The iconic actor who has always turned Quentin Tarantino down
Quentin Tarantino has worked with some of the most talented actors in the world, ranging from Robert De Niro to Leonardo DiCaprio. After Tarantino announced that he was planning on making one last film, many big names within the film industry expressed their interest in collaborating with the acclaimed director before he retired.
While most actors would jump at the opportunity to star in a Quentin Tarantino film, a few stars have rejected the director over the years. While many of Tarantino’s preferred candidates for his unique roles do not get the parts, it’s rarely because they didn’t like the role. Instead, the vision he has of his characters remains only half-finished, completed by the actor who finally takes them on. These include Adam Sandler, who refused the chance to play the role of the ‘Bear Jew’ in Inglourious Basterds and Will Smith, who passed on Django Unchained, among others.
Although most of these actors only turned down Tarantino on one occasion, one iconic Hollywood star has passed on the director’s offers multiple times. That figure is none other than Sylvester Stallone, who declined the opportunity to star in Tarantino’s 1997 gem Jackie Brown and his 2007 work Death Proof. Though they may not be considered the ultimate Tarantino releases, they certainly have enough cultural sway to make them interesting to Stallone.
Tarantino has wanted to cast Stallone for a while now, but the actor felt that Tarantino’s brand of cinematic violence was not right for his legacy. Considering the huge box office potential the collaboration could hold and the juggernaut Tarantino would have written for Stallone, there are a few reasons audiences would want to see them work with one another. But things aren’t always perfect and the two also clash when the director tries to convince Stallone to kill off Rambo (as in the book), but Stallone wants to preserve his character and his cinematic legacy.
The actor said: “In the book, Rambo gets killed. I thought it was not the proper message. There had been close to 200,000 suicides by returning Vietnam vets. I said, ‘Why don’t we take him right to the edge without annihilating him?’ Quentin Tarantino said, ‘You’re a coward, you should have killed him!’ I said, ‘Quentin, you’re a lunatic. I want to do some sequels, brother'”.
When asked about Tarantino’s offers to cast him, Stallone responded: “Yeah, two. The De Niro part in Jackie Brown” It’s one of Tarantino’s more significant contributions to cinema. But that’s not it, “And Grindhouse, the part Kurt Russell did—I said, ‘There’s no way. I have two daughters, and this fellow, his hobby is putting teenagers in his car and smashing them into a wall. That’s not going to work'”.
Although Stallone did not agree with Tarantino’s vision for Rambo, the director has spoken about his own plans for the series. Last year, Tarantino claimed that he wanted to make an adaptation of David Morrell’s book First Blood, in which he wanted to cast Adam Driver as Rambo and Kurt Russell as the sheriff. If that becomes Tarantino’s final film, all bets are off.
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