Quentin Tarantino on meeting Martin Scorsese for the first time: “I wanna hide under the carpet”
They say never meet your idols. But for Quentin Tarantino, it was impossible not to. By 1995, the director’s name was on everyone’s lips, largely thanks to the success of 1992’s Reservoir Dogs, which premiered at that year’s Sundance Film Festival and quickly became the most-talked-about film of the season. Suddenly, Tarantino was being approached to make everything from Speed to Men In Black, both of which he turned down. What he really wanted to do was to hunker down and work on his next movie, Pulp Fiction.
The 1994 picture earned Tarantino Oscar nominations for ‘Best Picture’ and ‘Best Director’, securing him the Academy Award for ‘Best Original Screenplay’ and the coveted Palme d’Or at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival. At last, he was in the big leagues, rubbing shoulders with some of the most celebrated directors in the world, including the great Martin Scorsese.
Tarantino and Scorsese met for the first time in 1995, by which time Marty had started work on his epic crime drama Casino, starring Robert De Niro, Sharon Stone, Joe Pesci, Don Rickles, Kevin Pollak, and James Woods. It tells the story of Sam ‘Ace’ Rothstein, a young mobster who gets recruited to head up his boss’s illegal casino, the Tangiers. As his relationship with his hot-headed enforcer Nicky Sontoro, his ex-wife Ginger and the corrupt politicians who frequent the casino become increasingly strained, Sam is put in ever more danger.
“I was acting in a movie in vegas, and it just turned out that, during that time, Martin Scorsese was doing Casino,” Tarantino recalled [quotes via Outstanding Screenplays]. “And I’d never really met Martin Scorsese before. And so I got an invite to visit the set of Casino.“
Tarantino could barely contain his excitement. “This is right up there with the gates of oz opening,” he remembered thinking, “and I’m going to meet the wizard”. But before he could shake hands with Scorsese, Tarantino found himself face to face with Don Rickles, who’d been hired to play Billy Sherbert, the head of security at the Tangiers Casino.
“So I’m walking to meet the wizard, i’m walking on the set, they kind of see me, and then Don Rickles goes, ‘Quentin, thank God you’re here. This guy [Scorsese] doesn’t know what he’s doing at all. Thank god a real director has finally shown up – this cat is out of it. Please save – this is a disaster. It’s a disaster! – please save us from this wreckage. You are a talented man. We need your talent.”
Mortified, Tarantino turned to see the whole cast and crew in hysterics. “Marty is laughing; the crew is laughing; De Niro is laughing. [But] I wanna hide under the carpet.” And that’s how Quentin Tarantino was introduced to Martin Scorsese.
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