10 Incredibly Sneaky Film Director Cameos You Totally Missed

6. Quentin Tarantino In Inglourious Basterds

The Hobbit Battle Of The Five Armies Peter Jackson
Yui Mok/PA Archive

Quentin Tarantino is famous for his many, many cameos, having featured in a bunch of movies directed by his friends, as well as a good chunk of his own.

But Inglourious Basterds contains his most hands-on movie appearance to date - quite literally.

While shooting the scene that shows the death of Diane Kruger's Bridget von Hammersmark at the hands of Christoph Waltz's Hans Landa, Tarantino was not too happy with the intensity of the moment.

So, in order to make the character's death feel more realistic, the director made a suggestion; he would strangle Kruger for real, right up until the point it became too dangerous to carry on.

As if it wasn't too dangerous in the first place.

diane kruger inglourious basterds
Universal Pictures

The scene cuts between wide shots of Waltz throttling Kruger and close-up shots of a pair of hands round her neck - a pair of hands that belong to Tarantino, who was full-on squeezing his leading lady's throat.

Now try watching this scene with the knowledge that Kruger was uncomfortably close to death during filming. You're welcome!

Contributor
Contributor

Danny has been with WhatCulture for almost nine years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. He has been writing and video editing for 10+ years, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers and uploading them to YouTube (they're admittedly a bit rusty by today's standards). If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order or to tell you about the making of 1988's Remembrance of the Daleks, Danny is the person to ask.