The 15th year of the Turner Classic Movies Film Festival kicked off in style with a 30th Anniversary screening of Pulp Fiction at the historic Chinese Theater. Host Ben Mankiewicz did a pre-film Q&A with stars, John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Samuel Jackson and Harvey Keitel.
There were a few amusing moments from Keitel when he revealed that meeting Tarantino on Reservoir Dogs led to many meals together and a young, poor and hungry Tarantino raided Keitel’s fridge so regularly thing that the actor says he put food that was going to expire toward the front and fresh food in the back – and that Tarantino gobbled it up regardless of when it was going to go bad.
Keitel also explained there was a lot of scheduling needed to be done for him to appear in Pulp Fiction and that it was very touch and go. They changed the schedule to accommodate him a few times, and finally the only way to shoot Mr. Wolf’s scenes was if they could be shot on Sundays. Keitel paused and decided to reveal it wasn’t another film that he had a conflict with, but that he was due in court and the judge couldn’t care less about his shooting schedule.
The true highlight of the evening came with Travolta recounting how he was cast in the role of Vincent Vega. While, it’s been told in various forms before, there were new and quite amusingly details that give a more intimate view of Tarantino and Travolta’s first meeting.
Here’s how Travolta told it to the sold out house last night:
I didn’t audition for the part, but I spent almost 24 hours and with Quentin initially because I got a call from my agent, who said ‘There’s a young new director and he did Reservoir Dogs and he says you’re his favorite actor and he wants to do something with you. He just doesn’t know what, but he wants to do something with you.’
So, I went to this apartment on 1236 Crescent Heights Blvd. in Hollywood and I said, This is very familiar… And I knocked on his door and I said, “Don’t say a word. If you go left, it’s the living room and the kitchen is attached—-if you go right it’s a bedroom and another—” And [Tarantino] said, “How do you know that?” And I said, “I used to live here.”
[At this point the crowd went crazy as this was certainly kismet]
So we’re off and running. And he was so adorable, he had this fantasy of wanting to play the games—-there were [board] games that were associated with some of my roles, the Saturday Night Fever Game, the Grease game, the Welcome Back, Kotter game. [And Tarantino clearly had all these board games ready to go] So this fantasy was really adorable and I said, ‘Maybe later we’ll throw on the Welcome Back, Kotter game.” And he had this fantasy and said ‘If we play, just once in a while throw out a line, that you would have said.’
So, I thought, I don’t know this boy and I need to know what he’s doing financially. So, I purposely went through his finances with him and said, “You’re an up-and-coming artist—-you need a reserve. So, tell me what you have and I did this whole accounting with him and I felt a little better after that. We then went out for Thai food on Sunset [clearly the always excellent TOI which often now plays QT’s films on their monitors] and suddenly the sun is coming up and he had presented these films to me called From Dusk Til Dawn and Pulp Fiction.
He asked what I thought about From Dusk Til Dawn. And I said, “Quentin, I’m not blood person, I’m not a vampire guy, ya know? It’s not for me.” He said, “How’d you like the other one?” I said, “Pulp Fiction I like better.” He said, “Ok. Ok.”
So I go, and a week later he offered me the role of Vincent. “And I said, ‘Why? Why? What did you see in me that would convince you that I could play this role?’ He said, “It was you helping me with my banking. It was analytical.” He said I had this theoretical viewpoint, philosophically, he called it. That I need for that character. He said, “I want him to be thoughtful about whatever he’s gone through,” – and that was it.
Want to learn more about the Turner Classics Film Festival? Check the TCM FILM FESTIVAL site for the full line up: