-== INTERVIEW ==-

Question: What made you visualize Pam Grier in Jackie Brown?

QUENTIN TARANTINO: Oh, just like a complete mutual respect, love and admiration for each other, you know? I always have been a big fan of Pam's since Coffy, all right? When I saw -- when I was all of 13. I've been a big fan of hers for a long time. I've always thought she was this great icon for women and for black women and just for action and everything. And then since the days of the Blaxploitation films, she really's invested herself a lot into her acting, and she's done some really, really good work. And so I've always wanted to work with her, and I get to know her a little bit and everything. And we'd bump into each other from time to time, and I was always like, "Yeah, someday, someday." What ended up happening was I read Elmore Leonard's Rum Punch and decided I wanted to do it and upon deciding that, you start figuring out who could possibly be the role, and once I came across the idea of Pam [snaps his fingers], it was, like, that was it.

Question: What made you decide to work with Samuel L. Jackson again?

QUENTIN TARANTINO: If you've ever read any of Elmore Leonard's novels, he writes a certain kind of type of black guy -- all right -- that just Sam is perfect for, all right? And in particular Ordell is just like one of the most perfect Sam roles ever. I mean, it was such a no-brain -- like, he stepped off the page of the novel and practically did the dialogue. And so with Sam it was just very, very easy, and then he's just so great. People will ask, they go, "So do you and Sam have, like, a De Niro-Scorsese relationship?" And I say, "It's closer to Joe Mantegna and David Mamet." Sam has a way of saying my dialogue that just -- he gets the music in it. It sounds like music when he says it.

Question: What TV shows did you watch as a kid?

QUENTIN TARANTINO: I think probably -- I used to watch that show Get Christie Love all the time, which was sort of the TV's version of a Pam Grier movie. Probably my favorite cop show, of all the cop shows when I was growing up, was Baretta. I was a big, big fan of Baretta. I liked Baretta a lot. I also liked the show Then Came Bronson, with Michael Parks. I was a big fan of that. I think it was some of the most naturalistic acting ever to be on a television show by him. I was a big fan of Robert Forster's show Banyon, which was a fantastic show, all right? There was all kinds of really good shows.

Question: How do you decide which songs will be on your soundtracks?

QUENTIN TARANTINO: With music in movies, what I'm trying to do is I'm trying to find the personality of the movie while I'm writing it. Surf music in Pulp Fiction kind of was like the beat of the movie. That was the rhythm of the movie, 'cause I always kind of thought of Pulp Fiction as sort of like a rock 'n' roll spaghetti Western, if you will. And that was kind of like that kind of music. And this is, you know, old-school soul. That's the pulse. That's the rhythm that this movie plays at. And so then it just became an issue of diving into my record collection -- all right -- as I'm writing, just finding the right tunes for it and everything, y'know, "That's the one. That's the one."

Question: What was working with Robert De Niro like?

QUENTIN TARANTINO: Robert is, you know, is such a great actor and he's talked about as such a great actor for so long that I actually think his talents have almost been overlooked the last few years, you know what I mean? People, like, take him for granted. I mean, I thought he should have been nominated for Oscar for Heat and for Casino. I thought he was terrific in that. But in this movie it was very interesting 'cause I gave him the role. I was talking to him about the role. I go, "Look, I actually think that this is one of the greatest acting roles I've ever written. But it's not in speeches. It's not in dialogue. It's in body language. This is a performance that needs to be given through body language, all right?" And I even described it. I said, "Your body language in this movie should be that of a pile of dirty clothes." And just look at him in the movie, just the way he, you know, just sits on that couch and the way he holds that drink and everything. That's Louis. You see that he's been baked by being in jail this last time, and he wasn't that way before but he's this way now.

ADRIAN WOOTTON: Are you planning to direct Mira anytime soon?

QUENTIN TARANTINO: I can't wait to work with Mira. I think at the end of -- you know, I think about six, seven years from now, the way, like, De Niro was known in the '70s -- you know, after, like, a certain portion of the '70s was concerned -- I think Mira will prove herself to be the actor of her generation. Not the actress. She'll prove herself to be the actor of her generation. And I am -- I am very, very much looking forward to working with her. I just don't know what I'm gonna do next, and everything. And I want it to be organic. I don't want to -- you know, she doesn't want to just plug herself into one of my movies and I don't wanna just plug her in. I just respect her talent too much for that. I want it to be wonderful. And that doesn't mean I need to be precious about it. But I just want it to be like a character that's perfect for her, like Pam [Grier] was perfect for Jackie or John [Travolta] was perfect for Vincent [in Pulp Fiction].