STACK New Zealand May 2016 Issue

12 / 36

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
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.
“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
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.”
Scott Hocking talks Jennifer Jason Leigh, 70mm and Ennio Morricone
with THE HATEFUL EIGHT director QuentinTarantino.
In the '90s, we all felt that
Jennifer Jason Leigh was
the female Sean Penn
Jennifer Jason Leigh as Daisy Domergue
Quentin with STACK
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