With a sharp wit, quotable dialogues, reinterpretations of history, a treasure trove of pop-cultural references, and an unabashed attitude, Quentin Tarantino has set himself apart as one of the most iconic directors and screenwriters in cinema. But, before writing scripts, he had enrolled himself in an acting class. He carried on his career with a variety of cameos, most of them in his own films. His acting credits find him mostly being a fast-talking, straightforward badass, and we’re counting down his ten best film apperances!
Sukiyaki Western Django
Everyone knows about the modern Western action comedy Django Unchained. The movie can be considered as an unofficial entry in the classic Django series of Spaghetti Westerns. However, a little-known cult gem from the East is a movie ironically titled (Sukiyaki) Western Django. The film revolves around a typical “man with no name” character and warring clans in a Clint Eastwood-like setting.
Tarantino plays Piringo, a mythical gunslinger, a homeless wanderer dressed in a poncho. When the movie starts, we see Tarantino sitting in a campy desert setting. He sees a snake passing by and stabs it. He then goes on to slice out an egg from the snake and fondles the blood-soaked egg. He goes on to blurt out campy dialogues as a few gunmen surround him. In a stylishly over-the-top scene that feels like it’s directed by Tarantino himself, Piringo throws his egg in the air, shoots down all of his adversaries, and catches the egg right on time. He then goes on to crack that egg in a bowl, and mix it with chopsticks. The cameo is so bad it’s good!
Pulp Fiction
Blood and odd humor are major components in Tarantino’s films. This is evident in a scene from Pulp Fiction in which Vincent accidentally shoots Marvin in the face dyeing the whole car red. To clean it up, Jules drives off to his friend Jimmie Dimmick’s house. Jimmie is portrayed by none other than the director himself.
He’s clearly pissed about the dead body and gore-ified car. When Jules tries to butter him up by praising his coffee, Jimmie replies swiftly, “you don’t have to tell me how good my coffee is, okay, I’m the one who buys it, I know how good it is.” Short-tempered, ranty, cocky, this is a quintessential Tarantino character.
Death Proof
If you thought Tarantino is loud, watch him get louder when he gets drunk. In the documentary Q8: The First Eight, collaborator Eli Roth candidly recalled what went on behind-the-scenes when shooting Tarantino’s cameo in his exploitation slasher film Death Proof.
Tarantino plays a bar-owner and indulged in light method acting for this cameo, having a few drinks himself before his scene. Roth explains that the cast took real shots on Tarantino’s insistence to make the scene look real, but this one scene in itself took about 12 takes, with one take even resulting in Tarantino slamming a glass and cutting his hand! What did Tarantino do when the blood started splurting? He fell on the ground laughing!
Sleep With Me
Tarantino is a huge film geek. This is not just the result of his stint in Hollywood, but also his job at a video store when he was young. Rather than going to film school, he watched, interpreted, and reinterpreted several movies of several genres. Tarantino carries on his geekiness in a whacky interpretation of Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer’s relationship in Top Gun.
Calling it “one of the greatest scripts ever written,” Tarantino’s Sid interacts with a partygoer, explaining to him the underlying homoeroticism he found among the two protagonists of Top Gun. A long monologue functions as his critical analysis as he explains how these characters might be closeted lovers. For others, Top Gun might be a cult 80s film about cocky boys in a flight academy, but, in the immortal words of Sid, “it is a story about a man’s struggle with his own homosexuality.”
Reservoir Dogs
This can be considered as an extended cameo in one of the best opening scenes of contemporary cinema. Tarantino’s debut as a director Reservoir Dogs opens with Tarantino’s Mr. Brown breaking down Like A Virgin by Madonna. Just like the aforementioned Top Gun analysis, he tries to give his own twist on the Madonna song, an explanation regarding Madonna’s sex life. He starts off the movie with great the bravado and same cockiness which would characterize his other classic characters in the future.
Desperado
Tarantino loves to deliver snarky monologues, and his friend Robert Rodriguez’s Desperado features him as a ‘pick-up guy’ at a bar. He drinks some beer and, based on his face, it feels that he’s probably not liking the taste of it. For some reason, it reminds him of a messy joke from a Mexican salon. The joke involves a man waging at a bar counter that he would piss in a glass from a distance without spilling a drop. It can be a weirdly-written scene for some, and the acting is not top-notch, but its Tarantino’s usual vigor which makes this scene memorable.
Little Nicky
Appearing in the role of ‘The Deacon,’ a little-known Tarantino cameo is this one from the disastrous Adam Sandler-starred Little Nicky. Sandler starred in this comedy as the son of the Devil. Tarantino is a blind fire and brimstone preacher who sniffs the evil off Sandler’s character and shouts out his revelations on the street. He’s louder than usual in this cameo, with some fine overacting in this otherwise unimpressive film.
Django Unchained
Tarantino plays a mining company employee called Frankie who trapped a few escaped slaves in his Oscar-winning Django Unchained. Pulling off a bizarre Australian accent, his character interacts with the slave Django, who convinces him that he’s a bounty hunter rather than a slave. The LeqQuint Dickey Mining Employee gets fooled easily by Django, who later kills all of Frankie’s partners. Frankie tries to reach out for his gun, but Django shoots him in a split second, the bullet hitting a stick of dynamite in Frankie’s pocket, causing him to literally explode.
The cameo was a fun addition to the movie, but it still drew a mixed response from audiences. This was mainly due to the scene breaking the momentum of the film and Tarantino’s accent. It seems he tried to sound like an Aussie, as he was finding it hard to imitate a Southern drawl, unlike the other actors.
All-American Girl
It’s a common fact that Quentin Tarantino us a hardcore pop culture geek. In a guest appearance on the short-lived sitcom All-American Girl, he gets to portray this aspect of his life to the fullest. The episode is even titled “Pulp Sitcom” in his honor.
He plays Desmond, a geek who sells pirated videotapes and asks out heroine Margaret Cho. They end up discussing the action in Speed, watching Ed Wood, and even dancing like Uma Thurman and John Travolta in Pulp Fiction. The only difference is that, unlike those two actors, these two end up giving the worst display of the robot and the electric slide on the dance floor. There is a slew of other Tarantino references in this delightful episode. However, his role ends with him fleeing away, as the police are after him on charges of piracy.
The Golden Girls
In the 80s, Tarantino was hustling. He wasn’t a household name. His scripts remained unsold. He had to make a buck, and so he got a small acting role that started his journey with Hollywood. The role was that of an Elvis impersonator in an episode of The Golden Girls.
There are 11 other impersonators singing Elvis Presley’s Blue Hawaii together, but Tarantino still tries to set himself apart with his jumpy gestures and weird hand movements. From am obscure role in a sitcom to Hollywood royalty, Quentin Tarantino has indeed come a long way.
