opened up about being hurt when faced with really his only box office disappointment with Deathproof and the Robert Rodriguez double feature Grindhouse. “It felt at the time like the moviegoing audience was my girlfriend and my girlfriend broke up with me,” he said, before going on to say he sought out the advice and support of two filmmakers, Tony Scott and Steven Spielberg.
Tarantino faced another internal crisis when planning Django Unchained and wondering if he should shoot on an actual plantation and what kind of trauma he could upend by hiring actors to play slaves and slave owners. He even considered shooting in Brazil to avoid the situation. Ultimately, it was Sidney Poitier, when the two had dinner, who said, “It seems to me you are afraid of your own movie. You need to get over that, and you need to man up.”
When Fienberg asked Tarantino if his much-talked about and eventual 10th movie really will be his last, the filmmaker said, “That’s the plan. We’ll see.”
The filmmaker also said he would likely not tackle a once-talked about movie centered on abolitionist John Brown. He mused what the term “Tarantino-esque” means to him (“I just assume it’s a crime story with a bunch of wiseasses”), and revealed he thinks that ‘writer’s block’ is a myth.
Among the attendees at the gala who also heard tales of growing up in El Segundo were Tarantino’s mother Connie McHugh, longtime agent Mike Simpson, Sony Pictures chief Tom Rothman, and Christian Madsen, the son of late actor and Tarantino collaborator Michael Madsen.