The only actor Quentin Tarantino admitted he was wrong to hate: “I stopped being prejudiced”
This won’t come as a shock to anyone, but there are a lot of actors that Quentin Tarantino doesn’t like. However, in what will come as a shock to everyone, he did walk back his criticisms about one of them.
Having spent the last 30+ years operating under the impression that his word is law when it comes to what he does or doesn’t like, the two-time Academy Award winner admitting that he had an erroneous opinion on anything is quite the about-turn, given his increasingly nauseating and outspoken nature.
It’s unlikely that he’ll climb down from his high horse and cop to being the only person in Hollywood who thinks Paul Dano is crap at his job, and the chances are slim that he’ll suddenly come to the realisation that Matthew Lillard is arguably due more credit than he gets, or that Owen Wilson is actually pretty good.
Those are only the three most recent targets of his hire, with Tarantino’s dismissal of thespians from throughout cinema history becoming a key part of his barbed repertoire. You can forgive him for thinking that Lawrence Tierney was a dick, since everyone involved in Reservoir Dogs was of the same mind, but sometimes he’s ended up attacking people for no reason.
Did poor Miles Chapin, who isn’t even an actor anymore, deserve to have an entire paragraph dedicated to him in Cinema Speculation, where he’s described as “an actor I’ve always been allergic to”? Unless you hate the guy on the same level as Tarantino, then probably not. Of course, directors are just as likely to get it in the neck from the Pulp Fiction maestro as the folks they’re directing, but he can admit when he’s wrong.
It’s only happened once so far, and it’s not going to become a regular thing if history is any indication, but it does at least show a tiny modicum of personal growth. “This is something that I learned, and it’s a special thing,” he informed Elvis Mitchell. “I stopped being prejudiced against actors I don’t think I like. You know, I have these preconceptions, preconceived notions of an actor: ‘Nah, I don’t like Fred MacMurray at that time. I don’t like Fred MacMurray at all.'”
MacMurray may not be one of the silver screen’s most indelible stars, but he nonetheless appeared in over 100 features, won a Golden Globe for ‘Best Actor – Musical or Comedy’ in 1961’s The Absent-Minded Professor, and, thanks to his long association with the ‘Mouse House’, he was named the first-ever Disney Legend in 1987. “All right, maybe The Shaggy Dog, but that’s it,” Tarantino elaborated. “You know, I don’t want to see him in fucking movies in 1933 when he was a stud. Fuck that shit, you know? I mean, he’s a good example.”
After exposing himself to many lesser-known films from the 1930s and 1940s, though, he was a changed man. “You preconceived notion really is based on very little; very, very, very, very little,” he pontificated. “And I realised that in many of the cases, I was wrong. They actually did have something to offer. There was something interesting about them. Maybe not in the cherry-picked movies that have survived.”
Being Quentin Tarantino, it was always going to be a name that many modern audiences have never heard of, never mind are familiar with. And yet, it’s a rare honour, coming from him: Fred MacMurray, your alleged crimes against cinema have been forgiven, and a full pardon has been issued.
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