Joe Rogan Experience #1675 — Quentin Tarantino Transcript

Transcript

0:00 The Joe Rogan Experience. We met each other at the comic store, I think, maybe once or twice, actually. You wrote True Romance. There you go. And so the thing about it was, so that was the kind of plan. Well, I finally got some money, I haven't done shit. I can't get some interest to make it like a real movie, then okay, then I'll help you and we'll make the little home movie version.

3:10 working at the video store was the part that was real or you know everything else was like that The actors would walk. And then all of a sudden, just as bad as everything went up until that time was as good as it went for the next six or seven years rented out a theater after a show we did in Tacoma. one of the most violent scenes at the end, if somebody else made this movie,

5:54 Yeah, I guess you can make that argument, but it's just, you know, like I watched Death Proof the other day. and they're gonna die in horrific ways yeah and that is a signature of your and we were both so Roger and me yeah it's gonna be examine it, and it'll be us, and then time for movies ever because it was just this kind of politically correct time. Now, in the 50s,

8:30 They were fucked up, but they were interesting characters. And you sit down and you follow them, whether it be Travis Bickle or Charlie Rain in Rolling Thunder or Joe, Peter Boyle's character in Joe. And even a movie that pushed the envelope and tried to do chancy things, well, it could do it for about an hour. And almost apologizes for who he was the entire movie, the whole rest of the movie before that happened.

10:44 And now he's, like, on during the parade. And now he's like leading a secret mission. I mean, let's say cast him playing a dope like he is in the vacation movies. Yeah, yeah, yeah. any weird controversy that happens with him i'm almost like i think the guy just got overwhelmed especially for a comedian. Right, right, right. that's amazing that's amazing when you think about the group of talent that he was working with the

13:31 Tim Matheson is basically playing Chevy Chase. If you say it's going to be a problem, it's going to be a problem. And I remember like, okay, for instance, I'll give you an example. In other countries, they were making bold, wild cinema. He's got like all his favorite moments from slasher movies of women getting murdered, And then one of the guys said, well, they won't let you, Quentin.

16:23 we changed the 90s. Everyone went over the bridge. stuff but they was talking about how much how much talking was right but um when we when I finished it and had been on the film festival circuit with it for But with that torture scene, you're going to alienate women and everybody will enjoy it One, I saw that he was right because people were always walking out during that scene.

18:50 opens theatrically. It's what the movie is. Wow. you know, my professional life for like a long, long time. So it's like, it's, you know, A lot of people read a lot of what that could possibly mean. as if that's okay. Do you think that no one talked to him They all knew. I mean, it's just one of those stories that goes on. That's where he sat. Like going from being a guy working in a video store to entering into this bizarre world of power and influence?

23:50 and like meeting all the people I can get here for the 1030 show with this girl that I was dating when I first And then I remember very clearly, like, at the end of the film, like, even in the middle of the film, going, this is the craziest fucking movie I've ever seen in my life. like sometimes you'll see a work of art, a something, and they go, But one of my favorite directors is Sergio Leone.

26:55 And they were trying to fill that subgenre. was a guy i knew he was a uh he's like a film analyst. His name is Dave Scow. And all of a sudden, they have a conversation about an I Love Lucy episode. That just comes from being Gen X, man. I mean that was the whole thing about that generation is the idea that – OK. Speed Racer. We had all these kind shows we liked. We had Speed Racer.

29:18 And so when we got older, it was about talking about that stuff. But the dialogue-heavy stuff, it was a beautiful counterbalance for the explosive violence and the wild craziness of your films. I went down to the comedy stores, We walk in the comedy store on stage, You know, boy, that was the whole thing. Okay, everybody, here we go. It was I mean, like I I mean, I spilled drinks.

32:30 And then, yeah, there it was. I thought it was the most eye-opening stuff So it was like the Sam Kennison She was like this big, like bold personality. She starts doing the routine of him paying money to, It never ends. Well, dude. This is like no one's giving him shit Yeah. Unstoppable that I didn't know. Okay, then I didn't know well spanish whoa could you speak spanish before that yeah i think she had like uh you know just high

35:55 it literally came out of a brain Like that I could do comedy because I always thought comedy was those guys you thought you saw in The Tonight Show and then like a couple of other, Bob Nelson. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. alright, the guy who Would come on doing their bit. That was probably literally the heyday And Mitzi would go, and bombing in your pocket like that

39:45 Yeah. you know, like the Gary Shandling time, you know, But it's the, this, it was, no, Brian Regan is, is the time we're talking about. But never really made it in television and films and stuff like that. You're like, what? I mean, like for a three night engagement. Day the Laughter Died. Yeah, get out of here, you fucking bitch. Very few people would have the confidence or have the the the

43:04 to be Andrew Silverstein. That must have been wild, though, to be there at that time. Master what wish can I grant you Well, I don't know if it had any, like, you know, it was just exciting. I was, like, in my beginning 30s. And then you put him in a massive movie but there's a story behind it it's not just a normal cast list the idea i remember my agent

46:34 It was like, no, throw more names on there. well, I'm not going to take off John Travolta. Two weeks before I'm finished with it, Michael Madsen accepts the role in Wyatt Earp, the Kevin Costner, Lawrence Kasdan movie. And so I say I want to cast him. have anybody you and he wasn't at while the rest of the industry was telling me I was crazy, was, you know, one of my favorite

50:06 I could literally face down And so I said, And then all of a sudden it was okay to have Travolta. back he's fucking sensational. He's been doing crappy stuff, But not like, a festival in Italy, the Taramina Film Festival. And then they're all like, oh, my God, he's going to dance. Yeah. and I always kind of just have amnesia No, it just gets better and better and better.

54:27 then for the next two weeks, Is it true that you have a 20-hour cut I was like, so not, didn't shoot or anything that i came up with later or i or i just never never even bothered I mean, like, okay, say, okay. But I can assume that that's going to happen. more before you ever started putting pen to paper. I well, now you know so much more before you ever

57:50 And then from that point on, they're writing the story. But I'm trying not to do that. I mostly wrote at night, all night long, go to bed in the morning. Sorry about that. so it's nice. And I'd go into my, so if I finished, okay, so either I'm not finished with but not do it. that from every once in a while, but I just think the shift? I don't know.

1:01:35 I came up with the idea and came up with who the deadly vipers would be. It's so crazy. No, it's very Sh violence is so fun yeah because it's so cartoonish almost it's so But, boy, it's going to be sad. And that way you can keep everything in it. I go, OK, that's great. Did you always know that it was going to be her? You wait for Eastwood. Look, you know, I mean anything that required her to do like somersaults or anything like that. That's pretty much so we Bell

1:05:19 because the epper family is like the flying Luindas, all right, of the stunt world. we fucking want all right and uh and you know and zoe and like jackie chan zoe will do it on camera No, I want my foot on the bumper and I want my hand on the belt. It was between, it was between, well, 60 miles an hour at slowest. it hurts her. If things go sideways, she had a metal cable that, uh to her, like, you know, basically like the button of her pants.

1:08:17 Right. And if you look at it, if the camera is in front of the car, which it was a lot of times, Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Buddy Joe Hooker was the one driving Kurt's car. to wrap this up. we've just burned out beat the shit out of them and then we had mechanics work well that came And I will have done my part. And so I was saying to Sean, like, I'm thinking about getting a safer

1:11:53 I bought it with my true romance. Okay. When he did that in the first one, that collision is so horrific, that head-on collision. How do you do this with real people? And we did it in slow motion. Then we kind of replay it back. So it's like, okay, all this And so they just drove right into each other. Absolutely. Because it really is like you know we had four and then you kept working on it.

1:15:52 What do you do with it? Schultz's tooth wagon from, Cause that was just a rental. but I, blue powder, I think that would be fantastic. That would be cool. Yeah, yeah. like beloved American don't tell them what you're going to use it for but i mean not just just the general public because And so I had a whole group of friends in Austin. first we did it at the Dobie when it was,

1:19:01 And we would go in and show the movies there. since I made it take place in Austin, The crew that hung around, we would just start drinking Oh, wow. And it was going to be Mickey Rourke. Really? Yeah. Oh, wow. where... Goddamn agents. Yeah, it was one of those and he said yes and we got together and did it and me and kurt have had a magnificent relationship

1:21:44 know so at first it was like just calling him up. Right. And then like gave him the script to and the agents were just sort of, oh, well, they need him. Arsonist disguised as fireman. Well, okay. Thank you. Did you always know from the beginning you were going to do 10? If I were to just stop at Right. bands, musicians, singers, sports dudes that you've loved.

1:24:39 before I lose to Leon Spinks. And so it's not, But you're on top guy look i don't think i'm that guy look i don't think i'm that guy. Look, I don't think I'm that guy. Look, I don't think I'm that guy either. But like, but you know, it's almost like you're not saying this, but in the way back, back, grand plan because to me than you've ever been. I think you've always been awesome

1:26:23 No. And it's terrific. He's 15 months old. I look at him and either he's making me laugh hysterically because he's just doing something funny or I just get touched looking at him and I'm in tears. that that's like, he doesn't know what he looks like and he doesn't care. Something bugs him. And then eventually I'll get around to doing – Well, I've only written one book

1:29:14 Maybe I should do one of these for one of my movies. Then usually I go into – because I have a record room in my house. That's why my opening scenes always are impactful, I wasn't trying to turn it into a movie. And then in between projects, it's what I would do to get myself back into writing again. And after Hateful Eight, I figured that was going to be the same thing.

1:32:20 So you started out in book form and then shifted back and forth play to screenwriting.writing, so that it makes a natural sort of a progression for you to come back and review it as a book. Yeah, sure, let's do that. and they meet another actor that was a friend of my dad's. The third act, a 20-minute scene where they go to a bar and shoot the shit for 20 minutes.

1:34:32 I read a bunch of different books on it. He has a couple of mutual friends, so he sent me the book. in researching the article, he realized like there's a lot more to these killings than anybody How he managed to carry that through for 20 years is unfathomable. after 20 years of it being his life, This is about him building a case. Yes. This is about him building a case.

1:36:40 that Charlie kept getting out of jail establishes that there was a real really find out what the truth of the story was. and it's just a belief. He actually did after they did what they did. He would only talk to Tex. Tex was driving. I think possibly they went over the fence, I had already done something like that I'm not ripping myself off. So I decided to do it.

1:42:15 Yeah, we were all just like young enough to like, you know, heard the name Manson. Now you're not dealing with Sharon and Jay. and goes, Just letting you know, Dan Aykroyd, first of all, is a strange character. The skull vodka. Well, I mean, but that's actually one of the things in Ghostbusters. His, like, you know, his connection to the paranormal

1:44:38 Well, okay. I get that. It's explained more in the book. But the thing is, like, they do a two falls out of three contest. And he gives him no resistance whatsoever. they do the second move again. tricked. If Cliff hadn't been so vicious, On Green Hornet. It's called tagging. When you hit a stuntman for real. I wonder what that was about. Oh, yeah.

1:48:31 He, you know, But as a killer who has killed men before in a jungle, he'd kill Bruce Lee. It's in the book. I mean, at a certain point, I was choreographing the fights in Kill Bill. You can't do that. It's like somebody's going to fuck up and the fight's going to be over in 30 seconds. Right. You can't do that. who has yeah how to take a punch There's no way that was ever going to happen.

1:51:35 If you're a Kung Fu guy, you believe in Wing Chun, that was your thing. but two questions. He may be the greatest martial art practitioner as an athlete. There's no two questions. They always had to do patty kick. They always had to well, what would happen if you and Muhammad Ali fought? And it's like, you know, Well, the trick is I got to be able to fight him without gloves and I got to have kicking privileges.

1:54:02 So Inoki literally dropped to his back and was kicking Ali's legs. So it's like Ali had done some weird stuff too. Yeah, well, like I said, I understood where his family was coming from. movies you've ever made oh god no no like what's the biggest well like uh like the violent the Right. Because I'm not playing fucking favorites. with a woman, It's supposed to hurt.

1:57:18 But this is not common. and it's going to be scarier and I'm using this genre for my purposes. But you've managed to get your vision in a very, in many ways, pure. get going. It's like every next one was okay, wherever I happen to be at that given time was We talked about it and whatever. I can handle it. the first week the movie comes out? or in the New York Times, and they're going to write some think piece about it or on this website or that website.

2:01:32 wing because of the character in the film more on the right. And then, How come they don't talk about during those two days. And she could have just been having a running commentary with her dog about picking up Roman's dry cleaning and getting the book. Well, I think you're right. you know, for the course, but it doesn't, but I have no illusions that that's what the director

2:04:33 But within three paragraphs, I see where this guy or woman is coming from. That's one of my favorite movies because I movies. I feel like, wow, that's Except for the stagecoach driver. And chaos. Yeah. Well said. So I don't know what the next story is going to be. No. where I need to outdo everything I considered, I thought it would be something interesting

2:07:53 I've become But I could very well But I want to do Hateful Eight later on stage, and I want to do Reservoir Dogs later on stage. for Reservoir Dogs. later, just imagining And just the idea of being able to Right. uh, He was great. biography called endless highway and it's one of the best actor biographies I just even the fact that he's sort of like this

2:11:40 was supposed to be Bruce Lee, too, right? The man only she knew. Well, Betty Yeah. Ed Abramson. Abrams or Abramson? Ed Abramson. I might be pronouncing it wrong, He created Kawhi Chan Kane. Let's get rid of him. Okay. They didn't work out some money thing. and he read the Kung Fu script William Smith in Conan. And the head dance in it that was excited Broadway.

2:17:16 All right. with Jason Lee. It's said All right. It's wild, though. She lied about that. Well, she's the one writing the fucking book. true? Yeah. that tv show for martial arts and for for it was just like when I was a kid I mean it was a giant David Carradine became a rock star That had to be a trip the Buddhism part so right. we're not really using

2:21:38 is learning is Confucianism. they always tried to write those scenes. Yeah, they knew what they were tuned into it yeah yeah they knew what Kane is consoling her it's just such a waste. And the pain is reminding you what it's like to be human. What's the matter? My parents are dead. I'm all alone in the world. That's what's the matter. What do you really hear?

2:24:47 It's kind of amazing that that show got made that way I bet. Yeah, and released it. Kwajeng Kane's take on violence was so reluctant. Yeah, right. I mean just – Bruce Lee was never the actor that david carradine was ever ever no he was amazing in that show and I mean, there's a whole lot of, Right, of course. by these massive roles. so when, like, is Brandon Lee.

2:27:20 No. Yeah, it was Carradine. and he meets brandon Wow. When you look back at all this that you've done, It was a big year that year. directing episodic television yeah so you know just to be able to follow my muse wherever it That was pretty amazing. I haven't seen it It's really good Right. you're to me at the end of the day you're either either doing it on set or you're not doing it. You're either capturing it in camera or you're not.

2:32:23 And it's about building real sets, not like, well, a little bit of the set, and then the rest is all created. Like it probably never would have been done that way if done now, that is really impressive, is if you look at Remy Harlan's Cutthroat Island. And they build entire towns yeah I'm not I mean it's terrific oh wow That's the big chase. the story of the greatest lover who ever lived, died, and lived again.

2:35:01 on the bed i was like oh jesus i remember. I remember watching that. And then it was, you would see how fucking crazy I am. But like you're like going, oh, when they hug each other. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Did you ever think of like doing more of that? I was playing this wild character. We had a lot of fun people making it. The crew was Here's Quentin Tarantino, the bartender

2:37:11 Admittedly, I would have liked to have done more of that, but they just didn't seem to be in the cards. You know, I don't want to, like, don't fax me fucking call sheets, and now I got to get up in the fucking morning. I actually had an interesting situation, though, because it was like during that time I was really looking for more roles, and they didn't really necessarily happen.

2:38:30 I'm editing Kill Bill 2. And so I lose a bunch of weight and everything. So I look much better. I make a good impression. and Wim Winders and you know and all these like really kind of interesting stuff is coming down the pike. that she didn't want you to do it well yeah well but actually she made sense like oh yeah you're No, no, no, no. I had a good situation and I lived up to it.

2:41:24 rear view mirror. It's like if someone could sit down and listen to George Carlin talk about how how he wrote stand-up yeah yeah yeah you know or richard pryor well again like i said when it's in the rearview mirror yeah i'll be more open to it well i'm just glad who's just a massive fan of films. I can't, you know, That was cutting edge. I pick about 15 movies that we would call archive movie, video archive movies.

2:43:48 like to us this was the real noise this was the shit right and we loved it and around that era? Yeah To Live and Die in LA I was thinking about writing a book where it's like I would just deal with like those massacred everybody. Bill Paxton was Yeah, so it would be interesting to come from this horrible decade and to pick out the 15 movies that for us back then that I would see scenes in movies that it would be like, oh, I would like to do a scene like that or that would be cool.

2:46:01 At the theaters. music and comic books. He read them both. You know, he's not really driving. You were a fan of comic books. of a shit about it anymore. They really haven't. There's the one pirate queen that has all those black African guys as her crew. Really? I was really hoping for the Jason Momoa Conan. But here's the thing, though, about it. I thought he did a pretty good job in that movie. Yeah, the movie was just shit. But here's the deal, though.

2:49:45 And then I'm a big Jason Momoa fan, especially from him from the Game of Thrones. Because I love the, I'm a big fan of the comic book. And killed himself in his early 30s, right? Oh, okay. It is crazy that this one guy had this vision for these characters. Robert Rodriguez, was he really interested in doing that? That's important to Robert. You know, listen, I've taken up a lot of your time, and I really, really fucking appreciate you being here, man.

2:52:03 Yeah. Oh, good deal. So it's like it's exciting. Oh that's so shit. Right right that no that is Bye, everybody.