This week marks the 30th anniversary of Quentin Tarantino’s classic Pulp Fiction. It’s one of the most impactful and celebrated films of the ‘90s. It was a game-changer; I think of it as the Nevermind of cinema. Like Nirvana’s breakthrough album from three years earlier, it took elements of things the respective artist loved, shook them up in a strange and vital way, and made something different. (That’s also sort of the definition of rock and roll.) And as it turned out, both Nevermind and Pulp Fiction became shockingly popular, influencing everything that came afterward.
To make a different musical comparison, it also reminded me of the cinematic version of a hip-hop DJ. A DJ can start a song in the middle, pull it back to the beginning, play a bit of another record, go back to the first one, put a different record on the other turntable, and so on. Unlike a rock band, a hip-hop DJ is limited only by what records they have on hand. Hip-hop took vintage parts and birthed something that not only felt new but also made everything else seem a bit stale in comparison.
The film humanized gangsters and got you to like them. It’s led the way for The Sopranos, Boardwalk Empire, and Breaking Bad. Via extended monologues, we get to know the rather unsavory characters and learn that they’re surprisingly relatable. They’re not just thugs: they have interests and morals (sort of). We first saw this in the opening scene of Tarantino’s directorial debut, 1992’s Reservoir Dogs. In that scene, a group of gangsters discussed the finer points of Madonna’s music and argued over whether they believed in tipping waitresses. In Pulp Fiction, we heard about the differences between European and American fast food, what level of intimacy is insinuated by a foot massage, what animals are appropriate to eat, what qualifies as a miracle, and the merits of uncomfortable silence. None of these conversations were necessarily tied into the plot, but they did deepen our understanding of the characters. And that showed another area where Tarantino is a master: dialogue.
But here, I want to appreciate his ability to cast the right actors. Sometimes his choices are downright unlikely; his casts always have some unexpected names. I’m a Tarantino fan, and I love this about his films. I should also mention that I disagree with him on some things.
For example, in 2021, he complained that Marvel actors aren’t movie stars, as if that was a problem. I wrote an op-ed at the time, “Quentin Tarantino: Was He Right? And Do We Really Need Movie Stars?” I argued that it doesn’t matter if the actors are movie stars. I had never seen a Chris Evans film before Captain America: The First Avenger, but he was clearly perfect for the role. I didn’t care that I didn’t know his previous work.
I’ll also add my opinion here that I don’t think great movies even need movie stars, which I’ve written about before as well. The recently released Alien: Romulus is a good example of that. Open Water is one of my favorites, and didn’t have any “movie stars.” Kevin Smith’s Clerks was released in the same month as Pulp Fiction by the same studio (Miramax). Smith financed the film on credit cards and cast his buddies for the film. I’d argue the film benefitted from that.
But one of Quentin Tarantino’s strengths is his vision and his tenacity in sticking with that vision. He is able to elevate actors to A-list status, and he’s able to bring back actors that seemed to be past their prime and make them cool again. That’s one of the many triumphs of Pulp Fiction, a film that has mostly aged very well (minus the totally unnecessary use of the N-word). Here are five of his genius casting choices in Pulp Fiction.
John Travolta as Vincent Vega
The smooth-talking, deep-thinking, and decent dancing gangster who had an appetite for heroin. Travolta used to be one of the coolest and most bankable actors in Hollywood, but Saturday Night Fever and Grease were released in the late ’70s; that was ancient history. At this point, he was starring in the Look Who’s Talking movies. He was no longer “cool.” The studio didn’t want Travolta. In a Vanity Fair, feature on Pulp Fiction, we learned that the studio wanted Daniel Day-Lewis, Sean Penn or William Hurt. But Tarantino wanted Travolta. How big of a fan was he? According to Entertainment Weekly, Tarantino invited Travolta to his apartment, where they played board games… all of which were based on Travolta’s films or TV shows. The guy actually had the Saturday Night Fever board game, the Grease board game, and even the Welcome Back Kotter board game. And he played all of them with Travolta. And weirdly, as Travolta arrived, he realized that the young director was living in the exact same apartment that he used to live in. Travolta as Vincent Vega was written in the stars, and it immediately brought Travolta back to the A-list.Samuel L. Jackson as Jules Winnfield
Vega’s partner in crime and sparring partner in conversation, the surprisingly spiritual Jules has perhaps the most iconic scene in the film. You know the one: when he quotes from the Bible, yelling, “And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know My name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee!” Jackson had been in some big Spike Lee films at that point (Do The Right Thing, Mo’ Betta Blues, Jungle Fever) and had many other film credits, including a role in Jurassic Park. But Pulp Fiction made him one of Hollywood’s biggest stars. He’s gone on to be part of two of the biggest movie franchises: The Star Wars Universe and the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Jackson has appeared, at least in a cameo, in nearly every film Tarantino has made since Pulp Fiction. Weirdly, Tarantino offered the role to Laurence Fishburne, but as Fishburne told Vulture, he had some issues concerning the heroin use in the film.Uma Thurman as Mia Wallace
Mia Wallace is the wife of the incredibly intimidating and pretty dangerous crime lord, Marsellus Wallace (played by Ving Rhames). Thurman had just starred in 1993’s Even Cowgirls Get The Blues by the time Pulp Fiction came out, and she had some other film credits to her name, but this film made Thurman a star. According to the aforementioned Vanity Fair article, Michelle Pfeiffer, Meg Ryan, Holly Hunter, and Rosanna Arquette were all considered for the role. But Tarantino knew that Thurman was the perfect Mia. Thurman had reservations about the role, mainly because of the scenes with “The Gimp” (which her character didn’t appear in). Of course, she went on to star in Tarantino’s ultra-violent two-part epic, Kill Bill. Coincidently, she seems to describe that film to Vincent over a milkshake. Knowing she was an aspiring actress, he asked her about a pilot that she’d been in. “It was a show about a team of female secret agents called Fox Force Five. ‘Fox,’ as in we’re a bunch of foxy chicks, ‘force,’ because we’re a force to be reckoned with. And ‘five,’ because there’s one-two-three-four-five of us.” She noted that each member had a specialty, and her character’s was knives. The concept changed a bit by the time Kill Bill was written, but it is a funny easter egg in retrospect.Bruce Willis as Butch Coolidge
The hard-nosed boxer with too much pride and a great love for his girlfriend (and a very special wristwatch). Willis was a massive star by the time he took the role. He was also a big fan of Reservoir Dogs and very much wanted to be in Tarantino’s next film. Willis actually wanted to play Vincent Vega, but Travolta had already been cast. He wanted to be in the film so badly that not only did he take a smaller role than Travolta, but he also took a sizable salary cut for the job.Tim Roth as Ringo
A racist robber with a crazy girlfriend (Amanda Plumer’s Yolana, aka “Honey Bunny”). He’s looking for easier places to heist, and he’s put a lot of thought into this. Like co-star Harvey Keitel, he was part of Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs crew: Roth was “Mr. Orange” and Keitel was “Mr. White.” (Tarantino himself played “Mr. Brown,” and Steve Buscemi played “Mr. Pink” – Buscemi cameoed in Pulp Fiction as the Buddy Holly-lookalike waiter in Jack Rabbit Slim’s.) Like Jackson and Thurman, Roth’s career was elevated: he got an Oscar nomination the following year for his role in Rob Roy. Like Jackson, he’s also since become a player in the MCU: his Emil Blonsky character was introduced in 2008’s The Incredible Hulk and returned over a decade later in 2022’s She-Hulk: Attorney At Law series.
