‘Pulp Fiction’ Stars Reunite at TCM Classic Film Festival for 30th Anniversary
Thirty years after its release, the cast and crew of Pulp Fiction can look back in admiration at how the film changed their careers and the trajectory of cinema itself.
John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Samuel L. Jackson and other cast and crew from the Quentin Tarantino hit reunited at the TCM Classic Film Festival on Thursday, April 18, in Hollywood for a special anniversary screening and accompanying Q&A, where they reflected on one of the most iconic films of the ’90s.
“It changed cinema, so it’s almost hard to have it sink in,” said Thurman, 53. “I feel like I’ve had an evolving and beautifully growing relationship with Pulp Fiction all of my life. It changed cinema, and it changed every filmmaker I met since.”
Harvey Keitel agreed, crediting Tarantino, 61, for making the film the cult hit that it became.
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“Quentin is one of those talents that changed the environment that we were working in with his huge talent,” he explained. “His aesthetic force was so powerful that it had the power to change your direction, and we’re all here tonight for the same reason: we respect the art and the artist.”
Pulp Fiction premiered in 1994, bringing in $213.9 million on a budget of less than $9 million. The American Film Institute listed it as the 95th-best film of all time and placed it at No. 53 on its list of the 100 most thrilling movies ever.
Travolta, 70, was already a star at the time of the movie’s release, thanks to hits like Grease and Saturday Night Fever. Still, he had to admit Pulp Fiction raised his profile even more.
“I had a great first chapter, and I was desperately looking for a second one,” he reflected. “After that, it was mind-boggling, the opportunities that came my way. I mean, an actor can only fantasize about what happened after that for me. It was next-level.”
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Travolta added in an interview with People, “The audiences made this movie what it was, and it wasn’t overnight. It took about a year of evolution. In those days, movies stayed in the theaters for a year. So, by the end of the year of it being, it was planetarily epic.”
Perhaps Jackson, 75, put it best, in a way only he could: “It changed my life drastically in that this was the particular role where all of a sudden people started thinking I was the coolest motherf–ker on the planet.”
Bruce Willis, who is currency battling frontotemporal dementia, was not in attendance, but wife Emma Heming Willis and daughter Tallulah Willis appeared in his stead, receiving a hearty ovation from the crowd.
