#PULP FICTION CHARACTERS MOVIE#

Joining Tarantino's low-budget, off-beat passion project 'meant lowering his salary and risking his star status, but the strategy paid off royally,' critic Peter Bart later explained in his book, The Gross.

#PULP FICTION CHARACTERS MOVIE#

Jackson has been married to actress LaTanya Richardson since 1980, and they share one daughter, Zoe.īruce Willis was already a movie star when Pulp Fiction hit theaters in 1994, but at the time Tarantino cast him as Butch Coolidge, he was coming off a series of critical and box office failures (1993's Striking Distance, anyone?). In recognition of his outstanding success in film, Jackson received his first-ever honorary Oscar in 2022. He returned to Broadway in 2022 to star in August Wilson's The Piano Lesson. Jackson made his Broadway debut in 2011 when he played Martin Luther King Jr. His other roles include Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995), Deep Blue Sea (1999), Shaft (2000), Unbreakable (2000), The Incredibles (2004), Coach Carter (2005), Snakes on a Plane (2006), The Other Guys (2010), The Samaritan (2012), Kingsman: The Secret Service (2015), Kong: Skull Island (2017), The Hitman's Bodyguard (2017), Incredibles 2 (2018), Glass (2019) and Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard (2021) Jackson and Tarantino are also frequent collaborators, with Jackson appearing in the famed director's Jackie Brown (1997), Kill Bill: Volume 2 (2004), Django Unchained (2012) and The Hateful Eight (2015). In the years following Pulp Fiction, Jackson has become one of the most successful actors in Hollywood history, starring as Mace Windu in the Star Wars movie franchise and Nick Fury in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Jackson's role as Jules Winnfield earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor, while Calderón ended up appearing as Mia Wallace's bartender and assistant. Jackson later revealed on the DVD's special features that producer Lawrence Bender and Tarantino didn't know how the movie would end until they saw his take on the scene. (Jackson reportedly thought his audition was just a script reading, per The Daily Beast).īut when he auditioned again for what would become the film's final dinner scene, he tried reading the lines completely differently than he had practiced beforehand.

Jackson was one of the few actors Tarantino actually had in mind for the spiritual, no-nonsense hitman while he was writing the screenplay, but the actor nearly blew the opportunity after Paul Calderón upstaged him in an early audition. They had three children - Jett, who passed away in 2009, Ella Bleu and Benjamin. Travolta was married to actress Kelly Preston from 1991 until her death in July 2020. He was also featured on the short-lived Quibi series Die Hart, costarring Kevin Hart, in 2020, which was later turned into a movie for Prime Video in 2023. Simpson: American Crime Story, receiving an Emmy and Golden Globe nomination for his performance as attorney Robert Shapiro. In 2016, the prolific actor starred on The People v. Travolta followed Pulp Fiction with a hot streak of hits, including the 1995 crime comedy Get Shorty - which earned him a Golden Globe for best actor in a musical or comedy in 1996. The role paid off for Travolta, and he received an Oscar nomination for Best Actor in 1995. By using Uma, me, and Bruce, he balanced it with pop culture, and that wouldn't have happened with Daniel Day or anyone else vying for that part.' He continued, 'But I understand now, in retrospect, why he did. 'I remember it was a big deal with Miramax, too, because Daniel Day was hotter than heck, and I was colder than Alaska, so the idea that Quentin went for me over Daniel Day-Lewis was a very big deal,' Travolta told the outlet in 2017. But Tarantino had his mind set on Travolta, and the part played a major role in reviving the actor's career. Pulp Fiction writer-director Quentin Tarantino wanted Michael Madsen for the role, but when he passed in favor of playing Virgil Earp in 1994's Wyatt Earp, the studios insisted Daniel Day-Lewis, who won an Oscar for 1989's My Left Foot, be cast instead.Īccording to The Daily Beast, it was the only role Day-Lewis ever actively pursued. John Travolta was, of course, already a major star when he was cast as the Francophile hitman Vincent Vega - but his career had taken a bit of a dip before his casting.

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Pulp fiction characters