Quentin Tarantino is one of the most brilliant directors in the Hollywood industry. He is the talent behind some of the timeless classics of cinematic history, like, Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood, Pulp Fiction, The Hateful Eight, and more. The director is famous for his cinematic vision and story execution. However, he is also famous for his erratic behavior on the sets. While filming Inglourious Basterds, the director almost strangled the female lead.
Actress Diane Kruger played the lead actress in Brad Pitt’s film Inglourious Basterds. The actress had the goriest moment of her life on the sets when the director strangled her in a scene.
Quentin Tarantino strangled Brad Pitt’s co-star Diane Kruger
Quentin Tarantino is among the few genius filmmakers in the industry; however, he is also known for his brutal actions on the sets of his films. From Uma Thurman in Kill Bill to Diane Kruger in Inglourious Basterds; numerous actors have confessed about his bizarre behaviour.
While filming Inglourious Basterds, the actress was supposed to die in the plot. The director took it upon himself to do the strangling as he felt no other professional actor would do it correctly. The actress, Diane Kruger shared in an interview with Parade,
“I get strangled, which was especially weird because you feel it when someone is choking you, so it was an interesting day at the office. The funny part is that Quentin’s hands are in the close-up. I won’t give away the name of the actor who kills me, but Quentin said, ‘He’s not going to do it right, it’ll either be too much or too little. I know exactly what I need and I think I should just do it.’ I have to say it was very strange being strangled by the director.”
Inglourious Basterds was released in 2009 and was immensely successful at the box office.
Quentin Tarantino bragged about his strangling performance
Django Unchained director also did a similar scene with actress Uma Thurman in the film Kill Bill. The director opened up on the strangling scene, during an appearance on The Graham Norton Show. He said (according to The Washington Post),
“I just said to her, what I want to do is, I’m going to be the hands, and what I’m going to do is, I’m going to just strangle you. I’m going to cut off your air for just a little bit of time, we’re going to see the reaction in your face, and then we’ll cut.”
The director was also very pleased with his performance. He added,
“It was real. It looked really good. When somebody is actually being strangled, there is a thing that happens to their face, they turn a certain color, and their veins pop out and stuff.”
Brad Pitt’s film grossed over $321.5 million worldwide.
Inglourious Basterds is available for streaming on Amazon Prime.
Source- The Washington Post and Parade
