October 17, 2003
QUENTIN Tarantino could work with any Aussie actor he wanted.
So who’s his preference? Seventies cinema star and TV handyman, John Jarratt.
“He’s one of my favourite actors,” the US director, in town for the premiere of his latest film Kill Bill, told showbiz editor Michael Bodey.
“He was in all those great movies in the late ’70s, he was the pretty boy.”
His favourite is Jarratt’s 1982 horror film, Next Of Kin.
“That movie was mesmerising,” said Tarantino.
“I’ve never seen anything that had The Shining’s quality without ripping it off.”
So Jarratt hotfooted it from the McLeod’s Daughters set in South Australia to meet QT in Sydney last night. “I love his stuff, loved Pulp Fiction, but I didn’t think he’d have heard of me let alone know my work,” Jarratt said.
“Hopefully something comes of it but I won’t be worried if it doesn’t. I’m just an ugly old character actor now, mate.”
Tarantino’s enthusiasm for the maligned Australian cinema of the ’70s and ’80s knows no bounds - films most Australians haven’t heard of.
“I could go on forever, I’m a big fan of what I call “Aussie-sploitation”, which is like the equivalent of drive-in movies and horror films.
“I’m such a huge fan of Australian cinema, so I just assumed everyone else in Australia was too,” he laughed.
Jarratt can compare notes at least.
“He’s not the only famous person I’ll know,” Jarratt said. “I know Mel Gibson too.”
Only hours earlier Tarantino said the same thing.
“When I met with Mel Gibson, I said, ‘You’ve worked with John Jarratt’.”
The Daily Telegraph