The part Quentin Tarantino thought might be “unplayable” and how it almost ended his movie
Quentin Tarantino is rightfully bestowed with some of the finest accolades known to cinema, but perhaps his finest asset is casting.
Like some of the greatest filmmakers, Taranitno is able to see uniquely positioned actors as the perfect cast members for his script, even sometimes writing parts specifically for an actor to play. But one role was so perfectly scripted that it seemed, for a moment, that it was impossible to cast.
An “unplayable” role is something out of fairy tales. Every character can be performed by a truly gifted actor, but Tarantino’s dedication to the roles he has written have meant over the years that his particularness as to who can get one part over another is off the charts. Even during the casting for his first major motion picture, Pulp Fiction, Tarantino had a cast list he was always hesitant to budge from, it meant John Travolta became Vincent Vega despite studio interference.
That was only his second movie, so when he approached Inglorious Basterds over a decade later, he was even more steadfast in who he wanted for his roles. Brad Pitt would be the famous Lt Aldo Raine. The infamous ‘Bear Jew’ was a toss-up between Eli Roth and Adam Sandler, with the former grabbing the legendary role. But one character seemed impossible to cast: the treacherous ‘Jew Hunter’ Hans Landa.
For a while, it seemed like Tarantino’s depiction of a merciless psychopath with a penchant for frivolity and joviality was simply too difficult for anybody to play with sincerity. In an interview, Tarantino reflected: “I was literally starting to think that maybe I wrote a part that was unplayable.”
What’s more, as he spoke to his producers, he explained that if they couldn’t find the right actor, it would kill the movie. “Guys, I’m not trying to freak everybody out,” he explained, “But I don’t know if we’re gonna find Landa, and unless we find the perfect Landa, I’d rather not make this movie.”
There’s a good chance that those in the room would have understood the severity of Tarantino’s threat. One need only look at the delay between his ninth and proposed tenth movie to know how happily he will kill a production. But they rallied, “I really have to give them credit, they didn’t freak out. They got it. They go ‘OK, well, y’know what, this week is Landa, Landa, Landa.’ If we go down, we’ll know for sure that you’re right and there’s not a guy to play this goddam role”.
It could have been a tireless search, but an unknown actor walked in and devastated his audition. “That day, Christoph walked in the room… Waltzed in the room.” The perfect actor had finally arrived, and Waltz delivered an audition that sent the entire production into raptures: “Me and Lawrence looked at each other and we knew we were making the movie.”
Undoubtedly iconic in Tarantino’s filmography, Hans Landa is the director’s greatest villain by quite some stretch. He established Christoph Waltz as a major film star, later winning an Oscar for his performance in the movie, and he has become synonymous with both the director’s and the actor’s impressive resumes. But it almost never happened.
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