A prominent theater owner once told me a story about two production assistants hustling it out for little pay on a Dolph Lundgren workout video. Part of the video involved Lundgren running down a sandy hill, so when they needed to do more takes, the PAs had to smooth out the footprints in the sand (of which, yes, there was only one set). The two PAs threw themselves into the task with such gusto that the director was awe-struck. They rolled on their sides down the hill, happily did any other task necessary and even grabbed a dog turd bare-handed to get it out of a shot on a sidewalk.
The director talked about them to everyone, claiming they were the best PAs he’d ever seen in his career.
One of them was apparently Quentin Tarantino.
It’s a bit of a myth that he learned about movies exclusively by working at a video store, and even if this story isn’t true, it’s fun to believe it – if only to imagine Tarantino furiously doing menial tasks and ripping dog shit off the ground without question. However, Movies.com has a relic of his early career with a big more proof to it: an excellent video where Richard Gladstein recounts Harvey Weinstein’s reaction to reading the script for Pulp Fiction for the first time.
The clip comes from the new Tarantino XX collection that Hunter made his DVD Pick of the Week.
Nerd-tastic.
Related Topics: Quentin Tarantino
