For a guy who loves to publicly trash-talk, Quentin Tarantino sure does get defensive when he is criticized for repeatedly using a racial slur in his work. Over the weekend, Pulp Fiction star Rosanna Arquette spoke with the Times of London and said that while the movie is “iconic, a great film on a lot of levels,” she is “personally over the use of the N-word.”
“I hate it,” Arquette continued. “I cannot stand that [Tarantino] has been given a hall pass. It’s not art, it’s just racist and creepy.” According to one count, the word is used 14 times in Pulp Fiction, 38 times in Jackie Brown, and a staggering 110 times in Django Unchained.
This would seem like a pretty reasonable take to most people but not to Tarantino. “I hope the publicity you’re getting from 132 different media outlets writing your name and printing your picture was worth disrespecting me and a film I remember quite clearly you were thrilled to be a part of?” Tarantino responded, seemingly addressing Arquette, in a statement provided to Deadline. “But after I gave you a job, and you took the money, to trash it for what I suspect is very cynical reasons, shows a decided lack of class, no less honor. There is supposed to be an esprit de corps between artistic colleagues. But it would appear the objective was accomplished.”
Tarantino has been defending his relentless use of the N-word in movies for years, and Arquette is far from the first person to criticize him for it: In 1997, Spike Lee said Tarantino was “infatuated” with the word and asked, “What does he want to be made — an honorary black man?” In a 2022 interview with CNN’s Chris Wallace, Tarantino said people should “see something else” if they think he uses the slur too much in his films. Responding to that interview, director Lee Daniels said, “Ten years ago, or 15 years ago, I would have checked it off as artistic,” but Tarantino has “no right to use that word” and “no right to feel that way.”
Maybe one day this criticism will actually get through to him. For now, Tarantino seems content to stay really defensive and attack someone for raising the same critique he’s been getting for the better part of 30 years. What a guy!