The 10 best acting performances from Quentin Tarantino movies
When you think of the frenetic nature of contemporary cinema, it’s likely that the movies of American director Quentin Tarantino also come to mind. A lover of violent, fast-paced, visceral cinema, the esteemed filmmaker has made such films as Pulp Fiction and Django Unchained, working with the likes of Jamie Foxx, Robert De Niro, Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio along the way.
A longtime lover of the value of cinema and of performance, Tarantino has long admired the greatest actors to grace the industry, arguably being jealous of their talents considering just how many times he’s cameoed in his own movies. Working with some of the industry’s very best talents, Tarantino has helped to craft some of cinema’s greatest and most memorable characters thanks to his own painstakingly created scripts that are stuffed with luscious dialogue.
Speaking about how he directs actors on set, the filmmaker once exclaimed: “Be there, look at their eyes, see the environment around them. Fuck the frame for a little bit! You’ve got the frame, you know what the frame is supposed to be. See what’s outside the frame, but also, you’re just feeling the drama of the scene. When you watch it on a monitor, you’re almost too much an audience member. No, you’re a creator! This is the creative part! It’s back and forth, you’re a part of it”.
Take a look at our breakdown of the ten greatest performances from the movies of Quentin Tarantino below, which includes roles from such stars as Samuel L. Jackson, Robert De Niro, Brad Pitt and many more.
The 10 best performances from Quentin Tarantino movies:
10. Samuel L. Jackson – Django Unchained (2012)
We’re starting things off with one of the most significant transformations in Tarantino’s entire filmography. His 2012 spaghetti-western/southern slavery mash-up was certainly not the first collaboration with legendary actor Samuel L. Jackson, nor would it be his last, but over a decade later, Jackson’s portrayal as Stephen remains one of their finest creations together – and showcases how fantastic hair and make-up can combine with superb acting can cause an actor to completely metamorphasise.
Stephen plays the ‘house slave’ of Leonardo Dicaprio’s gleefully villainous antagonist, Calvin Candie, an African American whose unyielding loyalty to his master has granted him special ‘privileges’ in the plantation known as ‘Candyland’. As such, Stephen plays an absolutely pivotal role and significant obstacle in Django’s quest to rescue his beloved enslaved wife, Broomthilda.
9. Robert De Niro – Jackie Brown (1997)
“I’ve come to the conclusion,” announced Tarantino, speaking about the indomitable Robert De Niro, “From editing a film that he’s made, seeing every last little bit of footage – I think he is the best actor in the world”. If that’s true, Quentin, why did you treat us to only one collaboration? As shortchanged as we may feel, one has to be grateful that one of the most phenomenal living actors got to work with one of the greatest modern auteurs – even if it was only once. In Jackie Brown, Tarantino’s understated but seminal follow-up to Pulp Fiction, he utilises the actor in an incredibly intruiging way.
De Niro plays Louis Garra, a seemingly laid-back ex-convict and former cellmate of Jackson’s Ordell, who is brought in to help with an intricate and slightly head-scratching criminal plot. A man of very few words, De Niro expertly slinks around LA, giving little expression or gestures save for the occasional raised eyebrow. That is, until stoned surfer girl Melanie pushes his buttons too far, and we see perhaps one of the most jaw-dropping moments in cinematic history.
8. Brad Pitt – Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019)
Having worked with Brad Pitt once before in Inglourious Basterds, Tarantino approached his second collaboration, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, with a good knowledge of expectations. Such may explain why Pitt’s character is one of the strongest aspects of Tarantino’s dense exploration of late 20th century America, shortly before the news of the Manson Family cult would change the national culture forever.
Pitt plays Cliff Booth, the stuntman of Leonardo DiCaprio’s Rick Dalton, dispute arguably being the more naturally charismatic of the pair. Mysterious and brooding, there is something bubbling behind the eyes of Booth, which Pitt gives us a glimpse at during the finale, only to leave us wanting more.
7. Jennifer Jason Leigh – The Hateful Eight (2015)
Perhaps Tarantino’s most underrated movie, 2015’s The Hateful Eight, is a masterpiece of atmosphere, with the filmmaker allowing a pack of esteemed actors the chance to flex their performance muscles. Sitting alongside the likes of Kurt Russell, Samuel L. Jackson and Bruce Dern, Jennifer Jason Leigh plays the role of fugitive ‘Crazy’ Daisy Domergue, a live wire who adds more than a dose of unpredictability to the fold.
Earning an Oscar nomination for her performance, being unlucky not to walk away with more, Leigh delivers the most invigorating performance in the movie and one of the very best in Tarantino’s filmography, providing one of the director’s most memorable characters.
6. John Travolta – Pulp Fiction (1994)
Pulp Fiction remains Quentin Tarantino’s most popular movie, with the film earning him critical acclaim in the form of the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. As a result, the film is known for its iconic characters and seminal performances, yet our pick of the bunch is John Travolta, who plays Vincent Vega with the strange allure of a cruise ship singer, as well as the towering stature of a genuine bloodthirsty criminal.
Channelling his inner Tony Manero from 1977’s Saturday Night Fever, Travolta’s performance is best known for his excellent dance sequence with Uma Thurman’s Mia. Somehow, every hip twist and arm swing says something more about the character.
5. Jamie Foxx – Django Unchained (2012)
Released the very same year as British director Steve McQueen took on the heavy subject of the slave trade with 12 Years a Slave, Tarantino approached the same matter in a way only he could, from the starting point of revenge. Jamie Foxx played the central titular character, a freed slave who sets out across Southern America to rescue his wife from the clutches of a sadistic plantation owner.
Thanks in part to the terrific performance of Christoph Waltz as Dr. King Schultz, Foxx is allowed to thrive in the lead role, leading the line with a powerhouse dedication to the character which oozes style and class.
4. Uma Thurman – Kill Bill: Vol. 1, Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2003, 2004)
You’d be hard-pressed to think of a more definitive Tarantino character than The Bride, AKA Beatrix Kiddo, AKA the most classic role of the entire career of Uma Thurman. It’s not exactly that her character is the most interesting, nor that the actor undergoes any massive transformation. No, it’s more that the image of her in that yellow jumpsuit wielding a blood-soaked katana is, quite possibly, as iconic as an American movie character can get.
The fact that there are two volumes also doesn’t help; it does double the exposure, after all. Regardless, Thurman’s Bride is absolute tour-de-force, a deceptively pretty blonde who has quite literally died, gone to hell and come back, driven by her unyielding and razor-sharp desire to exact vengeance, sweet bloody vengeance. On who? Bill, of course. As such an obvious ode to 1970s B-movies and martial arts films, Tarantino’s double-bill could easily fall into campiness, but Thurman grounds the movies with a sincerity that is impossible to resist.
3. Christoph Waltz – Inglourious Basterds (2009)
It’s well-documented that the casting of Standartenführer Hans Landa was so important to Tarantino and so difficult to get right that the director nearly pulled the plug on his WWII/spaghetti-western epic after failing to find the right actor. That is until German actor Christoph Waltz stepped onto the scene, and the rest was history. From his utterly chilling yet exquisitely compelling introduction in the very opening scene, where he sniffs out a family of Jewish refugees hiding under the floorboards of a French farm, right through to the very last shot of the movie, Waltz’s Landa is perhaps the greatest element of one of Tarantino’s greatest works.
Charming, sophisticated, articulate and suave, yet equally deadly, terrifying and manipulative, Waltz’s performance treats us to such a plethora of character traits whilst maintaining a wholly distinct persona. One minute, we’d be cringing in fear as he toys with his prey in three different languages, and the other, we’d be laughing as he deliriously cries, grimacing in joy, “That’s a bingo!” It was this role and movie that introduced Waltz to international audiences, and whilst he’s gone on to star in several great American films since this will always be the best.
2. Pam Grier – Jackie Brown (1997)
If you’re going to make your third feature an unabashed homage to the blaxploitation genre, then you better get the actor who defined the whole cinematic movement. Luckily, that’s exactly what Tarantino did when he cast legendary 1970s actor Pam Grier as the titular hero. Grier, who had previously led blaxploitation classics like Coffy and Foxy Brown, got to reprise the heroine twenty years later – this time under the iconic direction of Tarantino.
If taking Elmore Leonard’s novel Rum Punch and putting a spin on it was a genius move, then casting Grier as an ageing flight attendant was even smarter. In a labyrinthine tale of dirty money, crooked cops, double-crossings and murder, all populated by a whole host of colourful characters played by the likes of Jackson and De Niro, Grier nonetheless stands out as the beating heart of the narrative, driving the entire story to its bittersweet end.
1. Leonardo DiCaprio – Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019)
Tarantino has penned some of the greatest characters of modern cinema; we have little doubt about this, but some of his very best come from just one film, 2019’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. We’ve already talked about Brad Pitt’s Cliff Booth, but then there’s Julia Butters’ Trudi Fraser, Margaret Qualley’s Pussycat and even Margot Robbie’s Sharon Tate to consider. Yet, none of these characters and performances come close to that of Leonardo DiCaprio as Rick Dalton.
A dreamer and fantasist, falling in line with Tarantino’s filmic motifs, Dalton has burning aspirations to follow the American dream and become an all-encompassing movie star, even if he doesn’t quite have the strength to pull this off. Delivering an excellent performance as a fragile film star, DiCaprio’s performance perfectly represents the themes of the movie itself, being a stylish, charming, yet deeply flawed individual who may even possess a more malevolent heart.
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