Where does QT get his characters from?

hey, i really need some help on finding out stuff on how QT constructed the female characters in his films, i.e. what influenced them. ill leave it to everyones own view of what are “his” films, as there are many different views, and all would be most appreciated, but the films for what he wrote the screen plays for would be really really helpful…



cheers.

“I think of a man. Then I take away all reason and accountability.” - Jack Nicholson in As Good as it Gets.

i remember in the true romance commentary quentin saying something about a man he knew growing up Big D

i think Jules was based on Big D

he probably just got high on ectasy and started naming off characters…

Jackie Brown- Coffy

Vernita Green- Jeannie Bell

Mia Wallace- that chick from Band of Outsiders

O-Ren Ishii- Lady Snowblood

Elle Driver- main character in Thriller

the Bride- Lady Snowblood/The Man With No Name

Tarantino writes his characters as if he IS the character. He takes the role on for himself when he writes similar to how an actor would get into the role of a character in a film. Tarantino knows about the criminal life and from his past experiences, he is able to apply them to the characters. In Jackie Brown, he took on the role of Ordell and made Ordell say thing similar to what Tarantino would say ‘He becomes the character’ that is why it was so hard for Quentin to let that role go and to give it to Samuel L Jackson to play becuase in tarantino’s eyes, Tarantino was Ordell. Tarantino even said hiself had he not become a director he may have becoma a criminal.



Also that Big D thing was to do with how he came up with that Sicilian speech for True Romance, as Big D was like a father figure to Quentin who told him that Sicilians were ‘spawned’ by blacks, he then used this in his script.

Uh yeah Ify, we were talking about female characters.

Oh sorry, lol, I must not have read the post properly… my bad.

tee hee nigga

on the Jackie Brown DVD, the interview with QT and Robert DeNiro they talk about how they used to talk over the phone what Louis would look like, and they would say simple details like "would he wear a watch? Would he have a beard?"

i think it takes a shitload of time to create and develope a character and actually place yourself in the perspective of someone who you can’t possibly relate too

moviemaking is a hard job, im telling you

Yeh QT and Pam Grier discussed how Jackie Brown would walk during which scenes and what she would wear and how she would talk etc. I bet half of the people don’t appreciate this character build-up process.

I think he gets his inspiration for his characters from friends around him and from movies he watches…he takes out the cool aspects and things he likes to see in a character and blends it and out comes a character.

Once you have this basic profile you put that character in certain settings and ask yourself: what would this character do now? how would he act, etc by doing this you get even more aspects and the character grows and grows…



with jackie brown he was more restricted because of the novel, but he worked that out pretty nice  :wink:

isnt Jackie Brown white in Rum Punch?

Yeh, and she isn’t called Jackie Brown either.

I’m kinda new to the Quen bangwagon, but from what I’ve seen and read, the characters are birthed inside his mind as soon as he has a basic story idea. Then they just start running willy-nilly in there while he gets a pen and paper and simply documents what they do. Myself and a few other writers I know say that’s the best way to write. My best stuff comes out when the characters just start doing shit, of their own accord.



My advice, watch girly shows (sex in the city, girls behaving badly, etc.) and jot down things they do that aren’t “natural” to you and your other male friends. Pay attention to female friends, lovers, cashiers, relatives, bus drivers. When in doubt, ask a lady “What would you do in this situation?” "Why do you cry all the time?"



One of the best femmey moments in Kill Bill, I think, was when Uma was doing the pregnancy test, and she actually palpated her abdomen and breasts. Some guys would include the abdomen part, but it totally wouldn’t occur to them to add the breasts. shrug

If any of you have seen The Taking of Pelham One, Two, Three you’ll know that Tarantino stole the idea of giving the criminals code names in colors from this movie.