When the 2024 TCM Classic Film Festival kicked off with a 30th anniversary screening of “Pulp Fiction” on Thursday night, Uma Thurman, Samuel L. Jackson, John Travolta, and Harvey Keitel reunited at the TCL Chinese Theater to celebrate Quentin Tarantino’s seminal film. But while much of the discussion was devoted to praising Tarantino’s impact on the film industry, Thurman found time to have a laugh about the auteur’s lengthy production processes.
As all four actors recalled their first encounters with Tarantino when he was a young cinephile looking to prove himself in Hollywood, Thurman joked that “Pulp Fiction” was the last time Tarantino made an effort to keep his shoots on schedule and stick to his script.
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“I think it was probably the last film Quentin made that was on schedule, where he actually tried to make his days and make his weeks,” Thurman said to laughter from the audience. “I think after that, it’s been pretty improvisational for him.”
Jackson chimed in and explained that Tarantino allows his actors to spend an unprecedented amount of time rehearsing, which he said both improved his performance and made the actual shoot go more smoothly.
“We also rehearsed a lot,” Jackson said. “That’s one of the unique qualities that Quentin allows us as actors. John and I went to a soundstage at Sony, they marked up the floor, and we did the killing in the room, we did the car, we did everything we had to do. We rehearsed and rehearsed and rehearsed, so by the time we got there we knew what we had to do.”
The discussion of Tarantino’s increasingly drawn out creative process came on the day after the filmmaker scrapped his planned final film “The Movie Critic,” which was expected to shoot in Los Angeles this fall after nearly a year of pre-production.
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