Quentin Tarantino is firing back at a Pulp Fiction actor for disrespecting him in the press. Rosanna Arquette, who played a role in the classic film, criticized Tarantino for using the N-word in the film. Arquette played the wife of Eric Stoltz's character in the crime drama.
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"It's iconic, a great film on a lot of levels," Arquette told The Times. "But personally, I am over the use of the N-word — I hate it. I cannot stand that [Tarantino] has been given a hall pass. It's not art, it's just racist and creepy."
Speaking with Variety, Tarantino fired back at the actor.
"I hope the publicity you're getting from 132 different media outlets writing your name and printing your picture was worth disrespecting me and a film I remember quite clearly you were thrilled to be a part of?" he also wrote.
Quentin Tarantino Fires Back
Tarantino says the actor bit the hand that feeds.
"Do you feel this way now? Very possibly," Tarantino continued. "But after I gave you a job, and you took the money, to trash it for what I suspect is very cynical reasons, shows a decided lack of class, no less honor. There is supposed to be an esprit de corps between artistic colleagues. But it would appear the objective was accomplished."
But Arquette also argued that she didn't make much from the classic film.
"I'm the only person who didn't get a back end [a share of the takings]," she also told The Times. "Everybody made money except me."
Meanwhile, Pulp Fiction star Samuel L. Jackson has long defended Tarantino for using the N-word.
"It's some bulls—," Jackson told Esquire. "You can't just tell a writer he can't talk, write the words, put the words in the mouths of the people from their ethnicities, the way that they use their words. You cannot do that, because then it becomes an untruth; it's not honest. It's just not honest."
Jackson defended the director.
"You take 12 Years a Slave, which is supposedly made by an auteur," Jackson also said. "Steve McQueen is very different than Quentin. When you have a song that says [the N-word] in it 300 times, nobody says s—. So it's OK for Steve McQueen to use [the N-word] because he's artistically attacking the system and the way people think and feel, but Quentin is just doing it to just strike the blackboard with his nails. That's not true. There's no dishonesty in anything that [Quentin] writes or how people talk, feel or speak [in his movies]."
