Jackie Brown is a bona fide ‘90s movie classic and one of Quentin Tarantino’s best movies. It’s a gripping crime thriller movie that brings together some incredible performances from its ensemble cast, but for Pam Grier the project was a struggle and here’s why.
Grier stars as the titular character, a woman who finds herself in a tangle of criminal activity and trapped between a rock and a hard place. The rock is the ATF who want to put her away for smuggling drugs; the hard place is Samuel L Jackson’s character, Ordell, a nasty piece of work who the ATF want to take down using Jackie as bait.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Grier explained how difficult it was to keep up with Jackson during their scenes and what she asked Tarantino to do to help fix the problem.
“She has to speak fast with Sam Jackson’s Ordell. I said, ‘I don’t know how I’m going to speak that fast with Sam Jackson, walking down the steps, not looking at the steps. I’m going to kill myself!’ I said, ‘Quentin, I’m going to fall. Can we just finish with me lying down there on the steps saying I can’t keep up with this man?’ He talks so fast,” Grier said.
Jackson is one hell of an actor, and he certainly puts in a fierce performance in Jackie Brown. To be fair to Grier, though, she is more than a match for the accomplished actor, at least in the final film.
On the experience of working with Tarantino, Grier added: “I was ready to work with Quentin and give him what he needed. He only uses one or two takes. When he works you and you feel it, and you’re in the groove, man, it just flies.”
For new movies that may share a similar intensity to Jackie Brown, check out our guide on the Creed 3 release date or see what Samuel L Jackson is up to next with our guide on the Secret Invasion release date.