Quentin Tarantino fired Mélanie Laurent and Isabelle Huppert before production started on his 2009 film Inglourious Basterds, according to details revealed in a new book by Jay Glennie.
Laurent reclaimed her role
Mélanie Laurent, who played the French cinema owner Shosanna Dreyfus, was initially dismissed by the director after a disappointing table read. Tarantino described her performance during that session as “terrible,” according to ANI. He further said that her performance “wasn’t good enough to be terrible.”
She expressed her determination to prove herself by telling the director she would fly herself back to Germany and stay at a hotel so she could read for him again. This persistence led Tarantino to “turn the clock back,” as reported by Comic Book Resources.
After three days of additional rehearsal, the director decided to retain her in the role. Tarantino said that he was impressed by her passion and agreed to “return to square one” with her. “Let me just go on the record for everybody to know: I love Mélanie,” Tarantino said, according to Comic Book Resources.
“So, if we had not agreed to talk about the shooting of the movie, it would be out of my mind, and I would never think about it again,” Tarantino said, according to The Independent, according to The Independent.
Huppert was replaced
While Laurent was rehired, French actor Isabelle Huppert was permanently removed from the project. Huppert had been cast as Madame Ada Mimieux, a character who provides shelter to Shosanna in Paris, but she failed to attend the initial table read, World of Reel reported.
Tarantino said that contract negotiations had been stalling alongside the attendance issues. He replaced Huppert with Maggie Cheung, though the director eventually decided to remove all of Cheung’s scenes from the final cut of the film to avoid over-explaining the plot, The Daily Beast noted, according to The Daily Beast.
Tarantino explained that while Cheung was “fantastic in the movie,” the audience did not need to know the specifics of how Shosanna acquired the cinema. He suggested that a title card stating “Four Years Later” and Shosanna explaining she inherited the business from her aunt would have sufficed.
“She didn’t show up, so fuck it. I fired her,” Tarantino said, according to The Independent.
“I mean, I love Isabelle Huppert — Heaven’s Gate and all that — but there were issues with her contract. It just kept stalling. And then not coming to the table read. Well, we cast Maggie Cheung instead,” the director added.
Strict casting standards
The director’s approach to the 2009 World War II drama emphasized the necessity of the table read as a vital tool for seeing the film come together for the first time. He expressed that he felt no obligation to maintain cast members who did not meet his expectations or attend essential sessions.
“The one day, the most exciting day of preproduction is for me the table read,” Tarantino said. “That is the closest I get to seeing the movie for the first time. Up until then, it’s just been me reading all the scenes to myself or to a friend … so, a table read with the whole cast is so exciting and so important to me.”
“That invariably happens. As far as I’m concerned, if you’re cast and you are not at that table, I don’t owe you jack shit! You can be fired, especially if I get excited by what somebody else did in your absence,” Tarantino said, according to ANI.
Christoph Waltz wins best actor at Cannes
The revisionist World War II film follows two parallel attempts to assassinate Nazi leadership in Paris. The production featured an ensemble cast including Brad Pitt, Christoph Waltz, Michael Fassbender, Diane Kruger, Mélanie Laurent, and Eli Roth.
Inglourious Basterds made its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2009. During the festival, the jury—which was presided over by Isabelle Huppert—awarded Christoph Waltz the best actor prize for his portrayal of Hans Landa. The jury also awarded the Palme d’Or to Michael Haneke’s The White Ribbon.
Following its festival debut, the film opened in theaters in August 2009 and became a box office success, earning $321 million worldwide. The film also received Academy Award recognition, with Waltz winning for Best Supporting Actor. Other major nominations included Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay.