Pulp Fiction: Why John Travolta’s Casting Almost Killed The Movie

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Pulp Fiction revived John Travolta’s career in the 1990s, but his casting was not well received by all the producers of the movie, and it almost killed the production deal. Quentin Tarantino’s directorial debut arrived in 1992 with the crime movie Reservoir Dogs, and while it was a critical success, his big break arrived two years later with Pulp Fiction, also a crime movie but with the particularity of being told in a non-linear style. Pulp Fiction is also formed by different segments, each one led by one or two characters, with their paths crossing at some point.

Pulp Fiction, then, follows the stories of hitmen Jules Winnfield (Samuel L. Jackson) and Vincent Vega (Travolta), their boss Marsellus Wallace (Ving Rhames), his wife Mia Wallace (Uma Thurman), and boxer Butch Coolidge (Bruce Willis), and while all of them get to shine in at least one segment, the characters widely considered as the main ones are Jules, Vincent, and Mia. Pulp Fiction was a critical and commercial success, with critics praising its screenwriting, tone, and the performances of the main cast. Pulp Fiction’s success helped boost the careers of Jackson, Thurman, and Travolta, and even though the latter had already had success years before, his casting was not well-received by producer Harvey Weinstein, to the point where the production deal was almost over.

Related: Pulp Fiction: Why Vincent Dies But Jules Lives

How Pulp Fiction Revived John Travolta’s Career

Speaking to Vanity Fair in 2013, Tarantino reminisced about the process of making Pulp Fiction happen, and opened up about the casting process. Tarantino explained that he originally planned to cast Michael Madsen as Vincent Vega, but he couldn’t take the role due to scheduling conflicts, so he gave the part to Travolta. However, according to Tarantino’s agent, Mike Simpson, Harvey Weinstein wanted anyone but Travolta, and when he gave him a “term sheet” of Tarantino’s demands, which included a specific running time, final cut, and a final choice of actors that included Travolta, Weinstein sent it back with the note “the entire list is approved… except for John Travolta”. Simpson added that Weinstein said he could get Daniel Day-Lewis, Sean Penn, or William Hurt for the part of Vincent Vega, which led to an intense phone call in which Weinstein said they should “close the deal” and address it the next day, but Simpson defended Travolta’s casting telling him to “agree to it right now or there’s no deal”, and he eventually agreed to it.

By the time Pulp Fiction was in pre-production, Travolta was going through a rough patch in his career. Travolta’s big break happened in the 1970s when he starred as Tony Manero in Saturday Night Fever and Danny Zuko in Grease, followed by his lead role in Urban Cowboy in 1980, but after that, his career went down with critical and/or commercial failures like Two of a Kind, Perfect, and Staying Alive. Travolta’s resurgence began in 1989 with the comedy Look Who’s Talking, but it wasn’t until Pulp Fiction that he made a proper comeback, as it was not only a commercial success but also a critical one, which led to Travolta receiving an Academy Award nomination. Weinstein’s reasons for not wanting to cast Travolta are most likely linked to the many failures he had recently starred in at the time, and in the end, according to executive producer Richard Gladstein, Weinstein praised himself for having the idea to cast Travolta.

What John Travolta Has Done Since Pulp Fiction

John Travolta’s career post-Pulp Fiction is full of ups and downs, and he hasn’t really repeated the success he had when he played Vincent Vega. Among his most notable works are the sci-fi thriller Face/Off, the crime-comedy Be Cool, the musical Hairspray, and the miniseries The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story. However, his career has been mostly overshadowed by two big failures: the sci-fi movie Battlefield Earth and the biographical crime drama Gotti. Since 2020, John Travolta has chosen to take it easier with his career, and it’s to be seen if he will get another big chance that can re-boost his career as Pulp Fiction did.

Next: Tarantino Almost Worked With Samuel L Jackson Before Pulp Fiction