Quentin Tarantino has become one of the most popular but also controversial filmmakers, and while many actors would like to work with him at some point, there are others who have turned down roles in his movies, such as Sylvester Stallone, who did so twice. Tarantino’s career began in 1992 with the crime movie Reservoir Dogs, and his big break arrived two years later with Pulp Fiction, another crime movie but this one told in a non-linear style.
Tarantino has stated he will retire after making 10 movies, so he chooses his projects and casts carefully, and there’s always a lot of expectation around them. Like many other directors, Tarantino has built his own list of recurring collaborators, with big names like Samuel L. Jackson and Uma Thurman, but there are many others that have yet to work with the controversial director, while there are some others that have decided to turn down the opportunity to do so, sometimes even more than once, as happened with Sylvester Stallone.
Sylvester Stallone’s career on the big screen began in 1969 in small roles in a number of movies, and his big break arrived in 1976 when he played Robert “Rocky” Balboa in Rocky. Since then, Stallone has played mostly characters who look tough and are always involved in a lot of action, and his filmography could have expanded with two Tarantino movies, which funny enough, are on opposite ends as one is considered by many as his best and the other is widely regarded as his worst: Jackie Brown and Death Proof, but Stallone turned down both offers for different reasons.
Based on the novel Rum Punch by Elmore Roland, Jackie Brown follows the title character (played by Pam Grier), a flight attendant who is caught smuggling gun money and has to choose between teaming up with the cops to bust her arms dealer boss or saying nothing and going to jail. Speaking to the magazine MacLean’s (via Looper) back in 2012, Stallone revealed he was offered the role of Louis Gara, a small-time crook and ex-convict, but he turned it down (though he didn’t reveal why), and the role went to Robert De Niro instead. Years later, Tarantino approached Stallone one more time, this time to offer him a bigger role: Stuntman Mike in Death Proof, his half of the Grindhouse project with Robert Rodriguez. Death Proof follows Stuntman Mike as he murders young women with modified cars he claims are “death-proof”, but just to him. Stallone told Tarantino that there was “no way” he was going to play Stuntman Mike as he has two daughters and the character’s hobby is “putting teenagers in his car and smashing them into a wall”, which didn’t feel right to him.
Turning down roles in Jackie Brown and Death Proof wasn’t a big loss for Sylvester Stallone, as on the years they were released, he appeared in the movies Cop Land, The Good Life, and the years before and after Death Proof he returned to two of his most iconic roles: Rocky Balboa and John Rambo. Only time will tell if Sylvester Stallone will get to work with Quentin Tarantino in the director’s supposed final movie, but he might have to make a very interesting offer to him if he wants him to join the cast.
