The actor Quentin Tarantino called his very own John Wayne: “Some baggage can be very, very good”
Quentin Tarantino has worked with the same actors many times throughout his career. Like Wes Anderson, Christopher Nolan, and the Coen brothers, he has a core group of collaborators who have been almost as instrumental in shaping his cinematic style as he himself has. Samuel L Jackson, Michael Madsen, Harvey Keitel, and Tim Roth are intrinsic to his success, even if he is constantly labelled as some kind of omnipotent ‘auteur’.
In addition to this rotating ensemble of character actors, Tarantino likes to draw on cinematic history when making his casting decisions. As one of Hollywood’s most relentlessly enthusiastic and vocal film aficionados, he seems to relish the opportunity to cast Kurt Russell as a psychopathic tough guy or Leonardo DiCaprio as a former matinee idol going to seed. Of all of his casting choices, however, building his 1997 crime drama Jackie Brown around Pam Grier was his most nostalgic nod to the film nerds.
In the 1970s, Grier was the poster child of blaxploitation movies, a movement that capitalised on the Civil Rights Movement and the proliferation of gritty, low-budget exploitation flicks. Grier was one of the first female actors to be a true action star. Movies like 1971’s The Big Doll House, 1973’s Coffy, and 1974’s Foxy Brown put her ass-kicking charisma front and centre and made her an icon even during the peak of her stardom.
Tarantino’s Jackie Brown could never have existed in a vacuum, and he didn’t want it to. Grier’s persona would have dictated the script whether he intended it to or not, and by creating a title that didn’t even bother trying to differentiate itself from Foxy Brown, he made his intentions clear. In his film, Grier plays a flight attendant stuck between a ruthless drug kingpin and the drug enforcement wing of the Justice Department. As in all her films, she has to take matters into her own hands.
When asked about his decision to cast the ‘70s superstar, Tarantino compared her to one of the most recognisable figures of all time. “Pam is such an icon,” he told The Guardian in 1998. “To one degree or another, it is like casting John Wayne in a movie. You cast John Wayne in a western, you are not just dealing with this unknown figure walking in there that you have got to learn about.”
You are, he explained, bringing the person’s entire past to the table. In the case of Wayne (and Grier), that past is populated with a distinct type of character. “That is good baggage,” he continued. “Some baggage can be very, very good.”
Of course, there is a big difference between someone like Dirty Harry director Don Siegel casting John Wayne in The Shootist and Tarantino casting Grier in Jackie Brown. The Pulp Fiction director has often been accused of appropriating Blackness as an aesthetic, and Jackie Brown is just the tip of the iceberg. Still, Tarantino felt that he was actually righting a past injustice by returning to Grier’s blaxploitation roots, claiming that, in Jackie Brown, she gets to play a more human role.
“By casting Pam, I did term this in my mind to be a Pam Grier movie,” he said, “But it was a Pam Grier movie with its feet on the ground more.” This is something of a pot calling the kettle black situation. The history of blaxploitation movies is fraught, with many critics arguing that they perpetuated white stereotypes about Blackness. The same criticism has been levelled at Tarantino many times.
Never Miss A Take
The Far Out Quentin Tarantino Newsletter
All the latest Quentin Tarantino content from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.