2015: The Year in Tarantino Controversies
Quentin Tarantino can’t help himself. In early December, after spending the second half of 2015 supplying the thinkpiece industry with one piping-hot take after another, the filmmaker confessed to The Guardian that sitting down for a bunch of long-form interview features may not have been such a great idea. “If I keep giving them fish,” he said, “and they’re giving me back chum in 450 different outlets, I don’t know why I’m doing it.” Then less than two weeks later, Tarantino appeared on The Howard Stern Show, where he accused Disney of forcing ArcLight Cinemas to show Star Wars: The Force Awakens at the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood through the entire holiday season, breaking the contract it had to run Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight in 70mm.
Not many filmmakers would have the stones to accuse the biggest studio in the world — distributing potentially the biggest movie of all time — of extortion. But then, not many filmmakers have been on a publicity blitz quite like Tarantino’s this year. As a movie buff, Tarantino has surely seen Bull Durham, but he may have forgotten the scene where Kevin Costner’s veteran catcher consuls Tim Robbins on the finer points of public relations: “You’re gonna have to learn your clichés. You’re gonna have to study them, you’re gonna have to know them. They’re your friends.” Tarantino gave great press this year, supplying an endless stream of lively, candid, provocative quotes that journalists love — and that all public figures are advised never to give. The man doesn’t do platitudes.
Two interviews contained most of the major detonations on pop culture and politics: First, a conversation with Lane Brown for Vulture/New York magazine in August, which may be the best Tarantino interview since his hour with Charlie Rose in 1994; and later a profile piece for T: The New York Times’ Style Magazine in October, written by fellow L.A. controversy-magnet Bret Easton Ellis. But Tarantino’s 2015 didn’t end there. Here’s a rundown of his most quotable lines and the fallout that followed:
2015: The Year in Tarantino Controversies, Page 1 of 5