Pulp Fiction is one of those movies that seems to have the perfect cast in just the right roles. However, a recent viral post has suggested that the actors who made up the iconic ensemble could have been different, and one role, in particular, had director Quentin Tarantino at odds with the head of the studio. The list of potential actors who could have been in line to take on some of the roles in the action movie included Johnny Depp, who was second on Tarantino’s “wish list” for the Tim Roth role of Pumpkin. However, the director was adamant that Roth was who he wanted, even if that went against how the studio saw it.
While appearing on the 2 Bears, 1 Cave podcast, Tarantino responded to the viral post, which showed the actors he potentially wanted to play key roles, including Vincent and Lance. While the compiled list shows Tarantino’s options and overall preference, the director explained that it was not simply a “wish list” of who he wanted in the movie. He said:
"On the internet there's a thing floating around about my wish list of the cast of Pulp Fiction, it's kind of floating around and it's not. It's not that, not really. I didn't know exactly who I wanted to play this part or that part, so I wrote a giant list with a ton of names. I wanted to get them all pre-approved sure and I didn't know if it's gonna work out, if I would like vibe with the person or if they would even do a good job but I wanted to get them approved...It's kind of all over the place but that was kind of the idea, I wanted to be able to explore it and go all over the place but then I'm also really very opinionated."
How Did Johnny Depp Not Get A Role In Pulp Fiction?
As part of Tarantino’s list of possible stars, Johnny Depp appeared as his third choice for Pumpkin and was also a possible inclusion for the role of Lance, which eventually went to Eric Stoltz. When Tarantino put forward his list, it seemed that the head of the studio wanted to know why they would be offering the role of Pumpkin to Roth over Depp. Tarantino also noted that they told him that they would not offer the role to Roth until three others had turned the role down. In response, the director asked them:
"'Do you think Johnny Depp playing the role of Pumpkin in this movie, which is the opening scene and the closing scene that's it, do you think that will add that much to the box office?'”
As it turns out, they didn’t believe it would add anything in terms of box office success. Still, as Tarantino concluded, many studios at the time thought having a big-name star on board would help if the movie ended up being a critical failure. But, of course, we all know that even without Johnny Depp bookending the film, Pulp Fiction managed to do just fine.