Why does Jennifer Lawrence keep turning down Quentin Tarantino?
You might think that most actors would leap at the chance to work with a critically acclaimed auteur director like Quentin Tarantino. There’s certainly no lack of talent knocking on his door, with well-known A-listers constantly making it public that they want to feature in his next film. Not Jennifer Lawrence, however, who has turned the Pulp Fiction director down on more than one occasion.
Despite his reputation as a maestro of cinema and turning in award-winning classics like Inglorious Basterds and Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, it appears that the allure of Tarantino’s filmmaking chops hasn’t quite ensnared the Hunger Games actor in the same way that it has dozens of other Hollywood stars. Certainly, the lack of collaboration isn’t on Tarantino’s part. “I’m a huge Jennifer Lawrence fan,” the director told Entertainment Weekly, back when he was casting his snow-capped western The Hateful Eight. “I can see her doing a good job with this role, so we went to talk about it and everything.”
Several years later, a potential collaboration surfaced once again. Casting for his most recent film, Once Upon A Time in Hollywood, the director sought another chance at getting Lawrence in one of his movies. Speaking on an episode of the WTF Podcast with host Marc Maron, Tarantino explained how he had considered Lawrence for the role of Squeaky Fromme, a part that was eventually given to Dakota Fanning.
“Early on, I investigated the idea of Jennifer Lawrence playing Squeaky,” the director recalled. Referencing his notorious secrecy when it comes to his scripts, in part due to the leak of The Hateful Eight script, he continued: “She came down to the house to read the script cause I wasn’t letting it out. So, she came down to the house and I gave her the script and said, ‘Go in my living room or go outside by the pool and read it.'”
Once again, for whatever reason, Lawrence and Tarantino couldn’t make it work. She was, however, able to impart some of her own casting advice to the seasoned movie veteran. In the same episode, Tarantino recalled how the actor championed the host Maron, known to dabble in acting, for a part in the film.
According to the director, upon finishing the script, Lawrence said: “You know the agent guy that talks to Rick at the beginning? Why don’t you cast Marc Maron for that? I think he would be really, really good.” The director, perhaps feeling the need to explain why the man he was sitting in front of didn’t land the role, added: “If I wasn’t basing it on an older fellow, sure, he could do a good part with that. She was in there pitching for you, man!”
So why has the actor yet to work with Tarantino, despite multiple opportunities to do so? There are a number of official reasons, all to do with scheduling, conflicts with other projects, etc. But we can also speculate, and based on Lawrence’s ever-so-slightly charged response to reading the script, in which rather than shower praise, she simply suggested another actor, it may have something to do with ego – on both their parts. Whilst the actor has worked with David O. Russell, who is notoriously tyrannical and reportedly outright abusive, he is nevertheless known for his close collaboration with the actors and for encouraging them to improvise or bring something new.
Tarantino, on the other hand, famously treats his script like scripture, and there are countless stories of actors suggesting line changes and getting completely shut down. Whilst both have publically expressed respect for each other, it’s not hard to imagine that a talent so independent and creative as Lawrence may find the prospect of being so strictly directed less than appealing. In the meantime, she has found fruitful partnerships with talented female filmmakers such as Lynne Ramsay and Lila Neugebauer.
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