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Jonathan Crocker » Blog Archive » Cannes 2008: Tarantino On Tarantino

Jackie Brown is a much quieter, more adult movie. Is it more personal?  
For a start, it’s set in the area where I grew up, this area by LAX. It hasn’t been used that much in movies - I think Robert Towne used it in Tequila Sunrise. I saw a million movies at that same theatre that Robert Forster visits in the film. I worked in that mall for three years. I was there every day for three years.
 
In Elmore Leonard’s book, Jackie is white. Why did you change that?
For the most part, I try to keep the character and find the perfect fit as an actor. I had to figure out a woman that I could cast at that age: late 40s, still attractive and could handle anything. And I thought, well, that sounds like Pam Grier. And I’ve always adored Pam Grier. Then all of a sudden the idea of casting Pam Grier sounded like a cool idea. So I stuck to that. But instead of a pornographic, exploitation, blaxploitation, violence extravaganza, I did more realistic version of that. She’s a working girl trying to get by.
 
How was it for adapting someone else’s work for the first time?
It was very different. One of the things I’ve avoided in my scripts is exposition sequences. They’re always disguised. But when you’ve got the novel, they’re there to keep the plot going. But Elmore Leonard was a terrific writer and a big influence on my writing style. He would set up a standard genre story an then he would have real life come in a fuck up everything.