Samuel L. Jackson Talks “Awful” ‘Reservior Dogs’ Audition & Violent Alternative Diner Scene In ‘Pulp Fiction’

The collaboration between writer/director Quentin Tarantino and cherished actor Samuel L. Jackson goes back to their landmark genre pic “Pulp Fiction,” as the two have continued to work together for nearly 30 years. Jackson has paused talking about various Marvel projects and is now is dishing juicy tidbits about his history working with Tarantino.

On the recent episode of the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Jackson talked about losing a role he auditioned for in “Reservoir Dogs” to an unknown actor. On that podcast, he said it was because the people he auditioned opposite were terrible. Well, on The Jess Cagle podcast from Sirius XM, Jackson reveals who those two terrible people he read opposite were: Quentin Tarantino and “Reservoir Dogs” producer Lawrence Bender (lol).

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The actor had no idea who they were, but they sure were “awful.”

“The first time I met Quentin was for ‘Reservoir Dogs,’ he was one of the people reading with me, he and Lawrence Bender, the producer. I was supposed to audition with Harvey Keitel and Tim Roth, but these two guys showed up, and I was like, ‘Who the hell are these guys?’ Plus, they were awful. I left that audition like, ‘I know I’m not getting this job, these dudes sucked, who the f*ck was that?’ I had no idea who they were,” Jackson recalled of his disastrous first audition with Tarantino.

Jackson alludes to that potential role as Randy Brooks’ Holdaway, a seasoned undercover cop that helps Roth’s Mr. Orange convince the crooks he was one of them by acting the part.

Interestingly enough, Tarantino has been considering an all-black remake of “Reservoir Dogs,” which might become a stage play instead. Could Jackson appear?

Later on in the interview, Jackson talks about “Pulp Fiction” and how Tarantino told him he wrote the iconic role of Jules for him at Sundance during a screening for “Reservoir Dogs.” Jackson wasn’t really sure he believed him, but sure enough, a script appeared on his doorstep soon enough.

“He said, ‘Don’t worry, I’m writing something for you’…then a month or so later I was somewhere else and ‘Pulp Fiction’ showed up in the mail,” Jackson said of Tarantino promising a big part at Sundance, and the filmmaker delivered.

Jackson also noted that the original script for “Pulp Fiction” had a lot of elements in it that weren’t in the movie. This includes a violent daydream/quickly imagined sequence in the diner scene as Tim Roth and Amanda Plummer decide to rob the restaurant’s patrons only to discover that Jackson’s Jules is carrying something extremely valuable in a briefcase. Jules calmly convinces them to focus on what it’s in his wallet and de-escalates the situation as he’s looking to become a man of peace, not violence. In the alternative version, Jules daydreams of how the former gangster side would have dealt with those two sticking guns in his face.

“In the diner, when Tim Roth asks me to open that briefcase when I do it, I shoot him in the face and shoot Honeybunny off the counter. When I open my eyes, they’re still there, because that’s what I would have done before [Jules] had transitioned.”

We’ll assume Jackson means his character’s transition to greater enlightenment. It’ll be interesting to see if Jackson reunites with Tarantino for either the “Bounty Law” series or his untitled tenth film.