One of the most famous robberies in film history begins in the film "Pulp Fiction" with the words: "Everybody be cool, this is a robbery!" If it were up to an influential studio boss, they would have come out of Johnny Depp's mouth. But director Tarantino disagreed.
Successful director Quentin Tarantino had spoken out against actor Johnny Depp during the preparations for his cult film "Pulp Fiction" from 1994. The filmmaker revealed this on the podcast "2 Bears 1 Cave" with Tom Segura. The role of Pumpkin, which Depp was in talks to play, went to Tim Roth instead. A 2021 list shared by writer Don Winslow reveals that Tarantino wrote the role for Roth, with Depp coming in second, ahead of Christian Slater, Gary Oldman, Nicolas Cage, Eric Stoltz and John Cusack.
According to Tarantino, then-TriStar Pictures boss Mike Medavoy took one look at the list and wanted to offer the role first to Depp, then to Slater, and then to "anyone other than Tim Roth." Roth would only have been asked if nobody had said yes.
Tarantino then asked Medavoy directly, "Do you think Johnny Depp - who will be starring alone in the opening and closing scenes as Pumpkin - will increase box office revenue that much? Just because he's playing the role?" The studio boss replied: "It won't make a cent more, but it would make me feel better." In the end it was not TriStar Pictures that took over the production of "Pulp Fiction", but Miramax Films.
Tarantino said the leaked Pulp Fiction cast list was "pretty muddled" at the time. He wanted a set of names to be "pre-approved" by the producers. "I didn't know exactly who I wanted for this role or that, so I wrote a huge list with a lot of names," said the 59-year-old. After all, he couldn't know "whether it would work or whether I would sympathize with the person or whether she would do a good job at all".
Tarantino revealed that "Die Hard" star Bruce Willis, who ended up playing Butch, wasn't even considered at first. At that time, Willis was one of the biggest stars in the world. That's why the role was originally written for Matt Dillon, who was a fan of his script for Reservoir Dogs. "I thought it would be a piece of cake to get him," says the director. But something bothered Dillon: "He actually wanted to see Butch boxing." Dillon was more interested in the character of Vincent, who ended up taking over Travolta.
The Willis commitment came after the director met him at a party at a Malibu house rented by Harvey Keitel. Tarantino learned that Willis was a big fan of his first film, Reservoir Dogs. "I didn't know he had already read Pulp Fiction when I showed up at Harvey's house that Sunday," recalled the filmmaker. "That blew my mind." Willis revealed to Tarantino while walking to his house that he wanted to play Vincent. However, the director convinced the action star that Butch was the right role.
