Quentin Tarantino - Director - Once Upon A Time In Hollywood - 2019

Credit: Far Out / Sony Pictures Entertainment

Who was Quentin Tarantino in ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’?

Tue 28 January 2025 16:15, UK

Quentin Tarantino is, above all else, a fan of movies. He would probably rather sing the praises of Brian De Palma or analyse Battle Royale frame-by-frame than discuss his own movies, which is really saying something because he’s never shown any resistance to diving into his filmography. One of the ways in which his enthusiasm manifests itself is in his tendency to cast himself in minor roles in his films.

This isn’t an Alfred Hitchcock situation. Tarantino doesn’t try to sneakily hide himself in the background as a commuter on a bus or a dead body floating in the Thames. He likes to put himself front and centre for a few tortured moments. Even his fans would admit that this is usually to the detriment of the films themselves, because no matter how generational he is as a directing talent, his acting skills leave much to be desired. In fact, there are few instances in which he appears onscreen and doesn’t immediately cause the proverbial record scratch on the story.

There are two ways to determine Tarantino’s worst performance in one of his films: the most egregious from an acting standpoint and the most egregious from a human standpoint. The first distinction undoubtedly goes to Pulp Fiction, where Tarantino plays Jimmie, a former associate of Jules (Samuel L Jackson) who begrudgingly allows Jules and Vincent Vega (John Travolta) to stash their car at his house—on the condition that they clean up the mess before his wife Bonnie gets home. Jimmie’s soft-spoken irritation over a cup of coffee ends up being the most uncomfortable part of a film already packed with graphic violence. Sharing the scene with Jackson only amplifies the awkwardness, as Jackson effortlessly outshines Tarantino, making his performance feel even weaker by comparison. Look it up if you dare, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.

The distinction for the latter category indisputably belongs to Kill Bill, in which the director insisted on being the person to spit in Uma Thurman’s face and choke her with a chain. Inglorious Basterds falls in second place since the director limited his hands-on involvement to strangling Diane Kruger.

Given this context, his onscreen involvement in the 2019 film Once Upon in Hollywood was a welcome change. Instead of sharing a scene with one of its stars, he provided two exceedingly brief voice-overs.

So, what role did he play?

Tarantino appears at two points in the movie, though he never appears on screen. Loosely based on the real-life murder of actor Sharon Tate by Charlie Manson and his Family in 1969, it stars Leonard DiCaprio as ageing matinee idol Rick Dalton and Brad Pitt as his friend and stunt double, Cliff Booth. There are several movies within the movie, including a promotional reel for Bounty Law, Rick’s western television show, and a television commercial for Red Apple Cigarettes, in which Rick reluctantly stars.

In both these videos, Tarantino plays a minor role. In the television promotional video, he does the voice-over, intoning “Bounty Law!” in the tone of a 1960s news reader. In the Red Apple Cigarettes ad, which plays during the credits, he is the voice of the director who simply calls “and cut” as Dalton storms off stage.

“There wasn’t really a part for me,” Tarantino said in an interview, implying that there were roles for him in the past. “I’m disenchanted with seeing myself onscreen.”