Rosanna Arquette, who appeared in Quentin Tarantino’s film pulp Fiction as Jody, the wife of Eric Stoltz’s drug dealer character Lance, speaks out against the director’s repeated use of the N-word in his films.
In a new interview with The timesArquette praised pulp Fiction as “iconic”, but admitted that she has long been uncomfortable with its language.
“Personally, I ended up using the N-word — I hate it,” she said. “I can’t stand being given a pass. It’s not art, it’s just racist and scary.”
Arquette’s remarks join a chorus of voices who have criticized Tarantino’s vocabulary over the years.
Spike Lee condemned the director’s use of the slur in Jackie Brown (1997), telling Variety“Quentin is in love with this word. What does he want to become: an honorary black man?”
In 2022, filmmaker Lee Daniels echoed similar concerns, saying Tarantino had no right to use the word: “Ten years ago, 15 years ago…I would have checked it off as artistic. But ‘n—–‘ is our word. It’s my word. And you don’t have the right to say that.”
Tarantino himself has defended his scripts, including Django unleashed (2012), who used this insult dozens of times.
