The “wonderful, sexy” actor Quentin Tarantino said “does my dialogue as good as anyone” that he still rejected twice
You’d be forgiven for thinking that if someone can recite Quentin Tarantino’s dialogue as well as Quentin Tarantino writes it, and better than most of the actors who’ve read for him over the years, no less, then they’d be guaranteed a successful audition for one of his projects.
Instead, despite having their credentials touted by the man himself, one patient performer had to wait for the chance to prove that the third time really does mark the charm. Whenever Tarantino has something new in the works, it instantly becomes one of the hottest tickets in town for thespians covering the entire Hollywood spectrum.
His movies have cast A-listers, industry icons, fallen and faded stars, those who’ve been dubbed as washed up or has-beens, relative unknowns, and Academy Award winners, often in the same picture. Nobody speaks Tarantino better than Samuel L Jackson, but there are others who’ve made a solid claim to the throne.
Christopher Waltz would be the most obvious, since he’s won two Oscars for doing it, but stalwarts like Uma Thurman and Michael Madsen are also part of that conversation. With the greatest of respect, Death Proof‘s Sydney Poitier isn’t the first Tarantino alum that comes to mind, but after being left suitably impressed by two unsuccessful auditions, he finally found a part for her to play in one of his productions.
“Sydney had come in and read for me a couple of times before,” he explained to Ain’t It Cool. “She read for me for Kill Bill, and she knocked me out when she came in. She just wasn’t right, but she was terrific. I was like, ‘Wow, Sydney’s fantastic’, and I brought her in for my CSI episode, and she was terrific in there, except just not quite right for what we were doing.”
“Both times, she just really knocked me out,” he continued, not that he had her in mind specifically as Death Proof‘s Jungle Julia. “I didn’t just write it and give it to her, but I totally had her in the back of my mind because I knew that there was this wonderful actress out there named Sydney Poitier, and she’s got a really wonderful, sexy physicality, and I could write for that.”
As for her turn in Death Proof, Tarantino had nothing but praise. “Well, I think she’s pretty legit in this movie,” the two-time Oscar winner added. “She’s great! She does my dialogue as good as anyone’s ever done it.” Endorsements don’t come much higher than that from an auteur who loves to indulge in a spot of ego-massaging whenever it presents itself, but she didn’t join co-star Kurt Russell in being welcomed into his regular repertory.
The actor, who, as her name would imply, is indeed the daughter of the iconic and influential Sidney Poitier, but despite her mastery of Tarantino’s signature style of dialogue, Death Proof remains the most notable role of her big-screen career almost two decades after its release. On the plus side, at least she was rewarded with a role in one of his works after two fruitless attempts.
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