STACK NZ May #73

DVD & BD FEATURE

visit stack.net.nz

Scott Hocking talks Jennifer Jason Leigh, 70mm and Ennio Morricone with THE HATEFUL EIGHT director QuentinTarantino.

Q uentin Tarantino’s flair for savvy casting has revived a number of dormant careers in Hollywood: Pulp Fiction (1994) heralded John Travolta’s comeback, while Jackie Brown (1997)

reminded moviegoers what they loved about Blaxploitation legend Pam Grier back in the seventies. The Hateful Eight ’s wildcard is Jennifer Jason Leigh, who was a prolific and prominent presence on cinema screens throughout the ‘80s and ‘90s in films like The Hitcher , Single White Female and Last Exit to Brooklyn . “I ended up having a Jennifer Jason Leigh film festival when I started thinking about casting her, so I literally watched those movies

DVD & BD

Quentin with STACK

his decision to cast her? “In the ‘90s, we all felt that

Jennifer Jason Leigh was the female Sean Penn,” Tarantino astutely offers. “She didn’t just give performances, she gave these huge performances that the entire movie was built around, and that’s what I needed for Daisy Domergue.” At the risk of this interview becoming a mutual appreciation of Jennifer Jason Leigh’s talents, the subject moves on to other Hateful Eight cast members, in particular Tim Roth’s Oswaldo Mobray – a role that could well have been written for Christoph Waltz. But Tarantino frowns at this suggestion. “People have been saying that about Tim and it actually disturbs me a little bit; it makes me feel bad about myself. “I think it’s possibly because I dressed him in grey,” he reflects. “I really think that’s part of it. To me, Tim is playing such a posh, British twit, and I would never cast Christoph Waltz in that role. But because I made him so visually like Christoph, he’s not getting the credit for what he’s done, and I almost think it’s my fault, frankly.”

you’re talking about, as well as Eyes of a Stranger , Heart of Midnight , Georgia and Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle ,” Tarantino recalls. As outlaw Daisy Domergue, “wanted dead or alive for murder”, Leigh is on the receiving end of some brutal abuse from her captor, ‘Hangman’ John Ruth (Kurt Russell), and Tarantino laughs when I suggest that she has made a career out of playing mistreated characters.

Jennifer Jason Leigh as Daisy Domergue

In the '90s, we all felt that Jennifer Jason Leigh was the female Sean Penn

“Yeah, in The Hitcher she was ripped in half!” he grins. “Exactly the extent of what a trouper she was, I didn’t know, until we just started doing it. But she was just so happy with this character, she was up for anything.” So was it this fearlessness that influenced

MAY 2016

12

jbhifi.co.nz