-== INTERVIEW ==-

Jay Leno : My next guest. An Oscar winning screen writer. His latest film, which he directed, is called Jackie Brown. It comes out December 25th, Christmas Day. Please welcome our old buddy Quentin Tarantino.

Jay Leno : You know, I don't think I've ever seen you in a suite.

Quentin Tarantino : I think you've seen me once before in a suite or something. At least at a couple parties, I think.

Jay Leno : Yeah, but it's usually kind of a half a suite with the kind of...

Quentin Tarantino : With the T-shit underneath or uh hip hop pants.

Jay Leno : Now you got the going to church with your parents kind of suite on.

Quentin Tarantino : Sharp. Sharp. Touch it, you'll cut yourself.

Jay Leno : Now you know, it's so funny. I'm going through your resume because I'm getting the bios, this is my Quentin bio. Now you started out as an actor, right?

Quentin Tarantino : Right, uh huh.

Jay Leno : Ok. But, you lied essentially.

Quentin Tarantino : Well, yeah. What happened like when you start out acting, you gotta have a résumé. And uh, if you ain't done nothin. It's like the thing is, you can't write nothin. Allright, because people aren't gonna pay attention to that. So you gotta lie. Allright. And uh, I had a better look at it then most, because I kinda knew alot about movies. I was a fan of the Jean-Luc Godard, and he just had a movie come out from Cannon back in the 80's or something called King Lear. Woddy Alen is in it for like a moment, and Molly Ringwald's in it. And I saw it, and it's like there is no way in HELL anyone is ever gonna see this movie. So I wrote down, you know, under film or motion pictures. I wrote motion pictures on my résumé, if  I'd used film they'd know I be lying. Motion pictures, like King Lear dash, allright, D-i-r Jean-Luc Godard w slash meaning with Molly Ringwald Woddy Allen. I even did that with another movie too, called Dawn Of The Dead. There was like a motor cycle guy,  in a motor cycle gang kinda looked like me so I just said it was.

Jay Leno : Did you ever get called on any of these, did anyone ever check and go, "Wait a minute"?

Quentin Tarantino : No. No. Of course not. So the thing of it is, they don't check on the stuff like that. That's one of the cool things about this business, is that they don't care if you come from the Yukon as long as you can do it.

Jay Leno : Or if you can lie really well.

Quentin Tarantino : But thing is, I mean I actually had the lies kinda down. I could go in there and talk about annadotes on the set and describe all kinds of stuff and everything. Anyway, I thought like that would be that because this was like ten years ago or something. So anyway when I do Reservoir Dogs and they're done putting the promotional materials * break because of applause * so we're putting together that and somehow I don't even have one, someone got a hold of one of my old acting resumes. And it had King Lear in there. So in the bio they sent out... Sundance this, and Cannes festival that, and Reservoir Dogs blah blah blah, and also Quentin Tarantino started as an actor appearing in Jean-Luc Godard's King Lear. How I didn't
 like correct anybody, because I thought it was funny as hell, allright. Then low and behold, in that Leonord Mallton Movies on TV -

Jay Leno : - Oh yeah the book? I have that book.

Quentin Tarantino : You look under King Lear and my names in there, allright.

Jay Leno : That's great, that's great.

Quentin Tarantino : I dig it. I hope they never change it.As far as I'm concerned, I am in King Lear.

Jay Leno : Now, you were in jail also? Did you go to jail one time, did I read this? Or this another lie?

Quentin Tarantino : This is true. Actually, I was in jail three times.

Jay Leno : Now, what were you in jail for?

Quentin Tarantino : It was for like traffic stuff.

Jay Leno : Now who goes to jail for traffic stuff?  "My blinker's not on, uhh".

Quentin Tarantino : You go to jail for traffic stuff when, like when you get the ticket and rip it up. Ok, and just throw it away.

Jay Leno : So you tore up a ticket and you threw it away.

Quentin Tarantino : Yeah, I did it a bunch of times.

Jay Leno : A bunch of times would be like six. What was that, about three-hundred bucks?

Quentin Tarantino : Well, not when you just don't even show up in court. Allright, the judge can get mad at that, and they can post a big bail.

Jay Leno : Well uh, how much are tickets?

Quentin Tarantino : Uh, it ended up being like three-thousand dollars.

Jay Leno : Really?!

Quentin Tarantino : Well, it wasn't just because of those tickets, it was like a fine. Like the bail. Your bail would be like  three-thousand dollars.

Jay Leno : The bail was three-thousand?!

Quentin Tarantino : They were tryin to teach me a lesson. And, it didn't work. It lasted, I did it three different times. But I can actually tell you, when you got warrants on you for like about two years and a half or so. You drive really good. I'm tellin  ya. It's like, if everybody out there had warrants on them, they would be driving so safe. They would be driving so cool. And actually, this is a tip for anybody out there who got warrants on you, and you see a cop behind you. It's pretty tough business when you're driving and you see a cop behind you, because the minute they stop you, you're going away. Don't be all calm and quite. This is what you do. Turn the radio on really loud and just start singing along with the song like you ain't got a care in the  world. You know, "Proud Marry keep on turning.." That works great. It works great because it looks like you don't care. It  looks like you don't care. What most people do is like star fixing the mirror ( uses his "acting" skills ) -

Jay Leno : Well, how long were you in jail?

Quentin Tarantino : The first time was three days. The second time was two days. And the last time was eight days.

Jay Leno : Eight days?!

Quentin Tarantino : Yeah.

Jay Leno : For parking tickets?!

Quentin Tarantino : Well, no. Not for parking tickets. No. No. They were violations.

Jay Leno : Now let me get to the movie here, Jackie Brown. This is with Pam Grier?

Quentin Tarantino : Yup.

Jay Leno : Well, this excites me. Because I knew her years ago when she was doing all those, uh what's it called Celopatra?

Quentin Tarantino : No. No. No. No. That's the wrong one. Coffy.

Jay Leno : Coffy. Ok.

Quentin Tarantino : Coffy, Foxy Brown.

Jay Leno : Foxy Brown.

Quentin Tarantino : Now you know why they call her Coffy? Because she'll cream. That was the tag.

Jay Leno : So tell me about Jackie Brown. Is it, is it another kind of uh.... ( hand motion )

Quentin Tarantino : No. No it's not. Is that Kung Fu? Hi Ya!!

Jay Leno : He's back in town.

Quentin Tarantino : Yeah, exactly. "And she's gonna burn the ghetto down to the ground. Nobody sleeps when they mess with Coffy". Slammin' Pam.

Jay Leno : So tell me about the movie. DeNiro's in it right?

Quentin Tarantino : Robert DeNiro's in it. Samuel L. Jackson is in it. Michael Keaton, uh Robert Forster. It's a terrific cast. Bridget Fonda.

Jay Leno : Wow. Wow. What is it about?

Quentin Tarantino : Oh! It's about uh. Pam Grier in the movie plays a flight attendant. Who is laundering money for a gun dealer, alright a gun salesman, an illegal gun salesman. Played by Sam Jackson.

Jay Leno : Gun salesman.

Quentin Tarantino : Well, yeah it is. I started to say arms dealer. But when you say arms dealer, you're thinking of selling rockets. This guy is like selling to dopers. But what happens is the cops wanna bust him. And they find out about her bringing in this money. So they tag her and say, "You gotta help us out, or we're throwing you in jail." And it littley becomes her situation  of how to play each of them off against each other.

Jay Leno : Oh, ok. I know you did mostly night shooting.

Quentin Tarantino : Yeah, Yeah exactly.

Jay Leno : Is that more fun to you?

Quentin Tarantino : Well, you see what happens with night shooting is this. A big dilemma of that, is people tend to fall asleep among the course of the night. It's late and everything and you find somebody sleeping. Well a member of the crew, actually DeNiro's stand-in, said "Well you know what Tony Scott does on his sets to keep people from falling asleep?" No, what? "He takes um. He puts um. A BIG rubber male organ.

Jay Leno : Allright.

Quentin Tarantino : Can you say....

Jay Leno : A big rubber male organ will be fine.

Quentin Tarantino : You take that, and the person's asleep and you put it next to them. And you take a photo of it. And I'm  reading off, everyone starts stays awake after that point. So what I did, I told my P.A. I said, "Ok, that's a great idea. i want  you to go down to Sana Monica Blvd. and I want you to get the largest male organ the store has."

Jay Leno : "The store".

Quentin Tarantino : Yeah, exactly. And what happened was, the guy at the store said "You know what, we better give you the second largest male organ." And we got this thing about this big. And it was called, "Big Jerry."

Jay Leno : "Big Jerry".

Quentin Tarantino : It was called "Big Jerry".

Jay Leno : A lovely Christmas Story, yeah.

Quentin Tarantino : "Big Jerry" ended up being one of the most popular members of the crew.

Jay Leno : I can imagine!

Quentin Tarantino : Nobody was like falling asleep. Then you want people to fall asleep. And you're coming up  next to them. And finally somebody in the department kidnaped "Big Jerry" so no one would get photos taken.

Jay Leno : I can't imagine who it was. Allright, So the movie opens -

Quentin Tarantino : - I think it was Pam Grier who stole "Big Jerry".

Jay Leno : It sounds like a lovely movie to open on Christmas Day. Thank you very much. Sorry to rush you along there.

Quentin Tarantino : Oh, no problem.