and exploitation movies. No, they didn’t.
At all. They had no idea what the fuck
they were watching. It meant nothing
to them, alright, what we were doing. So
that was a case of being a little too cool
for school. But as far as the movie
playing in England as the movie, I think
people took it okay. Although there is a
story. I’m in London doing press on the
film before opening weekend. And I go to
Edgar Wright, “Hey, let’s you and me and
your friends go see it on Friday night in
Piccadilly.” So Nira [Park], his producer,
and Joe Cornish and the whole Edgar
group, we head into the heart of
Piccadilly Circus to go see Death Proof
on opening day. And we walk in the
theatre and there’s about 13 people in
there. On the opening 8.30 show, alright?
[Laughs] That was a rather humbling
experience. But we sat down and watched
it and had a good time. Edgar was like
[launches into Edgar Wright impression
that sounds more like Jason Statham],
“That was very impressive. I think I
would have turned around and walked
out of there. The fact you said, ‘Fuck it,’
and sat down, I admired that.’”Your first Hollywood job was as a PA on a
Dolph Lundgren workout video, Maximum
Potential. Was it a good experience?
ROBIN BREKKE
Yeah, it was a ball! It was me and Roger
Avary working on it, and John Langley
and Malcolm Barbour who created the
show Cops, just before they created it.
John Langley used to come into Video
Archives, so he knew us and thought,
“Oh, I’m going to give those guys
a shot.” It was really fun, though the
cinematographer was really, really mean
to me. But I remember going down to
Venice Beach and there’s this grassy area
where Dolph Lundgren is going to do
his exercises, with people behind him
following along. And there’s just an acre
of dogshit, all over this small area of
grass. So me and Roger have to clean it
up, alright? We’re scooping up the dogshit
and the crew is fucking around, and me
and Roger are going, “This is literally
a shitty job.” We start talking about how
we want to be directors one day and I go,
“The day when I’m a director, man,
I’m gonna be out there with the PAs,
scooping up the dogshit right with them!”
Cut to Pulp Fiction. We’re out there
shooting something and sure enough,
there’s a bunch of grass and some dogshit
on it. And they grab a couple of PAs and
go, “Clean that shit up.” And I go [sighs],
“Okaaaay...” I joined them, I grabbed
a shovel and I did a couple of scoops.
ALAMY, LANDMARK I had a debt to pay.
Why wouldn’t you? But I guess we’re
talking about the ’50s, ’60s or ’70s. And
I would have to say the ’60s now, not
because I’m promoting my movie, but
because I’ve been in such a deep dive on
it for the last two to three years. But I
think that’s actually legit, because you’ve
got the great pop bubblegum hits on one
side, you’ve got Bob Dylan on another
side... and on and on.What is the Gimp’s backstory in
Pulp Fiction, and what happened
to him after Butch left?
RADU ANDRONESCU
It doesn’t quite play this way in the
movie, but in my mind when I wrote it,
the Gimp’s dead. Butch knocked him out
and then when he passed out he hung
himself. In terms of backstory, he was
like a hitchhiker or somebody that they
picked up seven years ago, and they
trained him so he’s the perfect victim.
I heard a funny thing from Jon Lovitz,
who knew Stephen Hibbert, the guy whoplayed the Gimp, from The Groundlings.
Jon watches Pulp Fiction for the first time
and is like, “What the fuck is this?” And
he stays in the theatre as the credit crawl
is going on and sees Stephen’s name. He
said out loud, “WHAT? I know the
Gimp?!” [Laughs uproariously]You worked on Crimson Tide. What’s your
favourite submarine movie?
LIZZIE HAMPSON
It would be between Crimson Tide — I’m
happy to say — and The Hunt For Red
October. My third one would probably be
Gray Lady Down. Charlton Heston and
David Carradine. It’s a good one.Do you think people misunderstood Death
Proof?
CLAIRE WADDINGHAM
Well, in America they got Grindhouse.
In Australia you got Death Proof. With
Grindhouse, I think me and Robert just
felt that people had a little more of a
concept of the history of double featuresTop to bottom:
Crimson Tide —
Tarantino’s favourite
submarine movie.
He worked on the
script for the film; In
front of the camera in
TV’s Alias, alongside
Melissa George; 1966’s
The Good, The Bad
And The Ugly —
the director’s
favourite film, with
his favourite shot.