Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez have been friends and collaborators since the Toronto International Film Festival in the early ’90s, where their directorial debuts (Reservoir Dogs and El Mariachi, respectively) were featured. So it’s only proper that for The Director’s Chair — a program featured on Rodriguez’s El Rey Network — the two discussed, extensively, Tarantino’s storied film career and his thoughts on the process of filmmaking.
The almost two-hour interview is littered with gems from Tarantino and is bolstered with never-before-seen footage from Rodriguez’s personal stash, including an awesome clip of the director reading one of the first drafts of Kill Bill back in 1994. Speaking about the film’s House of Blue Leaves scene, Tarantino said, “That was me throwing my hat into the action-filmmaking ring in a big way. I’m a big fan of the action directors, and the first time I do it, I don’t want to be a piker. I want to be as good as them.”
Quentin’s most critically-embattled film, Jackie Brown — which he adapted from an Elmore Leonard novel — is also discussed. “I absolutely love Jackie Brown. I think it’s one of my best movies,” Tarantino tells Rodriguez, but he follows that up by saying, “I don’t think I was really put on earth to really adapt other people’s novels. I think I was here to face the blank page, and pull stuff out of me.”