In writer/director Quentin Tarantino’s career, the filmmaker has really only handled one major adaptation with “Jackie Brown.” That1997 film was adapted from the novel “Rum Punch” by Elmore Leonard, the same author that wrote the string of books that the show “Justified” is based on (Tarantino in talks to direct episodes for its new incarnation). “Jackie Brown” is considered one of the filmmaker’s more patient and mature outings. His rock-star status at the time allowed Tarantino to hire actors that weren’t huge box office draws and revive the careers of Pam Grier and Robert Forester.
Comedian and “Real Time” host Bill Maher has launched a new podcast called Club Random, where he recently spoke with Tarantino about “Jackie Brown.” When the subject of using his “rock star director” power to revive the careers of actors by simply putting them in his movies came up—a topic they spent a lot of time discussing, Tarantino’s power at the time to make those kinds of bold choices— the filmmaker mused about an unnamed film financier pressing him about regretting not hiring bigger stars for the lead roles and Tarantino had a solid response.
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“I remember way after I did ‘Jackie Brown’ some time before ‘Kill Bill,’ I was on some flight with a famous film financier, an international guy,” Tarantino said, recalling the story. “He goes ‘Tarantino, let me ask you a question. Now that everything is said and done, do you wish when it came to ‘Jackie Brown’ that you had not have done it with Pam Grier and Robert Forester but had hired bigger stars?.’ And I go, ‘Well, we made $30 million dollars with a movie starring Pam Grier and Robert Forester. I thought that was pretty fucking good.’ His point, though, he goes, ‘That’s all you,’ well great! I can make a movie with them, and it can do well because I made it? That’s the reason to be f*cking famous.”
Maher then asked a follow-up about what big stars of the day he would have selected for the leading roles had he wanted to use big names around 1997, and Tarantino immediately responded without hesitation.
“Oh, yeah, It would have been Angela Bassett and Robert De Niro,” Tarantino said of this alternative universe casting. Tarantino doesn’t elaborate on that, but given the speed of his response, it seems both what the Miramax might have wanted at the time and something he at least considered if he were to cast it with the biggest stars of that moment.
De Niro, of course, was eventually cast in the supporting role of Louis Gara. Still, it’s interesting to hear the director consider him for Forester’s bail bondsman character Max Cherry, even if just as a hypothetical. Bassett and De Niro worked together on the 2001 crime flick film “The Score,” so at least that pairing happened. Listen to Club Random below, but be warned, it’s kind of a long, self-congratulatory slog with many problematic moments, too, thanks to Maher (mostly) and an open and obvious preponderance of marijuana and booze.