How Bruce Willis landed his role in Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Pulp Fiction’
The 1990s proved to be one of the most important decades for American cinema, and Quentin Tarantino was at the centre of it all. Through works like Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction and Jackie Brown, Tarantino helped reshape the cinematic landscape at a time when it needed it the most. The ’90s movie that continues to be synonymous with Tarantino’s legacy as a filmmaker is Pulp Fiction, starring the likes of Uma Thurman, Samuel L. Jackson and Bruce Willis.
Featuring a postmodern philosophical framework and a non-linear narrative structure, Pulp Fiction is the perfect nihilistic portrait of America and its complicated relationship with violence. Although it’s almost impossible to imagine the film without its central cast, Tarantino’s initial ideas about casting were somewhat different. In fact, Willis wasn’t even on the shortlist for the role of Butch, which he had actually written for Matt Dillon.
During an appearance on the 2 Bears, 1 Cave podcast, the director explained how that changed after he ran into Willis at a party. Tarantino said: “I’ve never met him before. And it turns out he is a HUGE fan of Reservoir Dogs. I mean, HUGE fan. He goes like, ‘If I had read Reservoir Dogs, I would have been in Reservoir Dogs, I would have agreed to do it, you know’. And he goes, ‘Oh, it’s one of my favourites, me and my buddies, we watch it all the time. We know the dialogue by heart. We do the dialogue with each other.’ Wow, that’s really amazing.”
Having asked his agent for the screenplay of Pulp Fiction, Willis approached Tarantino with the intention to play the role of Vincent Vega. While Tarantino had already set the part aside for John Travolta, the Die Hard star wouldn’t back down so easily. Willis’ agent tried negotiating with Tarantino too, but the Reservoir Dogs director had no intention of betraying Travolta. After unsuccessfully requesting to play the rule of Jules Winnfield, Tarantino told him to try imagining himself as Butch.
The American auteur added: “I would just ask you to read the script one more time with the idea of you playing Butch. And if you don’t respond. But I would just ask you to read it with the other characters out of your head and that character in your mind. And if you don’t respond, you don’t respond.’ And he goes, ‘Okay, I’ll do that, I can do that. I’ll do that tonight. Call me tomorrow.’ And so he did that, and then he called me the next day. And he said, ‘Quentin. The shortest sentence in the bible is: Jesus wept. The shortest sentence in Hollywood is ‘I’m in. And I’m in.’”
It turned out that casting Willis as Butch was the right call because he ended up delivering one of his most iconic performances. Drawing from movies like Nightfall and Kiss Me Deadly, he was brilliant as a boxer past his prime who was on the run from a dangerous crime boss. Willis, who had been getting negative critical comments for his recent projects, proved once again that he had the skills to act alongside the very best.
Watch the full interview below.
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