Mickey Rourke’s decision to reject ‘Pulp Fiction’: “I didn’t even read the script”
After introducing himself as one of the most daring and original new voices in American cinema with Reservoir Dogs, any actor worth their salt would have at the very least listened to what Quentin Tarantino had to say when he came knocking at their door with the script for Pulp Fiction.
It may have only been his second feature as a director, but his debut displayed enough for audiences and industry figures alike to know that the wunderkind wasn’t going to be a flash in the pan. The labyrinthine crime thriller is admittedly immaculately cast from top to bottom, but it wasn’t easy settling on the ensemble.
John Travolta’s renaissance only began because Michael Madsen opted to star in Wyatt Earp and Harvey Weinstein’s desire to have Daniel Day-Lewis play Vic Vega fell on deaf ears, but Tarantino had enough clout post-Reservoir Dogs to recruit Samuel L. Jackson, Uma Thurman, Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, and Amanda Plummer, all of whom were his first choices.
In terms of star power at the time Pulp Fiction began production in September 1993, Bruce Willis was arguably the biggest name in the cast, but he wasn’t always intended to be Butch Coolidge. Tarantino’s first port of call was Mickey Rourke, who’d only recently returned to acting after growing so disillusioned with the world of cinema that he decided being punched in the face for a living was a better option.
However, as Rourke admitted to The Daily Mail, the thought of having to audition was something his ego simply couldn’t abide, causing him to reject it flat-out. “Quentin Tarantino called once, I think it was for Pulp Fiction, the part Bruce Willis played,” he said. “I didn’t even read the script. I allowed myself to get proud and angry because I could do the acting. I thought I’d have to be dead not to fucking work.”
Instead of Pulp Fiction, Rourke’s solitary screen credit in 1994 was F.T.W., a drama he also co-wrote, where he stars as an ex-con and rodeo rider who ends up falling for a woman on the run after robbing a bank. Meanwhile, the screenplay he didn’t even bother reading ended up winning an Academy Award and the movie he could have starred in became one of the most influential of the decade.
Not that it soured Tarantino on Rourke forever, though, with the filmmaker admitting that when he was writing Death Proof, “My first choice was Mickey Rourke” before his representatives “started fucking with us.” He also worked with Tarantino’s close friend and creative collaborator Robert Rodriguez in Once Upon a Time in Mexico, Sin City, and its sequel A Dame to Kill for, so it was all water under the bridge in the long run.
