The icon Quentin Tarantino modelled his entire career on: “He’s my hero”
When Quentin Tarantino changed the face of independent cinema in the early 1990s, he found himself the talk of the town in Hollywood. Suddenly, the motormouthed young writer and director was being approached to work on huge studio movies and well-known IP projects, but he knew he had to tread very carefully if he was going to have the kind of career he envisioned for himself. In truth, he modelled his career philosophy after his hero in the movie business – a man who always prided integrity over accepting a big paycheque.
After Pulp Fiction became the first independent movie in history to make $200million, Tarantino realised he’d achieved most of his career goals in his early 30s. He had always possessed an unshakeable belief in himself, though, so his success didn’t surprise him; he simply attained it quicker than he anticipated. In 1997, he told The New York Times Magazine, “I always thought that through a body of work, I’d get to a place where I’d be respected. My work would matter, and I’d have my place in film history. I always figured I would make a splash. I just didn’t think I’d get to where I wanted to go in two movies.”
During this period, Tarantino became the go-to guy for studios looking to add some indie cred to their blockbusters. He revealed: “After Reservoir Dogs, all the studios thought, ‘Wow, that’s a good film. This guy is a very exciting filmmaker.’ And you could tell they were thinking, ‘If we match this guy with more commercial subject matter, he can bat it out of the park.'”
The ever-confident Tarantino grinned, “And they’d be right, by the way.”
Within this feeding frenzy, Tarantino accepted uncredited script doctor roles on action movies like The Rock and Crimson Tide. However, he turned down Hollywood’s big money offers to direct projects that would go on to be enormous hits. He admitted, “Speed was offered to me. Speed was originally supposed to be an independent-type action film…Then the other real big movie offered to me was Men in Black. I never even read it.”
Tarantino knew that, if he wanted it, the riches of Hollywood were there for the taking. He reasoned that if the going rate for directors of big studio films at that time was $6m, he could probably talk them up to $10m because he had so much heat at the time. He didn’t want to be that guy, though. For one thing, he worried it would start to make him care more about money than his art, but he also felt it was a sign of “greed that will ultimately kill the business.”
Instead of cashing in on his profile, Tarantino revealed that he planned to emulate a true Hollywood legend. He said, “My hero when it comes to taking care of himself and owning his stuff is Clint Eastwood. That’s who I pattern my entire business after.”
Tarantino felt Eastwood had cracked the code with his directorial work. He would take a fairly modest fee for directing and would keep his budgets on the lower end, too. However, the Dirty Harry icon would ensure it was written into his contract that he would make more money on the back of the film’s box-office returns. As Tarantino put it, “He takes short money when he works for Warner Brothers, brings the movies in for a price, and, goddamn it, when they make money, he gets paid. He’s my hero.“
This approach has always meant Tarantino has creative control over his movies and doesn’t have to serve the whims of a studio or an intellectual property. He also has skin in the game, which means if his films do well, he does well.
Eastwood was right – it is the perfect business model for a director like Tarantino.
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