Over multiple scripts and across multiple genres, Quentin Tarantino has created dozens of iconic characters throughout his career – some major roles, some just single scenes.
Recently the filmmaker spoke with Empire magazine and they asked him whom would he dub the most fun character to write. Was it Sam Jackson’s Jules Winnfield in “Pulp Fiction,” Pam Grier’s Jackie Brown, Steve Buscemi’s Mr. Pink from “Reservoir Dogs,” or Leo DiCaprio’s nasty Calvin Candie from “Django Unchained”?
Nope, turns out its Christoph Waltz’s career-defining Nazi opprtunist Hans Landa from “Inglourious Basterds”. Tarantino explains why and it seems to be a perfect combination of an actor up for it with dialogue and scenes to support him:
“The minute he enters a scene, he dominates it. All the things that he was supposed to be good at, he was that good at them. I found I had a really interesting situation with him that has been hard to have with any other character.
It was the fact he was not only a bad guy, not only a Nazi, but a Nazi known as the Jew Hunter, who is finding Jews and sending them to the concentration camp, but when he shows up towards the end of the movie, kinda figuring out what the Basterds are doing, the audience wants him to. They’re not rooting for him, but it’s a f–king movie, and if he figures it out it’s going to be a more exciting movie.
You know, you don’t want him to let you down. We’ve set up that he knows everybody’s secrets, so he’s got to know theirs. And it will make a more exciting climax if he does.”
Waltz’s performance in the role was so strong that he won an Oscar and has since gone on to have a flourishing Hollywood career in its wake. ‘Basterds’ pulled in $321 million worldwide off a $70 million budget upon its release in 2009.
