Happy Sad Confused - Quentin Tarantino, Vol. II

Episode Date: July 22, 2019

Name a more influential filmmaker from the past 30 years than Quentin Tarantino. Go ahead, we'll wait. The one and only auteur is back with his 9th film, another stone cold classic, "Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood", this time teaming up two iconic movie stars for the first time, Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt. Quentin returns to "Happy Sad Confused" to discuss where this story came from, why he's content to soon retire from feature film directing, and discuss what may end up being his last slew of projects--including a new "Kill Bill" story and a "Star Trek" film! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Please play responsibly. You may not realize it, but every minute of every day, you're enjoying your First Amendment freedoms. You can wear what you want, give out your opinion for free, even if it's unpopular. Listen to your playlist. You can put a sign out on your front lawn that says, vote for Bigfoot, someone you can believe in. Pray to the God of your choice, or don't. You have the right to hang with a posse that thinks like you do. Tell the government what you think about its policies.

They're the freedoms that let you be you, and they're all brought to. to you by the First Amendment. Moving like a river in my soul. Learn more at freedomforum.org. Prepare your ears, humans. Happy, sad, confused begins now. Today on Happy, Sad, Confused, begins now. On Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, retirement, and Star Trek.

Hey guys, I'm Josh Horowitz. Welcome to another edition of Happy, Sad, Confused. Yes, it is a special one today. One of the great filmmakers working today, one of the great filmmakers working in the last 30 years. One of the great filmmakers, I would say, of all time, Quentin Tarantino is the guest on today's edition of Happy Sad Confused. For those of you who have listened to the podcast for some time, you know by now that Quentin is actually a past guest on the show. He was on for The Hateful Eight a few years back. That was such delight. He came into my office back in New York a few years back for that one. This time,

he wasn't making a trip to New York. He didn't have anything planned. So let me set the scene for you because this was exciting. Once upon a time in Hollywood was doing all of their press out in Los Angeles. Very small amount of press. Um, you know, usually for, these kinds of movies or big summer movies, you're looking at multiple days of junkets and premieres and red carpets and just different opportunities, talk shows. You know, pulling the veil back a little bit for you guys. These guys aren't doing that much press. And can you blame them? They don't really need to. It's kind of, this film sells itself in a way, a Quentin Tarantino film, a Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio film. These things.

sell the movie. So they don't really need to do that much. That being said, I of course wanted to talk to all the principal players, and luckily for me, it all worked out in a really fun way. So here's what I can tell you. Beyond this conversation with Quentin, I also want to tease that I did get a chance to sit down, not for the podcast, but for my work at MTV, an on-camera conversation with Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Margot Robbie, which even saying that kind of boggles my mind. I mean, I've done this a lot. I've been doing this for a while. I've talked to everybody, it seems like, and including those three guys, but to talk to those three at the same time for what was, you know, a solid 15-minute conversation, which doesn't sound like that

long, but in television interview terms is actually a significant period of time. You know, we had our own setup. It wasn't like, it was just a special, it was a special experience. And I'm really proud of that interview. It's going to be up on MTV News's social platforms and on my platforms very soon. We'll be teasing it. We might already be teasing it by the time you are listening to this. But it was a real delight to talk to Brad, Leo, and Margo about their love of movies and their love of Quentin. And I did really focus on all of our mutual love of movies because this film, once upon a time in Hollywood, is a very personal film for Quentin. It is set in 1969 when Quentin was six years old.

This is kind of his memories of old Hollywood, of television he grew up on, of the hippie movement that was kind of encroaching on culture at the time. And, you know, there are a few adjectives to describe this one that you might not associate with a Quentin Tarantino film. Sweet and nostalgic, for instance. This is probably his sweetest film. Sure, there's violence in it, but a lot less than maybe you expect. I'm certainly not going to ruin anything in this introduction or in the conversation, for that matter, with Quentin. There's nothing in this chat that really will ruin your enjoyment of once upon a time in Hollywood. All you really need to know is that Leonardo DiCaprio stars as Rick Dalton, who is a somewhat successful television star in the 60s,

who is kind of at a crossroads in his career. He's not sure where to go. He's being offered like spaghetti westerns in Italy, but he doesn't want to do that. He thinks that's beneath him. He's getting offered guest spots on TV shows, and he's really kind of not enjoying the fact that the culture is changing around him.

The hippie movement, as it were, is really encroaching on his life, and he's not enjoying that. It's a great comic performance and tragic performance from Leonardo. And alongside him is Brad Pitt as his stunt double, long-time friend and stunt double, and kind of gopher. He kind of does anything Leo wants.

And as I say in this conversation with Quentin, it's just a great movie star role for Brad. He's just effortlessly cool, or seemingly effortlessly cool. It's one of his best performances in a while. And then to complete the triumph for it, we have to mention Marga Robbie, who plays Sharon Tate, who, of course, is infamously, you know, sadly left us far too early, thanks to the Manson murders.

But she just kind of shines as a beacon of light in this kind of hangout movie. It's a great ensemble film, lots of small performances by recognizable actors. I definitely, you know, I'm guilty of gushing in this conversation with Quentin. I gush over him. I gush over the movie, but I stand by it. I love Quentin's work. I've loved all of his films. He, for my money, is one of the best filmmakers ever,

and certainly was formative in my own coming of age as a film enthusiast. And this is definitely one of my favorites of the year. And I say that, knowing that Quentin might be listening and might be wondering where this is going to stack up, because the first thing he did when I saw Quentin, when he walked in the room, when I visited him in Los Angeles, was he gave me shit about, I think it was about hateful eight. I think he was like, well, you put hateful eight as your number 13 movie that year.

And I was just like taken aback. The fact that he like even like went back and remembered that or knew that, I don't even remember that to be honest. But that's Quentin Tarantino. So it's an honor, Quentin, if you're listening, it's an honor that you're listening. And it's an honor that he is on the show again. I can now say returning guest Quentin Tarantino on Happy, Sad, Confused. So the movie, once again, once upon a time in Hollywood, it opens this Friday.

Don't worry, no spoilers in this conversation, but this is a rare, exciting treat to talk to a master. And I should mention, I teased already talking about retirement. Quentin's talked very openly about wanting to hang it up after 10 films. This is his ninth film, and we definitely talk about that, and kind of the new stage of his life. He's just recently gotten married and what that means to his life and to his work. And of course, as a Star Trek fan, I could not resist talking about his association with a new Star Trek film. Yes, Quentin Tarantino has an idea for a Star Trek film that has been written that he may or may not direct, but that is pretty intriguing. We cover a lot in this chat, including lots about future potential projects that may or may not happen, scenes and scripts that he's written that may or may never come to pass.

So if you're a Quentin file like I am, I think you're going to very much appreciate this one. Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy it. Remember to review, rate and subscribe to Happy Sack Confused, spread the good word. And without any further ado, here he is, the master, Mr. Quentin Tarantino. Thank you, very good. You made a very good movie again. Oh, thank you. It's almost like you know what you're doing.

at this point. Congrats, man. It's the songs that I loved it. Truly, truly, truly. Is it in your top 10 so far this year? Oh, yeah, I would hope so. Okay, well, well, Hayfield, I didn't make it.

You liked it, but it didn't make it, so. Now it was 13. Shit. He does his research. I'm not, I'm not being pissy about it. You've gently liked it. We had a great conversation about it. We did. We did. This one will be filled with love to,

because I adore this movie. It's always good to see you, man. You too, me. So let's talk. This one filled as always with amazing characters. Sharon, Rick, and Cliff, I feel like are like the three parts of Quentin Tarantino in a way. Follow my logic here. I was watching it.

I was like, okay, Sharon's like wide-eyed love of movies and Hollywood. Rick may be a little cynical, upset that the world feels like he doesn't understand the world around him, the modern world. And Cliff is just the coolest guy in the world that we all. aspiring. Yeah, just in this Zen state. He's just like... It's all good. It's all good.

I just want to send one day as Cliff. But you love these characters, I can tell you do. I think there is a... It's an aspect of my personality and all three of them to some degree. Yeah. Talk to me a little bit.

So does it start with the setting or the characters at this time around? Oh, that's interesting. I think it did start with the characters. It was about... Once I came up with the setting, then I had a real structure that I knew that I could tell an interesting story. But I think the closest thing to an initial germ of it was I was working with an actor, this is like a decade ago or so, who was a cool, older actiony actor. and he had a long-time stunt double, maybe for 15 years or so.

But we didn't really have anything for the guy to do, but then the actor came to me, and he was like, hey, you know, there's this one little bit here. My guy could do that. And I don't want to bust your balls about him, all right, because I know he's not right for this, other things. But, like, he could do that. And if I could throw him a little something, something, that would be nice.

Yeah, sure, sure, sure. So he comes up to do it. and you could tell that these guys had worked together for 15 years and you could tell that there was a time that they probably looked like identical when they wore the same outfits. You could almost shoot close-ups with the stunt guy. Right.

But this wasn't now. Now they'd gotten older and the stunt guy had gotten a little bigger and everything. And this is probably going to be the last couple of times. This would be the end of the trail. Maybe a couple more times, but that's it. And I thought that was an interesting dynamic. And then I remember, I usually talk to stunt guys as if they're actors,

because that's the way I kind of know how to talk to them. And so he did his stunt, he did his gag, and I come up to him, and I go, so are you okay? Did you like that? He goes. Yeah, yeah. So are you happy? Are you happy?

And, you know, say the actor's name is Joe. Hey, if Joe's happy, I'm happy. I'm like, oh, okay. This guy's not really working for me. No, he's in service. He's working for Joe. And then I would like kind of watch them hang out together for the rest of the day on the set. And I'd say in their director's chairs and talking to each other.

And I go, that's a really interesting dynamic. If someday I do a Hollywood movie, a behind the scenes about making movies movie, that could be an interesting way. Yeah. That could be an interesting relationship as a porthole into a Hollywood story. It's interesting because it gets at like what. really seeps throughout this film which is a level of not there's on one level this is a movie that like loves movie stars because you've cast like great movie stars in like iconic movie star roles but it also has such affection for the rick dalton's yeah the forgotten actors of that time

who it's funny because it reminds you as if we need more reminding like of how much luck has to play in this industry you know if rick dalton goes left he turns into clint eastwood If he goes right, he's a forgotten 60s, semi-professional, semi-successful actor. No, no, I mean, you know, Rick didn't pull off the TV and the movies transition because he wasn't good enough. Right. You know, he wasn't quite hot enough to get better movies. The studios just kind of put him, plugged him in the kind of action vehicles that would, that the people who like him on his TV shows. Yeah.

You know, so like slightly bigger budget westerns. Yeah. But, you know, he's not the kind of guy who's going to get the Magnificent Seven. Right. He could get a part in Duns of the Magnificent Seven, which is like the third sequel with George Kennedy is playing Chris. All right. And actually, that's a pretty good movie, frankly. But that would be the kind of thing he could get in.

However, in the right movie and the right role, he could have pulled it off. Totally. But he does kind of get in his own way because he actually, you know, I'm a little less sorry for Rick than other people are because I actually think he has a pretty good career and he doesn't have anything to feel bad about and it's a bit of a pity party on his side and not only that, he doesn't even appreciate what he has

because part of his problem is he just wants to, he wants to be rich and famous more than he wants to be this really great act working with the greatest directors in the world. Yeah, he doesn't share your taste in film. And he definitely doesn't share my taste in film. No, but a lot of those guys didn't, though. It's like, you know, and he's like, God, I want to go to Italy

and make horrible spaghetti westerns. They were all very xenophobic. Actually, one of the lines that Rick had afterwards, in which I've heard some actors of that era say. We cut the scene a little shorter. And he goes, oh, Italian, Italian Westerns are awful. Hey, look, I grew up watching Hoot Gibson. You know, I don't watch some Italian western directed by Guido da

Fatso. Yeah, I'm still mad that Dean Martin's in Rio Bravo. So much other stuff also occurred to me. So I'm watching this movie and I'm like, you go from hateful eight, which arguably is one of your most like plot heavy movies. And this is a hangout movie. Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is, this is about behavior. Probably like the nastiest movie. The meanest and nastiest movie. So you're most nostalgic sweetest movie. Yeah. It's and it's, I don't know if it's, if it's about confidence coming later on your ninth film but like you know you obviously know how to write

amazing dialogue we've known that from the start but there's so many great scenes in this of just human behavior of people walking of people making food for themselves people eating do you think some of that has come from just knowing you don't need to overwrite a scene you can let

let action play out well you know it's it's a it just kind of got bored out of this film like for instance I've been like working on the script for about five years or so. I wasn't in any hurry. And the first few years was just kind of getting to know who these characters were. And like I said, not in a, I'm now writing the script kind of way, all right?

And then by the time I was ready to do it, which was, you know, about two years ago, when I'm ready to do it, I kind of knew who the characters were. So by this point, And so it came down now to, okay, well, what kind of story do I want to tell? Now that I know who these guys, I have my milieu. That's going to go a long way. I have my ending. That's going to go a long way.

And I have these characters. And I have all this stuff. And there was a time that I had thought of maybe making the characters get involved in a more melodramatic kind of story. But now that I had actually kind of had all the things. that I wanted, I was thinking, I don't think I need a story. I think I can get away with just a day in the life. I think these characters are strong enough. I think the milieu is strong enough.

And whether we want to or not, we're heading towards an event. Yes. And that can be my dramatic motor that keeps us going. We don't want to head forward. We want to revel and live in this like idyllic. Yeah, but we're forced to go forward. Every scene with Sharon is getting her closer. of the murder. And that could work as a dramatic clock on the film. And with that, I don't really

need a story. And I would rather actually just tell a day in the life of three people in Los Angeles as they just go about their day. Right. You, I mentioned before. I mean, I think Leo, A, Leo is like the most underrated comic actor, I think, out there. He is like, you know, simultaneously tragic and hysterical and ridiculous in this movie. And Brad, it's just like an ultimate movie star part for him. He's just, here's my alt casting question. Tom Cruise.

Was he going to play Cliff? Well, we talked about it. And that's intriguing. It's its own right. I love what Brad did, but the notion of Tom Cruise being in a Quentin Tarantino movie. Well, he's a great guy, you know? And we really hit it off

and it could happen on something else. But, you know, the reality, though, is, you know, people ask, was it always these two guys? And I'm like, well, it's the casting coup of the decade. I can't, you can't count on that, all right? They both have to respond to it. They both have to want to play those roles.

They both have to be available. I mean, there's a whole lot of stuff there. And if you're casting an actor, if you're casting a team where the one guy is a double of another guy, then they have to match up. Yeah. In the right kind of way. You know, so the reality is, you know, I had maybe eight different pairings of actors that could go together in a realistic way in this kind of situation. Now, the ones that I got were definitely my number ones.

All right. Well, I got my number ones. But I had, but I couldn't never just be confident about that. I had to have a few different backups and a few different exploratory ways to go. Right. Interesting. Only a few people can say Tom Cruise. is my potential backup.

You're in a good space, sir. I didn't quite look at it like that, but... Were there any other late 60s TV shows that you almost slotted Rick in? Personally, you could have been in season three of Star Trek. I know you're a Trek fan, Mission Impossible. There's a lot out there. Yeah, it's not going to be anything that cool.

I mean, I actually like the idea, yeah, yeah. I actually like the, yeah, no, I don't... I don't see Rick dining out at Trekkie conventions for the next 20 years. You know, like William Campbell did, or Roger C. Carmel, you know. That table in the back past DeForest Kelly. I actually think mud probably has a place of honor at a trekkey convention. But I get a kick out of the fact that, you know, it actually would be a little better if his guest shots were like gun smoke and Mission Impossible and, you know, manics and kind of cool stuff. stuff like that. I mean, he's in really juvenile craft. Yeah, Leo was just telling me that

Land of the Giants was discussed as like, is in the script at one point. Oh, yeah, at one point, I had a little, uh, I had the little girl was a fan of Land of the Giants. And so she brings it up. She goes, wait a minute, I know you. You're on the Land of the Giants. That's my favorite show. You were so mean to the little people. And then you just like, saw an image of him over the little people. But the, uh, uh, uh, that Matt Damon movie downsizing came out. So they kind of used all the good visuals for like, okay, I don't need to do that now. Without that movie, I might have done that, all right? That would have been a neat visual, but, well, they kind of, they squeezed all the juice

out of that. Random, but we mentioned it. I went to Star Trek conventions as a kid. Did you ever go to Star Trek conventions? No, I never did. I never went to a Star Trek convention. Okay. Yeah.

I used to go to the, that, in the 80s, that shrine, that shrine comic book convention that would happen like the first Monday, the first Friday, well, the Saturday of every month or something like that. Got it, got it. What was, I know there's this Star Trek project potentially still out there that was a, correct me if I'm wrong, story idea by you, someone else has scripted it. Well, it's an idea that, an idea I had. Then we got together and talked it out. And then we hired Mark Smith, who did Revenant to write the script. So where's that, just as a Star Trek fan and as a fan of yours, I'm just, like, fascinated. Is that, like, what is that as much as you can say? Like, is it in the current timeline? Is it, you're a fan of the original series? So what is it?

Yeah, it's like, I don't know how much I can say. The one thing I can say is it would, yeah, it would deal with the Chris Pine timeline. Now, I still don't quite understand, and JJ can't explain it to me. And my editor has tried to explain it to me, and I still don't get it, all right? Fred, I'm asking about something happened in the first movie that now kind of

wiped the slate clean. Right. I don't buy that. I don't like it. I don't appreciate it. I don't. Fuck that. All right.

I don't like that. You know, uh, um, I'm going to lead you down a road. You want the guardian of forever to have happened, don't you? Yeah. I want, I, like, I want the whole series to have happened, all right? It just hasn't happened yet. Yes. And, no, Benedict Comerbatch, or whatever his name is, all right, it's not Khan, all right, con is Khan.

And I told JJ, I go, like, I don't understand this, I don't like it, and they ignore it. Nobody likes it. I don't understand it. Just do whatever you want. If you want it to happen the exact way it happened on the series, it can. So that's more in line. but you're honoring the series that you loved and came up with.

Yes, exactly. Yeah, I mean, that was ultimately why I'm, why I would be interested. Somebody asked me, like, okay, well, what is it about Star Trek that you like? Yeah. Easy. William Shatner.

I love William Shatner as James T. Kirk. That's why I like Star Trek. Yeah. The reason I like Star Trek more than Star Wars is because William Shadner isn't Star Wars. You know, William Shadner, especially as, I actually like William Shatner and almost everything. But William Shatner is James T.

is that is my connection. That is why I like it. I liked CSI because I liked William Peterson as Gus Christen. And so the reason I was actually intrigued by the JJ Abrams version of it is because I thought Chris Pine did a fantastic job, not just playing Captain Kirk, but playing William Shatner's captain. He is William Shatner. Yes. He's not just another guy. He's William Shatner's Captain Kirk.

And it's literally, Zachary Quinto is literally Leonard Nemoy's, because they both in the same scene together. You know, he's his Spock. And they fucking nail it. They did. They just nail it. JJ's casting genius is impeccable. And he did the same thing kind of in Star Wars in a different way in discovering new talents. It's amazing.

So I know if it's often brought up and, you know, I don't know how much you enjoy talking about sort of the 10 and done or when you're at 60, you know, hanging. up your spurs or not, and you've certainly left the door open, you know, your decision can change. But I'm curious, like, what do you, what do you envision your post-film career to look like? Is it, right? You've mentioned plays and film criticism

and novels. Yeah, it would be writing. It would be writing. It would be, it would be writing, you know, it would be a lot of writing. And, you know, I just got married, it'll be having kids. It seems like a pretty good job for a dad. Yeah. You know? And so, yeah, it would be,

It would be writing. I could do a TV series. I could do a TV movie and everything. But, you know, I could and I probably will. But it's more about writing. Yeah. It's more about writing. You know, writing cinema books and, you know, writing plays and just, I just...

But don't you love being on a set? I mean, there's the famous mantra that you and the crew, you know, why do we do this? We love making movies. Yeah, yeah. No, look, look, I do love it at the same time, though. Takes a lot out of you? Well, in two years, it'll be 30 years. There's actually not that many directors who have had a 30-year career,

where at the end of those 30 years, they still have opportunity. You've been more than a relevant director, is to put it mildly. You have been at the top of your game for 30 years, and that is kind of unprecedented. And the thing is, you know, it's like, you know, and frankly, that's an invigorating, lovely, wonderful place to live right at the line of the zeitist and right at the line of influence. And, you know, right at the line of where, like, an athlete would be at their, at their talented, their gifted years. And like I said, I have a wonderful opportunity. And most people wouldn't be able to get Brad and Lee. together to do a $95 million art film where I get to change Los Angeles back in the

1968 and do it with minimal CGI. That's wonderful opportunity. You know, at the same time, in order to truly live that life and to live that opportunity, I've given up a lot. You know, I haven't gotten married. I haven't allowed myself to do things like that. didn't have kids. Well, now I'm married now. And because now, now it's time and I'm in love.

But the thing is, though, it's like, I need to pass the torch. I need to step. It's not about, oh, dropping the mic, you know, match that shit. All right, you know, I'm far less arrogant about that stuff kind of now. It's just more like, it's time to put the hammer down. Yeah. And it's not, because we've talked before about sort of like, you know, it's a very common practice of quote-to-cote aging filmmakers who lose a step more than a step of like do you think you would know if you've lost a step as a filmmaker? Do you have somebody in your life to call you out on it or do you think you have enough self-awareness to realize like I'm not at the top of my game anymore? Well I you know well the thing about it is like at a certain point it's like you know you just like I'm not going to go walking through the career I'm not going to

doing assignments and doing movies for the wrong reasons and everything like that. It's just more like, you know, look, 30 years is a long time and it's a long time to be in that position. And now it's a little, now it would be nicer. Now it would be do my work and then step back and take the more modest life of a man of letters. let's talk about I mean this is a movie that's about a very pivotal moment in time for the culture

arguably we're at a very pivotal moment in time for the culture again and specifically about the film industry you know again we've talked about you and no one and others you know holding on to film but it's more than that it's more than just that it's how long films are

it's where we watch them in 10 or 20 years what do you think do you think film is going to exist in the form that we're watching it now? Do you mean, I mean film itself or do you mean movies? Movies.

I can honestly say it's a good reason to get out frankly to tell you the truth. I can honestly say I have no idea what the I don't think anybody does of what the next 20 years are going to be. I don't think we have an idea of what the next eight years. Yeah, it's moving so fast now.

Is, is. Is Quibi going to change the way we consume like content? It's sort of. Yeah. Well, I mean, already the way we consume content is just completely different. And if I was in, and frankly, if I was in any other, pretty much any other art form, I wouldn't be able to work at this level. All right. If I was me as a singer-songwriter, well, the bottoms have fallen out of albums.

Yeah. Has fallen out of the music industry. Yeah. All right. If I were a novelist, well, no one's really buying books anymore to the degree like they were. You know, they don't even spend money on book tours like they used to. If I was a film critic, would I even have a job right now? Yep.

You know, so it's like, you know, I mean, oddly enough, movies have been hanging in there at least as far as, at least some movies having a theatrical life. Yeah. That people still go out and pay money to see a movie. But we might be the last man standing, other than concerts. We might be the last man standing. Yeah, it might take on the life of, quote, unquote, theater. Yeah, yeah. Of a little more.

Well, that seems like where it's heading, frankly. Right? What about, I mean, the, the, you talked about TV, you know, you kind of rejiggered hateful aid, I know, or, yeah, hateful eight for, for Netflix. Have you watched any long form or kind of these kind of mini-series things and been impressed by what filmmakers like? I mean, I just watched Haunting of Hillhouse. I thought Mike Flanagan did an excellent job on that.

People say, you know, true detective. Does any of that approach to storytelling impress you or, you? Oh, no, it's like, you know, I was, I was interested in that idea 10 years ago, you know, I was like, I almost, I almost running glorious bastards as a many series. And at the last second, I changed my mind. Um, you know, and, uh, but like in today's world, I might not have changed my mind. Right. You know, I'm like, no, this is the way to go. Bear down, you know? Right. Um, well, it was, it's interesting because, uh, um, oh, yeah, there's, there's, definitely shows that I like oddly enough I don't get caught up the shows that I find I find myself watching are I mean like the the show that me and my wife really watch we're way behind we're like still in season three but well we really like watching the Americans I that's on my yeah all right yeah so she loves the Americans so she'll watch the Americans anytime I want to watch the Americans yeah you know um oddly enough my favorite show right now on TV is 9-1-1 I really really like it

It's really, I cry at the end of every episode. Is it a single kind of procedural? There's no, is there a continuing out a little bit? Yeah, it's like a much more dramatic and emotional emergency. Got it. I think I got this one head. So Ryan Murphy version of emergency, but that's actually a really good version, frankly. I wouldn't ask most filmmakers questions like this, but I wonder if you, as kind of, you're as much a critic as a filmmaker, if you can be like self-referral

reflexive on your own work like what do you think your best movie is um i think it kind of depends i mean it's like uh uh uh to some degree or another i think it might be a battling it out between uh uh uh um this one and in glorious fasters and maybe if your taste runs to It's Pulp Fiction, are kind of the three that are slugated out for top, top spot. If, excuse me. So that's one way to look at it. Another way to look at it would be Kill Bill, as one movie could be considered my best movie because it's the one that seems like the most completely from my id.

Yeah. Of course, you could almost say that about this, too. You know, both of them would be the ones that came straight out of my head. Right. It feels like if there was a Quentin Tarantino theme park, I would be walking around upon a time in Hollywood with a kill bill lamb in the corner. Yeah, yeah, exactly. They had lunch at the House of Blue Leagues.

Have you looked at whether there's a treatment or anything at Kill Bill Volume 3 in a while? Have you been thinking about it? Yeah, no, me and OMA have actually talked about it recently, frankly, to tell you the truth. You know, I'm not sure if it's, I'm going to do it, but I have thought about it a little further. And if any of my movies would be taken the minimum literally we're talking about it last week.

All right. So if any of my movies were going to spring from one of my other movies, it would be the third kill bill. I was going to ask like, is there a character? Maybe you just answered as the bride, but is there a character that you think about most often from your previous works? Just like

whether it's just daydreaming or writing in your journal or whatever, that's kind of lived a life off the screen. in your own brain in subsequent ears. Oh, that's an interesting question, you know. I think the four that would probably qualify the most, because they're the ones that kind of, from time to time I go back to thinking about them a little bit.

It would be the bride, Bill, Landa, and Aldo. Oh, really? Yeah, so it's like, you know, I thought the Vega brothers were going to be in there. Well, I liked them, anything, but I don't really, but, you know, I've wondered about what happens to the bride. Yeah. You know, 10 years later, 15 years later, what happens to her daughter? With Bill, none of these I've worked out scenarios for, all right? But, like, you know, the whole Bill origin story is always entranced me with the idea of these.

three godfathers Esteban Vaheo, the Mexican pimp, Hattori Hanzo, and Pimei, and how he had to go through all three of those to become this diabolical bill. And then I've wondered often about

what happens to Landa in Nantucket. All right, he's wearing a wig with bangs, all right? It's a cover that unfortunate mark, yeah. to cover his mark, all right? Also, he's actually known as the hero of World War II, because he brought down him and Aldo Raine, brought down Hitler and that is the history. That's in the history books. What's what the history books read? Well, they're going to read that you're the hero of World War II. We know that's not true. Right, right. He is. Do you think about that as in novel form or something else?

Well, I don't think I'll ever do it, but I did like the idea. It might be something I do when I'm older, but I like the idea of, again, I don't think I'll do it, but I like the idea of writing a series of Hans Londa Mysteries. So it's like 20 years after World War II, and he's living on Nantuckin, and then a murder happens on the island, and he, you know, he's the detective. Oh, my God. And he's the amateur detective, even though he's one of the great detective. in the world, all right, and he figures out

who the murder is. He's got the pipe ready, and that would be a, yeah, there would be a series of Hans Londa Mysteries. And and I thought that Brad Pitt would come back to Aldo Rain would come back to America and like Adi Murphy and like Frederick Zoller, he would kind of get a movie career, all right, for being the hero World War II.

Aldo can pull it off. Amazing. Everyone would be wondering, what happened to a scar? What did he get to get that scar? it's been a while since you've handed over something you've ridden to someone else to direct would you consider that like is that something that would be like is there a filmmaker like Tony obviously Tony Scott to the hell of service to true romance

is there a filmmaker that you would be intrigued to do an interpretation of your words there's nothing right now all right where I think I would like oh I would want to sit down from scratch and I would want to sit down from scratch and write an original script for blah blah blah to do Okay, I don't have that right now, not to say I couldn't later. But like, for instance, like, say, oh, here's a little example.

Say I read, okay, say I read a book, for instance, and I thought that book would be good for Sophia Coppola. Okay, well, before I'd ever come up to her with it, I would finish reading it, and I might even kind of work it out in my head a way it could be adapted. an approach. Sure. And then I might call her up and say, hey, look, I've got this book that I think maybe you do a really good job with. Let me send it to you. Yeah. I don't own it. I'm just trying to give her something good. And then if she wanted to talk to me about it and she responded to it to Sun Gray, I talked to her about it. And frankly, if she wanted to, and she liked my ideas

and she wanted to write it together, I probably would do it because that would be fun. Right. Now, I'm just literally making this up, all right? You know, but I mean, but that's something I could see happening. Do you, do you ever, and I'm sure this happened to you earlier in her career, do you reach out to filmmakers that young filmmakers that you are impressed by do you ever have has that happened in recent years where not the last time that that happened uh uh was uh the guy who did it follows was his robert michael mitchell yes yeah okay yeah did you see this under the silver world yeah i like it it's my favorite movie so far this year oh really yeah yeah uh i haven't seen that much this year because i'm making a movie but i really did like it i saw the uh and so uh yeah so i i uh so i i uh so

We kind of reached out to each other to some degree and everything. Yeah, and so, yeah, but I liked him. But oftentimes I'll meet people, but I don't just, like, call, hey, give me this guy's number in Cleveland so I can follow up and tell him I liked a zombie movie. We were talking before about sort of like the role that luck plays for actors and often for filmmakers early in a career. What do you think the luckiest thing that ever happened to you was that set you on this right path? No, winning the Pomdorf for Pulp Fiction.

Easily. That's it. that set you down the path. Well, I mean, it officially... It immediately made me one of the biggest filmmakers in the world. I mean, I don't know about Hollywood,

but I made me one of the international big filmmakers. I mean, every country respected that. And and I might have fought with Harvey about the length of the film if I hadn't already won the Palm Door. Right. All right? So it got to go out

pretty much the way we took it to Khan, which was straight from the editing table. Yeah. You know? So the prestige of that, the way it's set off the movie, the way it's set off my career as an international filmmaker, a world-renowned filmmaker. Whoa, that's it.

You mentioned Harvey. I'm just curious. It's somebody that appreciates legacy so much. Does it bother you at all that his name is on so many of your films in perpetuity that people might have that, they'll see that name, and it conjures up images, unfortunately, for people? He paid for them. Yeah.

He produced them. And you did a good job producing them. You know, I don't quite agree that every name should be scrubbed off for a body of work that is actually legit. I hear you. I was talking to your stars a few moments ago. First of all, I discovered that Brad Pitt has never seen Gone with the Wind. So that's a revelation. We also reminisce a little bit about true romance.

Yeah. I don't remember this. Were you on set for true romance at all? No, I never showed up on set for true romance. Did you not want to, or was it just not the nature of it at the time that Toby? No, I didn't want to. No, no, I kind of didn't want to. I think they wanted me to, and I think they thought it was being weird, and I wasn't being weird.

I was, um, one, I didn't know what the hell I was doing back then. So I had this little idea that it was like, well, if the writer's not going to be on set every day, it shouldn't be upset at all. And maybe I didn't mean every day, but the idea is either I'm making the movie with you and we're doing it and then I'm coming up with ideas or you're asking me to change things for whatever and it's all working

or else just do what you want to do. What did you, it must have been such a trip to see that film whether in finished form or whatever cut you saw first. Oh, it was magnificent. I love true romance. It's one of my favorite movies of all time.

What did you think of what Brad did with Floyd? He's amazing. I mean, you know, and by the way, he did it. I mean, more or less, the things that happened with Floyd in the movie more or less happen in the script. But the character that Brad played, that's all him. Yeah.

That's, that, that's, I can't take credit for that. That character is all him. Without ruining anything, you've written another drug-induced character in this one. Yes, I did. There must have been a lot of catharsis for Leo in this film. Whether it's like he was a child actor having that great scene, a couple scenes with a young child actor, you know, being in shitty commercials that he had to do as a kid, railing against hippies when he was raised by.

hippies. I mean, it's so much so, like, I mean, you could just put him on the couch for hours, I'm sure. Did that spawn a lot of, like, was that conversation? Did all that kind of spawn conversation on set in terms of like, he must, that must have been so much that he was using internally. Well, I mean, well, in particular, like, the things that we talked about was, you know, um, um, how great success and great failure and Midland success and great success. And, uh, lost opportunity and found opportunity are in this town can live next door to each other. And in this instance, literally, Roman Polansky next door. Next door to each other.

Yeah. And the thing about it is he understands it. You know, when he was a young child actor and he was going out for things and everything. There's like, you know, five other boys. Yeah. Like him. And he knows who those five guys are. And, you know, three of them got pretty far on the audition process for this boy's life.

But he's the one that got it. You know, and when he would go to the audition, go to the outer offices for auditions, it was like a lot of times there was one of those five guys or two of those five guys were there. Yep. And so they, okay, this is my main competition. These are the guys. Well, Leo is the one that ended out on top. Now, they're all still around.

They're all doing their thing, but they're not the guy that got this boy's life. It's crazy. But they could have been the guy that got this boy's life. Yeah, and you have to remind yourself of that. Yeah, Brad, you know, Brad, you know, Brad knows who the first two people who had his role in Thumb and Louise were.

Yep. Because they were literally in the film. They were actually in the film, yeah, exactly. When you look back, what's the filmmaking, at least in terms of experience on set that you idealized the most? What was your happiest time on a film set? Hmm.

I'm sure I had, I'm sure I've had like great euphoric moments with this versus that and that versus this. But I think the, you know, I think hateful eight, the nastiest movie I ever made was the funest movie I ever made. There was something about just being in that cabin set every day. Yeah. And creating those snow effects. And you were asking me about, well, what's your favorite movies or this and then the other? It's not that I think hateful aid is my favorite movie, but I kind of think it might be the best direction of my material, if that makes any sense. there was just

it was really easy to block the scene it was really easy to block the actors it just flew and I don't think I would have had that I don't think it would have been that second nature 10 years earlier but by the time I wrote it and the actors had really rehearsed it a bunch

and so they were ready to go like a play it was easy I mean it was really easy to block it and it was really easy to come up with those shots I mean I didn't even have to think about it I could literally just make it up as I wanted along and it was just a and I just felt a really solidness because we weren't rushing from location to this location and that's yeah it also must have been

just manna from heaven like you look in every corner and it's it's every so much film history on that set yeah oh absolutely and also but I also that was a situation when I decided to you know each new movie I ended up doing something like different than the way I've done before in order to achieve an effect like for instance one of the things that I

normally I don't leave scenes unfinished right like it was like no we're gonna we'll finish the damn scene you know even if we have to go back tomorrow we'll finish the scene but since capturing the weather on hateful late was so important that that was not possible on hateful late we wouldn't know really what the weather would be until like pretty much like the next night right you know what was by the time we got to the night we would have a really good idea what tomorrow's morning's weather would be, but not only until then. So if there actually is going to be falling snow, and that's what we're looking for, is falling snow. Yeah. So then we'll do one side of them talking in the stagecoach with the falling snow. Well, it's not going to be falling snow the next day. Right. So we might not do the other half of that scene for three weeks. I'm not used to working like that. I worked like that for the whole two months where we're doing the movie okay if the sun is straight up we're uh it's hot we're we're in the stage coach right if it's

cloudy and it's this we're in the we're in the minis habitashry if the snow is falling we're on this mountain if the snow is doing this we're on that mountain and just that was just how it was yeah yeah for like two months well that ended up kind of being invigorating i mean bob richison and i'm really proud of you this is so not your way and you're just doing it go well i don't have a choice i have one last quick thing i know you have to run of the material you've written over the years that's never been produced is there one that you love the most A script, a short story, anything that you'd still like to see the light of day in some form? That's interesting.

I don't know if I'm ever going to do it, but my favorite thing I think that I have written was back when Inglorious Pastures was going to be a mini series. It dealt with a whole bunch of black troops in World War II. And I had two sequences. The one sequence in particular was the sequence that sort of set them up. And you've heard of the longest day, right? Yeah. Well, this is the day after the longest day. And part of the job after they got control of the beach of Omaha Beach,

part of the job was now they're just literally just moving equipment and trying to get off the beach. It was the job of the black soldiers to pick up all the to pick up the dead bodies off the beach

and then take them over to the bearing area where the Germans prisoners were burying the American the dead American soldiers and then it was the black soldiers job. It was the black soldiers job. to collect the bodies, bring them over, and to guard the German soldiers. However, the white

American officers didn't give the black soldiers ammo. Now, the German soldiers didn't know that, but they're guarding them with empty guns. There's tension. There's natural tension there. One, because they didn't quite trust them with live ammo. And two, because they needed all the life. I'm home to be fighting the Germans that are over on the hedgerows. And that was like a 20-minute sequence of, you know, with the whole thing laid out and the German soldiers digging and then Aldo show. It's a good sequence. It's a good set piece. It's good to know there stuff in the drawer ready for us. It's always a pleasure. Sir, as I said, I love this one. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, it's, yeah, let's open the theme park because I want to just live in

this world a little bit longer. It's a great time at the movies, man, and I always appreciate I'm glad it's your 13th favorite movie. I don't even. I don't even know how to respond. Okay, Easter 12th, I'm sorry. It'll be higher. Good to see you, buddy. Thank you, Pey.

I appreciate it. And so ends another edition of happy, sad, confused. Remember to review, rate, and subscribe to this show on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts. a big podcast person. I'm Daisy Ridley and I definitely wasn't pressure to do this by Josh. big news. We got monumental news. We got snackacular news. Yeah, after a brief hiatus, my good friend, Michael Ian Black, and I

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