The actors who Quentin Tarantino originally wanted for the main roles in his hit '90s classic "Pulp Fiction" have been revealed and the list looks very different to the final casting.
Notably, John Travolta and Samuel L Jackson were both second picks for the starring roles of Vincent Vega and Jules Winnfield, according to the rough cast list shared on Twitter by author Don Winslow as well as others involved in the film.
Tarantino initially hoped that Michael Madsen would be available to play Vincent. If he and Travolta were both unable to do so then Alec Baldwin, Gary Oldman, Michael Keeton, and Denzel Washington were all on the list as other potential candidates.
For the role of Jules, Tarantino originally had Laurence Fishburne as his first pick. Eddie Murphy was also in the running for the part along with several other actors but Tarantino made it clear that he did not want any rappers to be cast as Jules. Jackson clinched the part but Tarantino initially wrote down the actor for the part of Marcellus Wallace, which went to Ving Rhames — his first pick on the list.
The part for Butch, which is played by Bruce Willis, was originally written for Matt Dillion. Second on the list was Sean Penn followed by Nicolas Cage, Aidan Quinn, and Johnny Depp, who was also considered to play the part of restaurant robber Pumpkin, which went to Tim Roth. Willis' name did not feature on the original list.
Another star who was not a top pick was Uma Thurman, who plays Mia Wallace. In fact, her name also does not feature on Tarantino's list. Instead, the filmmaker wrote the part for Virginia Madsen. Tarantino also envisioned Alfre Woodard, Bridget Fonda, Angela Bassett, and 'Dirty Dancing' star Jennifer Beals for the part.
Tarantino's cast wish list for "Django" was also different to how he initially planned. Will Smith was a frontrunner for the starring role of but the actor turned down the offer, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
"It was about the creative direction of the story," Smith said of declining the role during the outlet's annual Actor Roundtable in 2015. "To me, it’s as perfect a story as you could ever want: a guy that learns how to kill to retrieve his wife that has been taken as a slave. That idea is perfect. And it was just that Quentin and I couldn’t see [eye to eye]."
Smith explained that he was cautious of the violence in the film and did not want it to be a "vengeance" story.
"I wanted to make that movie so badly, but I felt the only way was, it had to be a love story, not a vengeance story," he said.
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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