Could you picture JLaw popping up in a Quentin Tarantino joint? It’s an exciting thing to think about (YOU’RE WELCOME) and, according to QT, it was something he genuinely considered for his new film The Hateful Eight.
This slice of “What If” casting chatter bubbled up during Tarantino’s most recent chat with Entertainment Weekly. The motormouthed writer/director would ultimately cast Jennifer Jason Leigh in the role of fugitive Daisy Domergue, but he did speak with Jennifer Lawrence about the prospect of being in the film.
“I’m a huge Jennifer Lawrence fan,” he says. “I think I’ve been on record of saying that her and David O. Russell’s relationship is very William Wyler-Bette Davis like, and that’s a good thing to be like. And I can see her doing a good job with this role, so we went to talk about it and everything. She was just doing me a courtesy to see me, I think. She was doing Joy. She had to all this publicity on the Hunger Games movies. There was just no f*cking way in the world that she was available. Having said that, I’m glad I didn’t cast somebody that young. I think I absolutely positively made the right choice, as far as the ages of the characters.”
Considering the glowing reviews Jennifer Jason Leigh’s performance has gotten, it’s safe to say things panned out okay for Quentin Tarantino. Later in the interview, he notes how he ended up being increasingly drawn to JJL as the right woman to play Daisy.
“There was a throwback to Reservoir Dogs quality to this whole [movie] so there was this kind of full circle quality going on,” says Tarantino. “So I was like, the actress should be from that same boat as the [other] actors, and there were about three actresses from that period that really kind of made an indelible mark on me. I started going on little film festivals of the three, and frankly, it was the Jennifer Jason Leigh film festival that I enjoyed the most.”
By the way, the much-ballyhooed 70mm dick-swinging roadshow version of the film is set to arrive in select cinemas on Christmas Day.
(via Entertainment Weekly)
