Quentin Tarantino discusses the greatest actor “of his era”
Known for his loyalty when casting some of his favourite actors, Quentin Tarantino has persistently picked the likes of Uma Thurman, Samuel L. Jackson, Christoph Waltz and Leonardo DiCaprio to perform in his movies. It’s no wonder that, given Tarantino’s stature in the film industry, he has access to contacting some of the biggest names in the game.
The benefit of Tarantino employing someone like Samuel L. Jackson in several of his movies is that one gets the sense of knowing that a high-quality performance will feature. Jackson played the likes of Jules Winnfield in Pulp Fiction, Ordell Robbie in Jackie Brown and Stephen Warren in Django Unchained with equal excellence, always cementing his place as one of Tarantino’s favourite actors.
A few years back, Tarantino was discussing the 2010 film Unstoppable during an episode of The Rewatchables and revealed a surprising claim for the best actor “of his era”. The director said: “I think one of the things that’s exciting about the movie is I am a huge Chris Pine fan.”
The American disaster action flick sees Pine star alongside Denzel Washington and tells of the real-life CSX 8888 incident, in which a runaway train was loaded with hazardous chemicals and ran uncontrolled for two hours at 51 miles per hour back in May 2001. Pine and Washington play the two men tasked with stopping it in its tracks.
Tarantino continued: “Now, to me, of the actors of his age, he’s hands down my favourite – of that group, of that era, of those guys. I think a case can be made that Pine hasn’t taken the next big leap from Unstoppable. Frankly, to tell you the truth, he’s been good in other movies [but] he hasn’t had that.”
Pine’s career began on television, with his first role in a 2003 episode of ER, and the same year he also appeared in episodes of The Guardian and CSI: Miami. Some small film roles followed, but Pine came to the public’s attention in 2009 when he starred as Captain James Kirk in the 2009 reboot of the Star Trek franchise.
Pine is yet to star in a Tarantino movie, but according to the legendary director’s claims, it looks like he would like nothing more than to cast him. Hopefully, for the pair of them, Pine will soon get the chance. “I’m the biggest fan of him,” Tarantino said, “So if I had the right part, I would – I’d like to.”
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