How Michael Madsen got his legendary role in ‘Reservoir Dogs’
There’s not an actor on this Earth who is not worried about getting cold feet when they go into an interview. Some people might have enough experience to realise when they nail the right part or when things are going well, but the minute that the room turns cold and you aren’t sure of where to take the character, it can be like watching a deer in headlights trying to figure out what the hell to do. But even when he started his career, Michael Madsen began his acting gigs with a job to do and not one ounce of fear in his body.
When going through some of his first gigs, though, Madsen was going through the acting slog like any other aspiring kid in Hollywood. He would have a handful of recurring TV roles on shows like Miami Vice, but it wasn’t until WarGames that he got his first major break on the silver screen.
Although his iconic turns in Thelma and Louise and The Doors certified him as a charismatic character actor, he was always looking for the next major script that stuck out to him, and that’s when Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs came across his desk. Tarantino was already gaining a reputation for his work on other people’s movies, but if Madsen wanted to read for this film, he was determined to get it right.
But beyond the script, Madsen was always thinking practically when it came to his characters, and he knew he had found an ace in the hole with the role that would make him a star: Mr Pink. No, not Mr Blonde that everyone knows him for. He had his eye on Steve Buscemi’s character, and since he had more screentime, he knew he’d have more time to showcase his skills.
For someone working on his first major feature film, though, Madsen remembered nailing everything and still being given the shaft on Mr Pink, saying, “I made my case for playing Mr Pink, and Quentin said: ‘OK, show me what you got.’ For one of the only times in my life, I’d rehearsed the dialogue, so I did a couple of Mr Pink scenes. When I was done, Quentin looked at me and went: ‘Is that it? OK, good. You’re not Mr Pink. You’re Mr Blonde’”.
Things may have grown a little bit tense for some actors whenever Madsen came onto set, but it’s easy to see him owning every scene he’s in. While Stealers Wheel’s ‘Stuck in the Middle With You’ is one of the most iconic parts of the movie, watching Madsen as he prepares to brutally mutilate someone is absolutely terrifying. He already had the confidence as an actor, but when he inhabits that scene, it’s clear that Mr Blonde is approaching cutting off someone’s ear in the same way he has a cup of coffee in the morning.
Even if that first encounter was a little shaky, any of Tarantino’s masterpieces were set to be fantastic whenever Madsen was there. He might not have always been the centre of attention, but whenever he appeared in Once Upon a Time In Hollywood or The Hateful Eight, it didn’t matter what legends were next to him. He would make sure that he left everyone with their mouths on the floor.
Because for him, it wasn’t only about dressing up and playing for a living. He went out and worked for every single role he had, and even if it wasn’t as lucrative as Reservoir Dogs, he would much rather get paid for what he loved to do than have only a handful of film credits to his name.
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