20 Things You Didn't Know About Jackie Brown
A great novelist, a character actor regaining glory and a quirky filmmaker join for a very odd hit.
It's important to remember that the rise of Quentin Tarantino gave voice not only to one filmmaker, but a generation of them. The one-two punch of Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction not only gave prominence to Miramax, it also inspired a long line of forgotten or poor imitators throughout the 90s. The Boondock Saints, Two Days in the Valley, and Things To Do In Denver When You're Dead tried to ape the director's pop culture-obsessed dialogue and bold stylistic decisions learned from the days of blacksploitation and grindhouse cinema.
These weren't filmmakers who worked their way through the system to prove their salt, putting in their hours on television before graduating to features such as Spielberg and John Frankenheimer before them. These were film brats, raised working in video stores on Fellini binges.
But the director suddenly shifted into unexpected territory with his third feature, an adaptation of Elmore Leonard's novel Rum Punch. Leonard's crime fiction had seen the screen before, most successfully with the comedic Hollywood send-up Get Shorty, but the writer was more known for his Westerns. Other adaptations, like Frankenheimer's 52 Pick-Up, received mixed reception at best.
Rum Punch told the deceptively simple story of a flight attendant who makes extra cash smuggling money in from Mexico. After getting busted, she works with a reluctant bail bondsman to bring down a gunrunner. But Tarantino's own blend of inspirations and a genuine enthusiasm for the material led to one of his most controversial, ambitious work until Django Unchained.
20. It Was Always Going To Be Robert Forster
Oftentimes when looking over the production history of a film, the studio hems and haws for months on end, debating about casting, negotiating salaries and dealing with whatever personal issues said actor has had made public lately. This isn't the case with Tarantino, who writes with a fairly clear head about who he wants for a role, dream-casting scripts along the way. It's rare that an actor ha refused a role with such rich dialogue.
Such was the case with veteran character actor Robert Forster, who would go on to be nominated for an Oscar for his performance. Forster was largely known as a tough guy actor, taking on cop roles in movies like Alligator and a lot of B-movie fare throughout the 80s.
Brown, little did he know, wouldn't necessarily make him a household name, but it would elevate his status and open him up to roles in Mullholland Dr., The Descendants and perhaps most notably the mysterious vacuum cleaner repairman in Breaking Bad. He would die of brain cancer the day El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie debuted on Netflix.
And he certainly didn't forget what Brown wound up doing for his career, often promoting literacy campaigns by encouraging kids to read Leonard's novel.
Forster had auditioned for the role of Nice Guy Eddie in Reservoir Dogs, but Tarantino decided on tough guy Lawrence Tierney. By the time Jackie Brown had become a property, he didn't even have an agent.
Instead, Tarantino approached him at an L.A. restaurant, through the script on the table and said, "You're going to do this and that's all there is to it."