Quentin Tarantino’s 10 favourite actors of all time
The mind behind such films as Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Inglorious Bastards and Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, Quentin Tarantino rose to fame in the mid-1990s and remains one of the film world’s most revered auteurs. Below, we’ve put together a list of his favourite actors of all time, which, as you’ll see, reads like the cast sheet for the greatest movie ever made.
Featuring naturalistic dialogue, memorable characters and lashings of hyper-violence, Tarantino’s filmography reflects an encyclopedic knowledge of film history from its luminous beginnings to its dazzling present. This profound understanding of what makes great films work is matched only by his intimate knowledge of what makes his actors tick.
Tarantino has spent the last 30 years forging long-standing creative partnerships with performers. Samuel L. Jackson, Brad Pitt, Tim Roth: Tarantino knows each of them inside out. He knows what they’re capable of, whether they’re spontaneous or systematic, what they require from their costars and how best to communicate with them.
By surrounding himself with people he trusts and respects, Tarantino creates the best possible environment for what he needs to achieve, allowing for a level of focus and tranquillity unknown to first-time directors. It also makes the actor’s life much easier. Tarantino is known for being a bit of a loose cannon, so it must be helpful to know where you stand.
Quentin Tarantino’s 10 favourite actors:
Nicolas Cage
It is fair to say that Nicolas Cage has had a strange career since he began acting in the 1980s. Before landing leading roles in Raising Arizona and Moonstruck, the actor was lucky to score a few minor roles in his uncle Francis Ford Coppola’s films, such as Rumble Fish and The Cotton Club. Since then, Cage has appeared in some great movies, such as Wild at Heart, and some equally terrible ones, like the poorly-received 2006 remake of The Wicker Man.
Regardless of Cage’s interesting casting choices, Tarantino believes he possesses “fearlessness”. He told Jim Hoberman: “I don’t think that I’ve ever seen another actor in the history of film that made a career of being miscast and rising to the occasion.”
Robert De Niro
Robert De Niro rose to prominence in the 1970s, starring in some of the decade’s most acclaimed films, including Mean Streets, The Godfather Part II, and Taxi Driver. De Niro has only continued to collect more impressive roles as the years have progressed, leading films such as Raging Bull and Goodfellas.
Tarantino is a big fan of the actor, going as far as to dub him “the best actor in the world” in an interview with Charlie Rose. Referring to directing De Niro in Jackie Brown, he explained: “I’ve never seen an actor so completely consume himself in character, in true character work during the work.” The director stated, “He deserves his reputation as probably the greatest actor of his generation.”
Samuel L. Jackson
Jackson and Tarantino knew one another long before Pulp Fiction. The actor actually auditioned for Reservoir Dogs but failed to impress the director. Tarantino very nearly didn’t cast him in Pulp Fiction either, but Harvey Keitel convinced him to give the actor one more shot.
In a 1994 Cannes Film Festival interview, Tarantino explained how Jackson came into his own on the set of Pulp Fiction. “I knew he gave off an incredible feeling of power and that, if given the possibility, he could express this Richard III side of himself that he has in the film.” Jackson went on to star in Jackie Brown and Django Unchained and remains firmly associated with Tarantino’s filmography. “There’s just something very natural in our connection in terms of his art and my talent that mesh in a beautiful and wonderful and creative, joyous, ecstatic, orgasmic kinda way,” the actor said of Tarantino in an interview for Masterclass.
Harvey Keitel
Described by the director as his “favourite actor in the world,” Harvey Keitel is a longtime collaborator with whom Tarantino has worked since 1992’s Palme d’Or-winner Reservoir Dogs. Tarantino was originally going to cast his friends in the picture, but when Keitel read the script, he was so enthusiastic about the project he immediately signed on as co-producer.
“The only person who was pre-cast in the movie was Harvey Keitel,” Tarantino explained at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival. “As I told you, we never dreamed we’d be able to get Harvey. Understand, he’s my favourite actor in the world. I don’t mean because I worked with him, and he’s a nice guy, and I’ve seen [myself] what he’s capable of. I was fifteen years old, and I saw him in Taxi Driver and The Duellist,” the director continued. “I’ve seen Harvey’s performance as the terrorist in [James Toback’s] Exposed. Oh, he’s wonderful in that. He gives such a wonderful speech about terrorism that he completely convinces you.”
Michael Parks
Another favourite of Tarantino’s is Michael Parks, who had a leading role in the show Then Came Bronson between 1969 and 1970. The actor recorded multiple albums in the 1960s with MGM before Hollywood unofficially blacklisted him, leading him to predominantly star in independent movies. However, he gained recognition in the 1980s and 1990s following roles in Twin Peaks and Robert Rodriguez’s From Dusk Till Dawn, written by Tarantino.
Parks collaborated with Tarantino again in Kill Bill and its sequel, as well as Grindhouse and Django Unchained. The director told Hoberman, “I’m a big fan of wild behavioural actors. I think Michael Parks is one of the greatest actors that’s ever been produced in our lifetime! He ruined most of the breaks he got.”
Sean Penn
Star of the famously terrible Shanghai Surprise (1986) and the Oscar-nominated Sweet and Lowdown (1999), Sean Penn has done it all. As well as starring in a heap of iconic movies, he’s the director of films such as The Indian Runner, The Crossing Guard and Into The Wild. Penn was also responsible for providing Tarantino with the inspiration behind Death Proof.
The director has frequently praised Penn for his acting, highlighting “sheer sexual violence, charisma”. A devout follower of the Stanislavski method, Penn’s unhinged energy has occasionally leaked into real life, with the actor assaulting John Leguizamo on the set of Casualties of War.
Chris Pine
Tarantino’s love for Chris Pine, best known for his role as James T. Kirk in the recent Star Trek film series, might surprise some of the director’s fans. Yet, Tarantino believes him to be one of the best actors of his generation. On an episode of The Rewatchables, he discussed the 2010 film Unstoppable, which features Pine alongside Denzel Washington. He said: “I am a huge Chris Pine fan. Now, to me, of the actors of his age, he’s hands down my favourite – of that group, of that era, of those guys.”
The filmmaker even went as far as to suggest that if he had the right part, he would gladly offer Pine a role in one of his films. Pine’s experience as a star of action and thriller movies certainly makes him a viable contender for a role in a future Tarantino movie.
Brad Pitt
The star of Inglorious Basterds and Once Upon A Time In America, Brad Pitt has brought some of Tarantino’s best characters to life, with the director once comparing the actor to “big-screen movie stars,” like “Paul Newman, Robert Redford, and Steve McQueen.”
“He suggests an older-style movie star,” Tarantino added. “It’s just a different breed of man. And frankly, I don’t think you can describe exactly what that is because it’s like describing starshine.”
“He’s really good-looking,” he continued. “He’s also really masculine and he’s also really hip; he gets the joke. But the thing that only the directors that work with Brad and the actors that act opposite him really know, what he’s so incredibly talented at, is his ability to really understand the scene. He might not be able to articulate it, but he has an instinctive understanding about it.”
Tim Roth
Phillip Roth’s first Tarantino feature was Reservoir Dogs, followed by Pulp Fiction in 1994, Four Rooms in 1995 and The Hateful Eight in 2018. Apparently, the actor was initially reluctant to audition for the role of Mr. Orange because he was “crap” at auditions. Bowled over by Tarantino’s script, he decided to give it a shot anyway. “Within 20 pages, I was going, ‘Oh, I want to be in this,’” he said. “It’s so beautifully written. It’s so keenly and intelligently written. And it’s also very funny.”
When asked to name some of his favourite actors, Tarantino selected Roth based on his “versatility and ferociousness,” also praising his “chameleon quality”. You can check out Roth’s iconic Reservoir Dogs deaths scene below.
Tura Satana
Japanese-American actor Tura Satana is one of Tarantino’s most beloved actors, known for her role in the exploitation film Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!. She was also a popular exotic dancer and a skilled stunt performer. Tarantino has frequently expressed his love for exploitation films, so it is no surprise that Satana is a personal favourite of his.
Satana passed away in 2011, meaning she and Tarantino never got the chance to work with each other. In 2004, he told Entertainment Weekly, “As much as I want to live a long time – like, I want to live to 100 – I would give up five years of my life to work with Tura Satana.”
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