Quentin Tarantino Responds to Rosanna Arquette Criticism

Lest we all start to feel a little too safe and secure in the never-ending churn of late awards-season discourse, Quentin Tarantino is here and kicking up some dirt about stuff that happened ages ago. Okay, well, maybe it’s not on Tarantino. His onetime Pulp Fiction star Rosanna Arquette spoke about her time on the film in an interview with the Sunday Times in which she said she’s “over” the “use of the N-word,” adding that she cannot stand that Tarantino “has been given a hall pass. It’s not art, it’s just racist and creepy.” Why did Arquette randomly decide to bring N-word discourse into a conversation about her whole career in an interview pegged to The Moment? It’s hard to know for sure, but probably because Arquette was talking to a British newspaper in the aftermath of an event in which the N-word was on the forefront of everyone’s mind, and she was in a movie by and starring a guy who is known for saying it.

You really can’t get away with saying something about Tarantino and him not hearing about it, so of course he fired back at Arquette’s more-than-reasonable critique of Tarantino’s insistence on his repeated use of the word. The director sent Arquette a letter in which he wrote, “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?” Vulture is honored, of course, to be one of those 132 publications. Tarantino goes on to write that her trashing of the film shows a lack “class, no less honor.” Are these two gonna work it out? It’s not looking likely. Tarantino’s insistence that there ought to be an “esprit de corps” between colleagues suggests that a solidarity between artists should prevent people from shit-talking each other, something he seemed to forget when he randomly trashed Paul Dano earlier this year.