“Sure enough, he wrote it”: Terry Gilliam’s oblivious assist in creating a key ‘Pulp Fiction’ character
Quentin Tarantino has always spoken very highly of Terry Gilliam, who was one of the first established filmmakers to offer advice when Reservoir Dogs first put his name on the map. However, the latter had no idea he was indirectly responsible for creating a key Pulp Fiction character.
The two remained friendly following their initial meeting, which came before Tarantino had even helmed his debut feature. The aspiring auteur attended Sundance Labs in 1991, where he got the opportunity to work closely with the Monty Python alum, who ended up becoming a mentor figure of sorts.
At the time, Gilliam had recently wrapped principal photography on The Fisher King, the fantastical dramatic comedy starring Robin Williams and Jeff Bridges. The film hit cinemas in September 1991, four months before Reservoir Dogs premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, but the ball had already started rolling on Tarantino’s follow-up.
Pulp Fiction is famously bookended by the diner scenes with Tim Roth’s Pumpkin and Amanda Plummer’s Honey Bunny, but those exchanges didn’t exist until after Gilliams’ inadvertent assist. Things were set in motion at the premiere of the latter’s only Academy Award-nominated movie, even if his contributions could be described as tangential at best.
“There was a fun thing that happened that I think brought about the Pumpkin and Honey Bunny situation, which was I got to know Amanda Plummer a little bit,” Roth said to Variety. “And she had the premiere of The Fisher King coming up, and I suggested that I would be her date. We went to the premiere, and there was Terry Gilliam and Quentin.”
Of course, Roth was already very familiar with Tarantino, having recently wrapped shooting on Reservoir Dogs, and he used his plus-one status to the fullest. “I got talking with Quentin, and I remember saying to him, ‘I want to be in a film with Amanda, but she has to have a gun in her hand because the idea of Amanda Plummer having a gun in her hand is truly terrifying’. Sure enough, he wrote it,” he explained.
That suggestion evidently set a lightbulb off in Tarantino’s head, leading directly to Roth and Plummer taking pride of place in the prologue and epilogue of Pulp Fiction. It’s one of those domino effects that the business is famous for, with Gilliam placed right in the middle.
Gilliam had taken Tarantino under his wing and invited him to The Fisher King premiere. Roth had already worked with Tarantino and attended the same opening as Plummer’s plus one, where he outlined his desire to see Plummer wield a firearm, culminating in Pulp Fiction getting one of its many iconic scenes.
It’s a strange twist of fate but one that shows how inspiration for memorable moments doesn’t necessarily have to come directly from the mind of the person who wrote and directed the picture.
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