Quentin Tarantino has described his writing process as “method writing.” He doesn’t write scenes like a writer; he writes them like an actor, feeling out his characters and their motivations and seeing where they go. As a result, he writes great characters that actors can’t wait to bring to life on the screen.
Tarantino always does a fantastic job of directing his actors, too, because he has a respect for the craft of acting and allows his cast time to dig their teeth into their roles. With that in mind, here are the ten best performances that Tarantino has ever directed, ranked.
David Carradine As Bill In Kill Bill
All throughout the two parts of Kill Bill, we’re waiting for the Bride to, well, kill Bill. He’s a classic monologuing bad guy, and David Carradine delivered every monologue brilliantly.
The speech about Superman’s secret identity isn’t Tarantino’s best writing, but Carradine makes it work with a calm, collected, articulate performance. In flashbacks, we see that the Bride and Bill really did care about each other at one stage, and Carradine had fantastic chemistry with Uma Thurman.
Jennifer Jason Leigh As Daisy Domergue In The Hateful Eight
Daisy Domergue is really put through the ringer throughout The Hateful Eight, and Jennifer Jason Leigh brilliantly plays her as a violent psychopath.
After spending half the movie getting beaten and berated by John Ruth, there’s a gruesome satisfaction when John drinks the poisoned coffee and Daisy stares into his eyes in his final moments and tells him, “When you get to Hell, John, tell them Daisy sent you.”
Jamie Foxx As Django Freeman In Django Unchained
When we first meet Django, he’s in shackles, shivering, in a stunned silence. By the end of the movie, he’s an empowered hero who bursts onto the Candyland plantation and shoots all his enemies dead in a glorious display of revenge. This journey is played powerfully by Jamie Foxx throughout the movie.
Will Smith was reportedly Tarantino’s first choice for the role of Django, and he turned down the part because he believed that the character played second fiddle to Dr. Schultz. This turned out to be for the best, because it’s hard to imagine anyone more perfect for Django than Foxx.
Brad Pitt As Cliff Booth In Once Upon A Time In Hollywood
Brad Pitt took home the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of ass-kicking stuntman Cliff Booth in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, and rightly so.
Given the rare chance to show off his expert comic timing, Pitt steals every scene he’s in. In the movie’s climactic set piece, he really gets a chance to shine as he trips on an acid-dipped cigarette and violently alters history.
Samuel L. Jackson As Jules Winnfield In Pulp Fiction
Samuel L. Jackson made himself an icon with his performance as mob hitman Jules Winnfield in Tarantino’s second film, Pulp Fiction. From his Ezekiel 25:17 recital to his “I’m just gonna wander the Earth” speech, Jackson is responsible for a lot of the movie’s most iconic moments.
Pulp Fiction wouldn’t be nearly as engaging without Jackson’s performance. His riveting portrayal of Jules ensures that the suspense is held throughout the scene in Brett’s apartment, and his complaining during “The Bonnie Situation” helps to sell the pitch-black humor of that storyline.
Pam Grier As Jackie Brown In Jackie Brown
When Tarantino paid homage to the blaxploitation genre in Jackie Brown, he gave a career comeback to arguably the genre’s greatest star, Pam Grier.
There are a number of violent set pieces and suspenseful sequences in the movie, but it’s really the quieter moments that are the most memorable, as Grier brings a subtle nuance to the role of a flight attendant wrapped up in a criminal plot.
Leonardo DiCaprio As Rick Dalton In Once Upon A Time In Hollywood
It’s tough for an actor who’s as famous as Leonardo DiCaprio to disappear into a role, but in last year’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, he really popped as Rick Dalton. As a TV tough guy who’s an insecure mess in real life and bursts into tears every five minutes, Rick is a really interesting character.
He gave Rick a stutter to give him an identity of his own, and didn’t drop it for a single line. When we see Rick shooting a fictionalized version of the Lancer pilot, DiCaprio delivers each line as Rick would deliver it, not as he himself would deliver it, which is pretty darn impressive.
Kerry Washington As Broomhilda Von Shaft In Django Unchained
In discussions of Django Unchained, a lot of credit is given to Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, and Leonardo DiCaprio – and they are all great in the movie – but Kerry Washington’s performance as the titular slave-turned-bounty hunter’s wife Broomhilda von Shaft is perhaps the film’s strongest.
Washington was inexplicably snubbed the Academy for incredibly powerful, moving, nuanced acting in this role. In the flashback in which Broomhilda is whipped, Washington’s raw emotion really sells her pain and makes the scene as harrowing as it needed to be.
Uma Thurman As The Bride In Kill Bill
Uma Thurman’s approach to playing the Bride in Kill Bill was to complement Quentin Tarantino’s grasp on the visuals by bringing a real humanity to the genre character he’d written for her.
The story is typical grindhouse fare, as an ex-assassin goes on a roaring rampage of revenge after everyone she loves is killed, her baby is taken from her, and she’s left for dead. Thurman brought real pathos to the Bride’s trials and tribulations, really conveying the pain of losing a child.
Christoph Waltz As Col. Hans Landa In Inglourious Basterds
After auditioning dozens of actors who weren’t right for the part, Quentin Tarantino worried that he’d written an unplayable character in Inglourious Basterds’ Col. Hans Landa. And then, like an angel, Christoph Waltz arrived to save his movie.
Waltz’s effortless charm plays off Landa’s initial pleasantries in all of his interactions with other characters, which makes the sinister turns in his scenes even more terrifying. Waltz’s Oscar-winning turn as Landa is chilling, and he steals every scene he’s in.
