Bloopers That Will Change How You Watch Quentin Tarantino Movies
Quentin Tarantino finds humor in the strangest situations. Who would have thought that a scene about a hitman (Samuel L. Jackson) taunting his target with a burger could be so hilarious? Who would have guessed that the cheerful Nazi played by Christoph Waltz in "Inglourious Basterds" would be so much fun to watch?
So it should come as no surprise that the cast and crew of Tarantino's movies spend a lot of time laughing. Tarantino loves making films so much that he tries to make sure his team has a blast on the set. After all, there's no rule that says shooting a movie needs to be a bore.
Below are some of the funniest bloopers and anecdotes that happened behind the scenes of Tarantino movies, such as the amusing gift that Jamie Foxx gave his co-star while filming "Django Unchained," and what Tarantino's actors always say after messing up their lines. We'll even discuss the screwup on the set of "Inglourious Basterds" that was so big it caused Tarantino to send the whole crew home for the day.
Tarantino did a Marilyn Monroe impression
Quentin Tarantino always has a very firm idea of what he wants his movies to look like. However, he doesn't always tell his actors what he wants them to do; instead, he often shows them. After working with Tarantino on "Inglourious Basterds," production designer David Wasco told ArtStars, "In describing what he wanted, he would act out these scenes and flop around the floor and everything." Tarantino even acted out the entire anime sequence from "Kill Bill, Vol. 1" for the storyboard artists to plan out the sequence. Tarantino is committed to communicating his vision to his actors, even if he occasionally makes himself look ridiculous in the process.
Nowhere is this more apparent than in this behind-the-scenes footage from "Pulp Fiction." For the scene in question, Tarantino was filming one of the waitresses (Susan Griffiths) dressed as Marilyn Monroe at Jack Rabbit Slims. While Griffiths stood over an air vent, performing the classic Marilyn Monroe move, Tarantino sat across from her, making faces at her. That is, he was trying to walk her through the shot, beat-by-beat, by acting out the shot along with Griffiths in real time. This also meant Tarantino needed to give his best Marilyn Monroe grin and hold it for a full 10 seconds. Arguably, Tarantino made a pretty convincing Marilyn Monroe — all he needed was a blonde wig.
Tarantino and his crew teased his editor
Quentin Tarantino knew that the job of his film editor and longtime collaborator Sally Menke could sometimes be tedious. To brighten her long days of sifting through footage, he came up with a way to make her laugh. One day while filming "Death Proof," Tarantino asked the actress Sydney Tamiia Poitier, "Look into the camera, and [say hello to] my lonely editor stuck in Los Angeles ... in a room all by herself." So Poitier said, "Hello Sally!"
It soon became a running joke. Anytime an actor flubbed their lines, they would punctuate the take with a "Hi Sally." Sometimes they'd go out of their way to greet Sally. For instance, Zoë Bell turned around on the hood of a moving car so she could wave to Sally. Kurt Russell only greeted Sally with great reluctance. And in response to some feedback the director gave on her performance, Rosario Dawson turned to the camera and said, "Sally, can you believe this s***?"
This tradition continued in "Inglourious Basterds." In one blooper, Shosanna (Mélanie Laurent) was running for her life when she stopped to say hello to the editor. Later, Til Schweiger was supposed to be playing dead, but he couldn't resist opening his eyes and whispering, "Sally, I am not dead. I'm just pretending." To honor the editor, the crew even wrote "We love you, Sally!" on the back of a clapperboard.
Tarantino asked a cameraman for bad camera work
Quentin Tarantino likes to be involved in every step of the filmmaking process. "I'm not sitting there ... in another room, watching TV, while my movie is being made," he told the American Film Institute. "I'm wherever the camera is." Tarantino shared that he always wants to stand right behind whoever is operating the camera, because it's an experience he doesn't want to miss.
The director paid extra attention to what was happening with the camera for a particular scene from "Kill Bill Vol. 2." In one blooper, Tarantino addressed his steadicam operator Larry McConkey. "Larry," he said, "Promise you'll do it bad?" The director was referring to the shaky, handheld-camera effect that he hoped to achieve with the shot in question. Laughing, McConkey assured him he would most definitely do it "bad." That was when Uma Thurman interjected, suggesting, "Quentin, you can just stand behind him and shake the camera." If Tarantino did that, replied McConkey, then he had better be prepared to operate the camera himself.
Christoph Waltz got thrown off a horse
The production of "Django Unchained" was rife with accidents. Not only did Leonardo DiCaprio cut his hand during a take (which Tarantino kept in the final film), but Christoph Waltz also fell off a horse. His horse bucked him off after it was startled by some bees. In an interview on "Conan," Waltz explained that he broke his pelvis in the accident and needed to have a metal plate implanted. "Now I beep at airports," he joked. Waltz admitted he was terrified at the prospect of getting on a horse again, but the film crew helped him get comfortable riding again. Waltz said that Jamie Foxx gave him a get-well gift that was particularly thoughtful: "Jamie gave me a saddle with a seatbelt."
Waltz's injury proved to be a setback for the filmmakers, yet it also turned out to be just what the movie needed. To accommodate Waltz, the filmmakers rewrote certain scenes so that his character wouldn't need to ride a horse while he was recovering, and production designer J. Michael Riva invented a clever workaround. The accident allowed him to come up with the idea for Dr. Schultz's ridiculous-looking dentist wagon. "It changes the character and provides some interesting non-corny levity at the beginning of the movie, right when you need it," Tarantino told the Hollywood Reporter. If things hadn't played out the way they did, we might have ended up with a very different movie.
Mike Myers showed off his kicks
In general, "Inglourious Basterds" isn't meant to be taken too seriously (as one would expect of a film in which Hitler gets blown sky-high in a movie theater). General Ed Fenech (played by Mike Myers) is certainly no exception, though his character is played a bit more seriously than the not-too-bright Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt). However, if viewers could almost take Fenech seriously when they first saw the movie, they definitely won't be able to take him seriously after watching this blooper.
On his first day on set, Myers (who loves World War II movies) was thrilled to discover that he would be filming in a building that used to be a Nazi headquarters in real life. "I'm in this room filled with thousands and thousands of World War II uniforms," he shared on Literally! With Rob Lowe. "This is my dream come true." The actor's enthusiasm was so ardent that he couldn't resist an opportunity to goof off. After one take ended, Myers began marching across the set, lifting his legs in a series of high kicks that would put the Radio City Rockettes to shame. He pantomimed kicking an invisible Nazi butt, before walking off the stage humming a jaunty tune.
David Carradine showed off some kicks, too
Mike Myers wasn't the only actor from a Tarantino movie who showed the camera how high he could kick. As revealed by one blooper from "Kill Bill Vol. 2," the actor who played the villainous Bill was not above goofing off. It's not just hilarious because we're seeing this (relatively) serious character fooling around, but also because David Carradine is so blasé about the whole thing.
In the movie, Bill simply walks down the stone steps with a casual gait. However, this blooper shows what happens after he reaches the bottom of the steps. After giving the shot his stamp of approval, Quentin Tarantino holds out a hand looking for a high five. Carradine gives him a high five without even stopping. He just keeps walking, unfazed, not even bothering to let go of Tarantino's hand. Then he proceeds to show off some martial-arts moves; he strikes a defensive pose and then delivers a kick that nearly hits the camera. Of course, he soon loses interest and walks out of frame, grinning.
Tarantino said exactly what Zoller was thinking
Fredrick Zoller (Daniel Brühl) can't take a hint. This Nazi from "Inglourious Basterds" keeps making passes at the icy Shosanna, completely oblivious to the fact that she is a Jewish girl who was orphaned by the Nazis and now hates Zoller's guts. Zoller is so self-centered and dense that Quentin Tarantino couldn't help but make fun of the character in an amusing blooper.
Clearly Shosanna would rather be anywhere than across the table from Zoller, so when she sees an opportunity to escape at the end of the scene, she takes it. Zoller stands at the window, watching her leave. His face isn't visible to viewers, but no doubt he is wearing a pout. After the shot ends, Tarantino suddenly announces what Brühl's character is clearly thinking but nobody dares say out loud: "Was it something I said?" What makes this even more entertaining is that Tarantino says it in a goofy voice that sounds nothing like Brühl.
Bruce Willis predicted Pulp Fiction would be the peak of his career
We think it's safe to say that nobody knew what a huge cult classic "Pulp Fiction" would become. But perhaps Quentin Tarantino and Bruce Willis had some idea of what lay in store for them. In one clip from behind the scenes of "Pulp Fiction," Tarantino leans in close to Willis and asks him, "So, Mr. Willis, let me ask you a question here. Is this the finest moment of your acting career or what?" Not missing a beat, Willis jokes, "It's the pinnacle," adding, "People years from now will say, 'Whatever happened to Willis? He had such a good career going.' And they'll look back to this point, [and say] 'This is where he rolled over.'"
If you look back on the career of Bruce Willis, Tarantino wasn't wrong. Although "Die Hard" is his most iconic role and the one that propelled Willis into stardom, "Pulp Fiction" is probably the film that best showcases his dramatic acting chops and his action-hero skills at the same time. But Willis might have been wrong about going downhill after "Pulp Fiction." Following the release of this 1994 cult classic, Willis still starred in successful films such as "The Sixth Sense," and later in his career appeared in critically-acclaimed movies like "Looper" and "Moonrise Kingdom." Still, for many fans, "Pulp Fiction" easily made it to the top of their list of the best Bruce Willis films.
Quentin Tarantino danced for a scene in Pulp Fiction
A funny thing happened on the set of "Pulp Fiction" while the team was filming the scene where Vincent Vega (John Travolta) and Mia Wallace (Uma Thurman) take to the dance floor. While Travolta and Thurman were doing the twist on the stage, Quentin Tarantino was dancing along with them. In fact, there are over two minutes of footage showing the director cutting a rug.
At a glance, it may look like Tarantino felt an uncontrollable urge to boogie, but in fact he was trying to provide a visual reference for Travolta and Thurman. Of course, Tarantino admitted on The Graham Norton Show that he was in no position to teach the legendary Travolta how to dance; he was merely demonstrating what type of dance he was looking for. Tarantino also shared that he wanted Vincent and Mia to have two different dancing styles. "When Vince twists, I wanted him to be kind of rigid," he said. Mia's dancing style, on the other hand, had a very different source of inspiration: a Disney movie. The director wanted Thurman to mimic the delicate yet clumsy dancing of the animated cat Duchess (Eva Gabor) from "The Aristocats." With that image in mind, some fans will never be able to see Mia the same ever again.
A cell phone went off on the set of Inglourious Basterds
Just because Tarantino is willing to bust some moves on the dance floor, that doesn't mean he's not serious about his job. Eli Roth, who worked with Tarantino on "Inglourious Basterds," told Chron that Tarantino was pretty strict about keeping production moving along without any interruptions. "If you are having fun on the set," said Roth, "you are not getting things done. There were no cell phones or Blackberries or laptops allowed on the set. Save that stuff for your trailer." This was especially important during the shooting of "Inglourious Basterds," since cell phones would not only be distracting but also anachronistic if they appeared in this World War II movie.
In an interview promoting "Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood," Brad Pitt shared that it was mandatory for cast members to surrender their phones before coming onto the set. "This is sacred ground," he explained. Yet the entire production team heard when one person's cell phone started ringing. Everybody was outraged, according to Pitt: "You would have thought someone walked into the Sistine Chapel and took a s***."
The owner of the cell phone never came forward. Frustrated, Tarantino sent the entire crew home for the rest of the day; Pitt said it was almost like Tarantino was putting the entire team in timeout for this transgression. As Tarantino recalled, he told his crew, "I ask you for one thing. And if you have no more respect for me than that, then go home."
Tarantino always asks the cast for one more take
There's one tradition that always seems to happen on the set of every Quentin Tarantino movie: a mantra that Tarantino and his team love to say.
Once Quentin Tarantino finds a take he is happy with, he often asks the crew to complete one more take, because why not? As Tarantino explained, he knows that he probably already has all the footage he needs. Yet Tarantino wants to do it one more time anyway, because this is why he got into the film industry — he loves the act of creation. So Tarantino will ask the cast and crew, "Why are we gonna do one more?" and each time they will answer with a resounding cry of "Because we love making movies!" This has become Tarantino's motto. "If we're gonna dedicate months, and in some cases years, to something," he said, "then we owe it to ourselves to enjoy it." Brad Pitt added, "Everyone [says this line] with no embarrassment. Everyone's in."
In these blooper reels from "Inglourious Basterds" and "Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood," Tarantino can be seen leading his team in a chorus of "Because we love making movies!" In the latter clip, he is standing on top of a truck, waving his arms emphatically like an orchestra conductor.
The Bride's stunt double couldn't stop laughing
A series of hilarious "Kill Bill, Vol. 1" bloopers could change how you watch the iconic kitchen fight scene. Stunt double Zoë Bell, who has worked on multiple Quentin Tarantino movies, was standing in for Uma Thurman as the Bride in this scene. Meanwhile, Vivica Fox played Vernita.
For the shot where Vernita throws a shelf on top of the Bride, Tarantino instructed Bell on what would be going through her character's head, beat-by-beat. "[It's like] three stages," said Tarantino. "One is like, [you] feel the hit. Then it's like, 'Ow, motherf***er!' And then it's like, get up." Once the shot was completed, Tarantino joked, "I could do this all night, but I think we got it." The director may have been able to do it all night, but we suspect that Bell probably wouldn't want to be hit with a shelf over and over again.
Of course, we could be wrong. After all, Bell certainly seemed to enjoy it. As she dug herself out from under the broken shelf and ran out of the frame, she was inexplicably giggling. This prompted somebody offscreen (most likely Vivica Fox) to ask, "How do you giggle your way out of that?" Sure, it probably hurt a lot. But then, as a professional stunt woman, Bell probably lives for moments like these.