Bruce Willis: this director did not want him, and yet it is one of his best roles


The character of Butch in Pulp Fiction is one of Bruce Willis’ best roles. Yet Tarantino didn’t have his name in mind at all. A small meeting organized by Harvey Keitel between the filmmaker and Willis will change everything…

Uma Thurman, Samuel L. Jackson, John Travolta, Harvey Keitel, Ving Rhames and Bruce Willis. With his burger-loving thugs, dancers in their spare time and other robbers of all kinds, Quentin Tarantino completely turned Cannes festival-goers over with his Pulp Fiction in 1994, which won him the coveted Palme d’Or.

Right in the middle of its all-star cast, Quentin Tarantino’s second feature film reserves a special place for the interpreter of John McClane. In the shoes of boxer Butch Coolidge, relentlessly hunted down by Marsellus Wallace’s men, Bruce Willis blends perfectly into the Tarantinesque landscape of the film and instantly manages to appropriate its codes while remaining resolutely himself.

In a podcast called 2 Bears, 1 Cave with Tom Segura, the filmmaker told precisely how Willis ended up being part of the adventure, which was not at all his original intentions. “It’s interesting. At the time, he was probably in the Top 5, and even Top 3, of the biggest stars. Originally, I happened to write the role for Matt Dillon. He told me that he had been a big fan of the script for my previous film, Reservoir Dogs.

But rather than playing Butch, Dillon wanted to embody the character of Vincent, who will be played by Travolta. The problem is that the film project had in the meantime received the green light from Miramax, which had approved the list of actors and actresses considered for the roles. Dillon therefore declined the role, and Tarantino found himself without an interpreter for Butch.

A meeting between QT and Willis organized by Harvey Keitel at his home sealed the collaboration. “I had never met him before. And it turns out he’s a huge Reservoir Dogs fan. I mean huge fan. He said to me, ‘If I had read Reservoir Dogs, I would have agreed to do it! It’s one of my [films] favorites, me and my friends watch it all the time. We know the dialogues by heart. We even redo the dialogues between us “Wow, it’s really incredible!”

Miramax

Tarantino explains that Harvey Keitel (who was, we recall, a very big support for Reservoir Dogs) had actually slipped a few words to Willis ahead of this meeting, encouraging the actor to read the script before the interview.

“You know, you should take a look, Quentin has a new script, there’s something you might like in it. And he’s coming on Sunday, so if you want to say hello to him, now would be a good time. That’s exactly what Bruce did. So Bruce called his agent and said “hey, give me that fucking Tarantino script, I want to read it. So he had already read the script when he showed up for our meeting. tell QT

After this little meeting, Bruce Willis and Tarantino went for a walk by the sea. “And then he lets me go, ‘So listen, I read your script.’ And he goes, ‘yeah, so, I want to play Vincent.’ I say, ‘Well, the thing is, John Travolta has to play Vincent”. He said to me: “Good! John is great, John is great! John is good, he is good. […] Here’s what we’ll do: “John is good for the role of Vincent, and I wouldn’t want to screw that up, okay?”

Willis then sets his sights on the character of Jules, but QT is obviously not keen on changing the writing of his character, supposed to be African-American as a bonus. The next day, He tries:

“You were naturally drawn to the character of Vincent, and you were naturally drawn to the character of Jules. There’s a third track, which I think you’d be perfect for. And one of the reasons I think you would be perfect for Butch is that I see him as a leader of the 50s. I mean he could be a star of a 50s movie.

And the actors I think of when I think of the character of Butch are more actors from the 1950s, like a ralph meeker or one Aldo Ray. I would just like to ask you to read the script one more time with the idea that you play Butch. I’m just asking you to read it with the other characters out of your head, and with this character in your mind.” The rest, as they say, is history.



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