10 actors who declined roles in Quentin Tarantino movies
Since making his directorial debut with the cult classic Reservoir Dogs in 1992, Quentin Tarantino has grafted his way through a truly remarkable cinematic career. His unmistakable style of screenwriting and direction creates a sense of familiarity in each of his movies, no matter how thematically disparate.
With a filmography consisting of nine movies to date, Tarantino has blazed a much-followed trail distinguished by dark comedy, exaggerated violence, and a recurring ensemble cast of A-listers. Whether he’s exploring tales of vengeance set in the old American West or satirising Hollywood’s Golden Age, Tarantino’s pictures never fail to entertain.
Reservoir Dogs saw Tarantino work with several of his recurring cast members for the first time, including Harvey Keitel and Michael Madsen. The latter has since appeared in several major Tarantino roles but had to pass on the director’s 1994 masterpiece, Pulp Fiction. Unfortunately, when the knock came, the actor had just signed up to work on Lawrence Kasdan’s Wyatt Earp.
Madsen reflected on the missed opportunity in the 2019 documentary QT8: The First Eight. “I was already committed to Wyatt Earp,” he said. “And now, here’s Quentin, wants me to do Pulp Fiction. And they were both going at the same time.”
Continuing, Madsen appeared reconciled by the comeback his absence allowed for John Travolta. “Isn’t it true that part of John Travolta being in it, it became John’s comeback?” he added. “He was doing movies about talking babies! And suddenly, he’s Vincent Vega! He had that wig on. No one had seen Travolta with a fucking gun. That’s a huge, huge, huge reason why the movie worked.”
In the early 2010s, Tarantino began to gear up for his sixth feature, Django Unchained. The cast was ultimately chock-full of stars, but there were several huge names that passed it by. Before Jamie Foxx took on the titular role, Tarantino approached Will Smith and reportedly had later-abandoned roles fleshed out with Sacha Baron Cohen, Kevin Costner and Kurt Russell in mind.
In 2015, Tarantino released his gripping western mystery, The Hateful Eight. Once again, the movie was propelled by a water-tight cast, but it certainly would have taken on a different tone had the Hunger Games star Jennifer Lawrence taken the role of the crazy prisoner Daisy Domergue or Vigo Mortensen portrayed her loyal brother, Jody.
Although he was desperate to work with Tarantino, Mortensen had to step aside for Channing Tatum to take the role as he was busy promoting Jauja and Far From Men at the time. “I knew as a producer and an actor that I needed to do that for those movies to have a chance to be seen,” Mortensen told Grantland. “Quentin wanted to start shooting at the end of the year and do a rehearsal before that, and I just couldn’t do that schedule-wise.”
See our list of the ten major stars who had to decline major roles in Quentin Tarantino movies below.
Actors who rejected Quentin Tarantino:
- Michael Madsen: Vincent Vega in Pulp Fiction
- Warren Beatty: Bill in Kill Bill
- Sylvester Stallone: Louis in Jackie Brown and Mike McKay in Death Proof
- Adam Sandler: Sgt. Donny Donowitz in Inglorious Basterds
- Will Smith: Django in Django Unchained
- Sacha Baron Cohen: Scott Harmony in Django Unchained
- Kevin Costner: Ace Woody in Django Unchained
- Kurt Russell: Ace Woody in Django Unchained
- Viggo Mortensen: Jody Domergue in The Hateful Eight
- Jennifer Lawrence: Daisy Domergue in The Hateful Eight
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