The only actor Quentin Tarantino built a shrine to: “How can you not respond to that?”
Few people in the world love movies as much as Quentin Tarantino. The iconic Reservoir Dogs director became famous not only for his uniquely talky, violent, and pop-culture-savvy movies but also for his deep, abiding obsession with film.
His story of transitioning from video rental store uber-geek to one of modern cinema’s most singular auteurs helped establish a persona that has lasted to this day, and over the years, Tarantino has always been happy to wax lyrical about the films, actors, and cultural relics he loves. For example, he once proudly showed a journalist his shrine to one of the 1980s biggest stars – which he declined to tell that actor about when they later worked together.
In 1994, not long after the all-conquering release of Pulp Fiction, Tarantino welcomed Rolling Stone into his West Hollywood bachelor pad. At this time, he was 31 years old, single, and enjoying his first few years as a famous movie director. Hence, the apartment wasn’t decorated like most plush, stylish LA celebrity homes would be. Instead, it looked like a messy student apartment – if that student happened to have enough money to fill it floor to ceiling with all the movie memorabilia he’d always wanted to buy as a kid.
“I’ve been collecting all this shit for years,” Tarantino grinned. “Then I finally decided I wanted to start collecting something new. At first, I chose lunch boxes, but…they’re just too fucking expensive. And as for dolls, well, you can’t have much fun with them. You have to keep them in the box. So, I started with board games.” The nerd supremo then showed off his Dawn of the Dead and The Dukes of Hazzard board games. His prized game, though, was Universe, which he claimed was the nearest the world ever came to getting a 2001: A Space Odyssey board game.
Naturally, Tarantino also had a collection of video tapes in his bedroom substantial enough that the interviewer joked he could recreate his past by opening his own rental shop. It was filled with everything from arthouse fare to blaxploitation movies and obscure crime pictures like Ma Barker’s Killer Brood. However, the thing that caught the journalist’s eye the most was what took pride of place above Tarantino’s fireplace. To their amazement, it could only have been described as a shrine to John Travolta.
Even before Tarantino resurrected Travolta’s career with Pulp Fiction, he was always open about his love of the Saturday Night Fever star, which dates back to his tenure as Vinnie Barbarino on the ’70s sitcom Welcome Back, Kotter. He’d tell anyone who would listen about the “total brilliance” of Travolta’s work in Brian De Palma’s Blow Out, and for years, it frustrated him when the star’s career fell into the doldrums.
“John’s a real sweetheart, and we became friends,” Tarantino revealed. “I just gave John a role like the ones he used to do, and I took him seriously. But getting to know John, I can sort of see why he did all those Look Who’s Talking baby movies, because that character is kind of similar to who he is in real life – he’s this kind of goofy, charming kind of guy.”
When Travolta first met Tarantino, he was charmed by his “acute joy” for cinema, and he claimed that the director’s set was the most fun he had ever been on. As for finding out about Tarantino’s dedication to his work, Travolta chuckled, “How can you not respond to that? It was swiftly and clearly articulated to me what I meant to him growing up and what I meant – in certain performances – to a whole generation.”
The interviewer then asked the all-important question: did Tarantino tell Travolta about the monument to him hanging above his mantlepiece? “No, I didn’t tell John about the shrine,” Tarantino grinned. “But I did bring along my Vinnie Barbarino doll so he could sign it for me.”
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