Quentin Tarantino Reveals Fired ‘Basterds’ Star Missed Table Read
Director Quentin Tarantino says he fired Isabelle Huppert from Inglourious Basterds for skipping the table read, and nearly dropped Mélanie Laurent after a "terrible" one. The claims come from a new book on the 2009 film by Jay Glennie.
Quentin Tarantino reveals he fired French actor Isabelle Huppert from Inglourious Basterds for missing the table read, according to a new book about the 2009 film. He also says he nearly dropped Mélanie Laurent.
The claims appear in The Making of Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds by Jay Glennie. Tarantino is interviewed for the book, which explores the war epic and several castings that never happened.
Huppert out, Cheung in
Huppert had been cast as Madame Ada Mimieux, a woman who shelters Shosanna Dreyfus in Paris. Tarantino says she lost the part because she did not turn up to the table read, a session where the full cast reads the script aloud.
"She didn't show up, so f*** it. I fired her," Tarantino said, according to an excerpt from the book. He added that there were also problems with her contract: "It just kept stalling."
Maggie Cheung, the In The Mood For Love actor, took the role instead. The sequence with the character was later cut from the film.
"Maggie was fantastic in the movie, but you just didn't need to know how Shosanna acquired the cinema," Tarantino said. A title card reading "Four Years Later" and a line about an inheritance from an aunt did the job.
Laurent's rough read
Laurent played Shosanna, the French cinema owner. Tarantino says her table read was "terrible," so he fired her.
As he tells it, Laurent phoned him and asked for the part back. She said she had not been feeling well during the read, and told him she would show up on set whatever he decided. She convinced him to reconsider.
"The most exciting day of preproduction is for me the table read," Tarantino said. "That is the closest I get to seeing the movie for the first time."
He was clear about how he feels now. "Let me just go on the record for everybody to know: I love Mélanie," he said. "Mélanie is my Shosanna."
Laurent went on to win acclaim for the role. The film also starred Brad Pitt, Christoph Waltz and Eli Roth.
Tarantino said he and the author agreed to include the episode, "warts and all." Without the book, he said, it would be "out of my mind."
