Lawrence Tierney: The ‘Reservoir Dogs’ co-star who took a swing at Michael Madsen
When Reservoir Dogs hit cinemas in the early 1990s, it not only signalled a changing of the directorial guard but also that Hollywood and its output were about to transform forever. The movie would bring a young upstart director into the collective consciousness as Quentin Tarantino became the hottest ticket in town. His ability to craft a superb storyline with a somewhat unknown cast and yet still become an unstoppable stylistic force meant that he was now the ultimate leader in the new age of cinema.
Never one to shy away from openly discussing his influences, the director once confessed that the vibrant and violent movie was directly influenced by Stanley Kubrick’s film The Killing. “I didn’t go out of my way to do a rip-off of The Killing, but I did think of it as my ‘Killing’, my take on that kind of heist movie,” he once said. However, despite the visionary aid, this is a Tarantino diamond hard cut by the gemstone actors he expertly cast to tell his story.
With a simple plot and storyline that allowed the everlasting notions of betrayal, violence and revenge to take precedence, there is a lot to suggest that without the impressive cast Tarantino assembled, the movie would have significantly flopped. It is a calling card the director has used time and time again, now often writing roles specifically for certain actors. While that is now much easier with handfuls of successful movies to his name, for Reservoir Dogs, his debut feature, it was much more difficult.
But, assemble a rag-tag crew he did. He managed to not only snag Harvey Keitel but also grabbed the services of a fresh-faced Steve Buscemi, an equally green Tim Roth alongside a host of sidemen, including Chris Penn, Edward Bunker and Tarantino himself. However, perhaps the most pivotal player in the group was Michael Madsen, who takes on the role of the story’s maniac, Mr Blonde.
There is little left to say about the brutal violence under which Madsen made his name as Mr Blonde, and whether it was the dancing, the soundtrack, the Van Gogh-ing or simply how he meets his demise that made the character an icon, there can be no doubt that it operates as perhaps Madsen’s finest hour. But while the on-screen violence was apparent, off-screen Madsen escaped the clenched fist of one of his co-stars Lawrence Tierney.
Playing head honcho Joe, Tierney, known as one of Hollywood’s true tough guys, made his presence on set add a certain amount of realism to the production. But off-screen, things were a little too real, as Madsen told After Movie Diner: “He took a swing at me one time. If I hadn’t backed off, he would have hit me right in the face. We were out the front of Musso and Frank’s (the famed Hollywood restaurant).”
Madsen remembered the strict instructions he and the cast were given: “When he got cast in the movie the producers told us don’t let Lawrence drink and so naturally the first thing I do, Tim Roth and I, we took Lawrence to drink. We wanted to see what would happen if we took him to Musso and Frank’s. He got really loaded, he walked outside of the place, onto Hollywood Boulevard and he dropped his pants in the middle of the street; all these cars were stopping, honking.”
“We were like, ‘Lawrence, get out of the way! Pull up your fucking pants!'” explained Madsen. “I had to go out into the street ‘Lawrence, what are you doing?’ I said. And he goes, ‘Gimme 20 bucks’. I go ‘No! Fuck you.'”
It’s an exchange one might have plainly expected to see within the framework of the movie, with the choppy interchange feeling extremely close to a Tarantino script. But it would upset Tierney, as Madsen explains: “He took this wild, crazy swing at me, I backed off, and he missed me by inches. I felt the breeze. God bless him, he’s passed away now, but he was quite a character.”
Thankful, no more blose were landed off-screen, and the movie turned into a roaring success that would see Madsen work with Taranitno on five more productions and enjoy a celebrated career in Hollywood.
