Quentin Tarantino names cinema’s only three “sustainable” countries, and why the UK isn’t one of them
Even though he’s cast a few of them in his films, it’s not the most ridiculous leap in logic to suggest that Quentin Tarantino has a problem with British actors, whether he’s willing to admit it or not.
Based on their frequent collaborations, Tim Roth would be the exception to the rule. For the most part, even though Hollywood has been awash with stars from the United Kingdom for decades, Tarantino will very rarely hand any of them a significant part in any of his pictures.
He was even dead-set against the idea before he’d scrapped The Movie Critic, holding an entire nation’s thespians complicit in what he called “a really weird time” for the industry, where “it’s just all these British actors pretending to be Americans,” comparing them to “phantoms” for the way “nobody is acting in their own voice.”
Saying “I don’t want to cast a Brit” as the lead in his final film instantly excludes any number of talented actors from the equation, even if he’s more than likely to give the main role in whatever his swansong ends up being to somebody he’s worked with before, since it seems too much of a risk to do otherwise.
Then again, he does have a play set to debut in London’s West End, so he’s not entirely against the idea of using the country as a backdrop to one of his productions. Will he cast any British performers in any major parts? It can’t be ruled out, especially when it’s been described as a “swashbuckling comedy” set in 19th-century Europe, where there weren’t too many Americans about, relatively speaking.
He doesn’t even hold the local industry in the highest regard, either, although it does make you wonder if he’s got a point. “There are only three countries in the world with sustainable film industries: America, India, and Hong Kong,” he declared when serving as the jury president of the Cannes Film Festival.
The UK has been faring much better as of late than in the past, but the two-time Academy Award-winning filmmaker had a not-unreasonable explanation for why it couldn’t be the fourth. “What do these countries have in common?” he asked. “They each have a star system, actors that citizens of that country want to pay and see. At the end of the day, people go to see films to see stars.”
Meanwhile, according to Tarantino, “As soon as people become stars in Britain, they get the hell out of there and go to Hollywood.”
It’s a generalisation, but not an inaccurate one. America, India, and Hong Kong have plenty of local names who are viewed, treated, and embraced as superstars, but you can’t say he’s wrong that there’s nobody on that level in the UK: someone who only makes British movies in Britain that’s held on a higher pedestal than any other actor. It’s not necessarily unsustainable, but it’s not untrue.
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