How Beatty was fired and Carradine was hired

Why ‘Kill Bill’ Dropped Beatty

Mon, Apr 05, 2004, 03:04 PM PT

By Vanessa Sibbald







LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) - It’s common knowledge that Warren Beatty was tapped to play the titular character in Quentin Tarantino’s “Kill Bill” before, for some reason or another, the actor and director parted ways, leaving Tarantino to cast “Kung Fu” star David Carradine in the role instead.



According to the director, while he and Beatty talked about doing the film “for a while,” “at the end of the day, it came [down to]: this is not the right movie for us to do together,” Tarantino tells Zap2it.com.







However, Michael Madsen, who plays Bill’s brother Budd in the film, tells a slightly different story. In fact, he remembers going to a dinner party that producer Lawrence Bender held for Beatty so that he could meet the actor and “hang out and feel if we were comfortable with each other, seeing that we had to be brothers and all.” The meeting went well and about three days later Madsen got a phone call from the director.



“He goes, ‘Well, I just fired Warren.’ And I said, ‘Oh my God. You did?’ And he said, ‘Yeah, yeah.’ He said, ‘He doesn’t understand what the movie’s about and I’m not going to go through this. He doesn’t understand what the movie’s about, he doesn’t want to do it and I don’t want him to do it,’” Madsen recalls.



Not only that, but according to Madsen, Tarantino already had somebody in mind to replace Beatty.



“I said, ‘Well who in the name of god is going to play Bill?’ And he goes, ‘Are you ready?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, I’m ready gdn it. Who is it?’ And he said, ‘David Carradine.’ And I remember that I was completely and totally stunned. I mean it so took me off guard. I wouldn’t of thought of David in a million years. At the same time I realized that it made more sense than anything,” says Madsen. “And the first time I saw David I knew that he could handle it and obviously he did, because he’s wonderful in the picture.”



In fact, according to Carradine, it may have been Beatty himself that suggest the “Kung Fu” actor.



“Well, I would never say to anyone that Warren Beatty got fired. I think he and Quentin fell out of love,” Carradine tells Zap2it.com. “As I understand it from Quentin, it was Warren Beatty that said, ‘Why don’t you hire David?’ Because Quentin had essentially been writing it about me. The deal was with Warren and I can see the picture with Warren, I mean it’s a different movie, but if you’ve ever seen ‘Bullworth’ you realize that Warren is really capable of joining in in the kind of madness that’s a Quentin Tarantino movie. I think when Quentin saw that movie he went, ‘I didn’t think that Warren could do anything like that or would do anything like that.’ But then, eventually it came to me, which is how it was planned in the first place, but I think that’s fine. It’s certainly fine by me.”



“Kill Bill Vol. 2” opens nationwide on Friday, April 16.

tooken from everything tarantino and this link was giving for the story



<LINK_TEXT text=“http://www.zap2it.com/movies/news/story … 15,00.html”>http://www.zap2it.com/movies/news/story/0,1259,---21115,00.html</LINK_TEXT>

Thank god Beatty was let go. David Carradine was made to play Bill. Thats his role anyway. Beatty could never have been able to pull this role off.

i could place Warren Beatty as bill in the script, but Tarantino fixed the script up to fit to Carradine, can’t wait to see him play the silent flute

I could definately see Beatty as the acting Bill, but not the fighting Bill.



But I definately hope Beatty plays a part in Inglorious Bastards. He was badass in his days.

[quote]Thank god Beatty was let go. David Carradine was made to play Bill. Thats his role anyway. Beatty could never have been able to pull this role off. [/quote]


I think the same. For me Carradine is def. better to fill this role. Beatty is a good actor, but I can´t see him in this role.
Above all, I read Carradine biographie (sp?) after hearing that he plays Bill.
This man is made to play Bill. His book is unbelievable. I read that Qt read the book of Carradine before. This man (DC) is crazy.

Ok it was Beatty who was supposed to play Bill, I got that. I heard this a while back when they were getting the film ready to shoot, I just could not see it. Thank God they decided on David. Carradine is one awesome bad ass. But let’s just say he never go hired and the role of Bill was still to be cast and Carradine was never in the picture. Who do you guys think would have played an awesome Bill.



A week ago I was thinking about that same question and I was watching Pulp Fiction and it’s quite an amazing thing the way QT brought back Travolta. Later that they I saw a commercial for Mountain Dew. And this was just me but I thought to myself Steven Seagal would have been pretty fucking cool in it. Seagal hasn’t been in a good movie in years maybe ever but there’s no doubt that the man knows martial arts. The man still has that great voice that would have matched perfectly with Michael Madsen as brothers. Who better to bring back an actor then QT. What do you guys think. I myself am left to wonder what if.

I wish he never fired Beatty.

seagal can’t act, everone knows that

If Seagal was Bill, he’d demand that his character never got hurt in fight sequences

Oh my god! Would you stop that Seagal crap, please? It got me cramps…

I think it’s quite obvious that Carradine is the beter choice for Bill. Bill’s a kung-fu guy, and David Carradine is a kung-fu guy, plain & simple.





BTW, Constranded, Insomniac kicks ass!

I’m glad Carradine got the part, but not just from the Kung Fu perspective. Quite frankly, I think both Carradine brothers (David and Keith) are better actors than Warren Beatty. They’re highly underrated, and I know Beatty has been in some classics, but thats just how I feel about it.



Bound for Glory was one of Carradine’s best acting performances ever and he never threw one punch in the whole thing.

[quote]I’m glad Carradine got the part, but not just from the Kung Fu perspective.  Quite frankly, I think both Carradine brothers (David and Keith) are better actors than Warren Beatty.  They’re highly underrated, and I know Beatty has been in some classics, but thats just how I feel about it. ÂÂ



Bound for Glory was one of Carradine’s best acting performances ever and he never threw one punch in the whole thing.  [/quote]

I agree completely. Even so, I think that Carradine still should’ve got the part aside from how great and underrated he is because of the Kung-Fu angle.

[quote]


I agree completely. Even so, I think that Carradine still should’ve got the part aside from how great and underrated he is because of the Kung-Fu angle.
[/quote]

Oh, I agree. But putting David Carradine in Kill Bill for knowing Kung Fu, in my eyes, would be like casting John Travolta for Pulp Fiction just because he knew how to dance.

[quote]




I think the same. For me Carradine is def. better to fill this role. Beatty is a good actor, but I can´t see him in this role.

Above all, I read Carradine biographie (sp?) after hearing that he plays Bill.

This man is made to play Bill. His book is unbelievable. I read that Qt read the book of Carradine before. This man (DC) is crazy.[/quote]

Which book is it you’re talking about? The Kung Fu Book of Carradine? Or some other one?

For some reason I wouldn’t have minded Beatty. (Carradine does kick ass though) When I read the script, I saw in my mind that rugged, aged, handsome, oily, slick type of man who could lead the Vipers, and I saw more of Beatty than Carradine I admit. Bill in the script is supposed to have that charm that attracted the women and they fell into his fingers, and Beatty was one of the most famous womanizers in Hollywood from what I’ve always heard.



But I think credit also goes to Quentin for bringing the best out of any actor. So if it was Beatty, I’m sure he could be trained to be a kick ass fighter and look convincing. I mean, after all, Uma and the other chicks never threw a punch in their life, but Uma looks like she could kick even Steven Segal’s ass after watching Kill Bill!



But if there had to be a second choice to Beatty, I’m totally glad it is Carradine. Makes the reference to Kung Fu in Pulp Fiction even cooler.

Warren Beauty and Quentin Tarantino were in love?

hey its hollywood talk

[quote]


Which book is it you’re talking about? The Kung Fu Book of Carradine? Or some other one?
[/quote]


No, man, wouldn´t read a book written of him about Kung Fu, In this case � would prefer books of a traditional Kung Fu familiy.
Well David Carradine wrote a book about his life. It´s called Endless highway. It´s the shit, man!
I read that QT read it before he fits the role for him and so I tried to buy the book.
Official it is out of sale, but you can find it!
It is not like a normal biographie, it is 10 times more cool. He wrote really interessting stories, about his brothers, his father, about Hollywood, Sex, Drugs, and whatever. I explained all his exoerience with drugs and alcohol. How he loves fast cars and whatever...

Carradine was one of my childhood-heroes, when I was watching that old Kung-Fu series back in the seventies.

To see him in this manner, in one of best movies ever made, is way more than I could ever expect. I’m just grateful for that.

Warren is a cool dude anyway. Maybe we see him in one of QT’s upcoming movies. I really would like that.