Quentin Tarantino refused to admit Brad Pitt’s acting “genius”
When it comes to contemporary Hollywood movies, the names just don’t get any bigger than actor Brad Pitt and director Quentin Tarantino. Tarantino has employed Pitt to star in two of his films, the World War Two movie Inglorious Basterds and the more recent nod to the centre of the Western film industry in the 1960s in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
When Pitt paid homage to Tarantino at the Director’s Guild Awards after the release of Inglorious Basterds, he explained the great lengths that the iconic director goes to create the perfect conditions on set. “Quentin stands right next to the camera for each take,” Pitt said. “He does not direct from a monitor.”
Pitt then opened up on Tarantino’s infamously low tolerance for having phones on set. “In fact, Quentin does not allow for a monitor on set nor cell phones,” he said. “They must be handed in at Checkpoint Charlie before entering. Should you forget, and your phone go off during a take, kill yourself and quickly.”
From there, Pitt went on to explain how Tarantino directs his actors. “Whenever Quentin says, ‘Here’s the thing,’ you better pay attention because he’s about to say something very important,” he said. “You do a good job; you get a ‘cool, man’. You get a really great take, he’ll scrunch his forehead and nod, and you get two thumbs up.”
However, there is one Tarantino idiosyncrasy that is reserved for the very best actors providing their very best work. Pitt said, “And everyone, once in a while, when you hit that sweet spot, you’ll get a ‘GEEEENIUUUUUUS!’… I never got that… Christoph did…”
Pitt filled the room brilliantly with an awkward and humorous silence, clearly jealous that he was overshadowed by the excellence of Christoph Waltz, who admittedly showed he was one of the best actors in Inglorious Basterds, if not in any of Tarantino’s films when he portrayed the psychotic Nazi officer Hans Landa.
So while Tarantino reserved his biggest praise for Waltz back in the days of Inglorious Basterds, he clearly felt that Brad Pitt was at least a fine actor deserving of a double thumbs up. He, of course, hired him once again to play stuntman Cliff Booth in his 2019 film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, and Pitt delivered one of his best performances in recent memory. Maybe, just maybe, Pitt received a “GEEEENIUUUUUUS!” during that film instead.
Tarantino had once, of course, paid his deepest respects to Pitt when he said told GQ, “I noticed it when we were doing Inglorious Basterds. When Brad was in the shot, I didn’t feel like I was looking through the viewfinder of the camera. I felt like I was watching a movie. Just his presence in the four walls of the frame created that impression.” So maybe Tarantino was just pulling Pitt’s leg all along, perhaps knowing that challenging his ability was the way to get the best performance out of him.
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