{"id":37533,"date":"2025-07-04T07:58:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-04T07:58:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/37533\/"},"modified":"2025-07-04T07:58:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-04T07:58:08","slug":"michael-madson-talks-about-reservoir-dogs-and-kill-bill-volume-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/37533\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Madson Talks About ‘Reservoir Dogs’ and ‘Kill Bill: Volume 2’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tOnce upon a time in Hollywood, the charismatic heavy with smarts and a heart was a familiar archetype in mainstream cinema \u2014 think Robert Mitchum, Lee Marvin, Robert Ryan, or James Coburn \u2014 but the recent passing of Michael Madsen<\/a>, at the age of 67, could well mark the end of that particular chapter in movie history. Though he made his breakthrough as the psychotic, ear-slicing Mr. Blonde in Quentin Tarantino<\/a>\u2019s 1992 debut Reservoir Dogs<\/a>, Madsen was capable of much, much more, although it\u2019s fair to say that only his work with Tarantino ever made the most of that soulful talent. Which other tough guy could have delivered the line, as he did so memorably in Kill Bill<\/a> Vol. 2, \u201cThat woman deserves her revenge, and we deserve to die\u201d and sound like they meant it?<\/p>\n

\n\tThe following interview took place 10 years ago in February, high in the mountains of Telluride during the shoot of The Hateful Eight<\/a>, Tarantino\u2019s wintry Western with a whodunit twist, in which he played the mysterious Joe Gage. The director had chosen the town in Colorado for its predicted snowfall, but, for quite some time, none came, keeping the crew on their toes. <\/p>\n

\n\tI met Madsen during a lull in production; though the talk was ostensibly about the film at hand, the actor couldn\u2019t help but digress, at one point welling up behind his rockstar shades as he recalled his early days as an actor, pumping gas for the likes of Warren Beatty, his odd-couple friendship with Sergio Leone, and, after getting a bit too cozy with Tarantino\u2019s laser-like auteur specificity, his fractious interaction with the mainstream film industry.<\/p>\n

\n\tParts of this interview have appeared elsewhere, but this is the full exchange, and it\u2019s very revealing, even today. How much of what he says is actually true is hard to prove, and he certainly had his own particular style of self-mythologizing. But then, to quote John Ford\u2019s 1962 movie The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence, \u201cWhen the legend becomes fact, print the legend.\u201d It\u2019s a reference Madsen would have dug; indeed, just yesterday, he passed into legend himself.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: How did you get involved with The Hateful Eight?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tMICHAEL MADSEN: <\/strong>Well, first, I just wanna remember one thing.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: What\u2019s that?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tMADSEN: <\/strong>You know, when Budd pulls his sword out [in Kill Bill Vol. 2] it says, \u201cTo my brother Budd, the only man that I ever loved.\u201d And I would just like to start by saying that I have that sword. And I would say to Quentin that there should be one that says [the same thing]: \u201cFrom me to Quentin \u2014 the only man I ever loved.\u201d I wanna go on record by saying that.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: <\/strong>This is the third time you\u2019ve worked with Quentin\u2026<\/p>\n

\n\tWell, it\u2019s actually the fourth. I\u2019d like to say it\u2019s the fourth time, \u2019cause he cut Hell Ride. You know, Hell Ride wasn\u2019t releasable when they finished that thing. \u2019Cause various people had had their hands on it. And he took it, and he put it back together like a jigsaw puzzle. And he fixed it. And it\u2019s a much better movie. And I like it a lot. But the reason it\u2019s good is \u2019cause he cut it.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: <\/strong>Is that the 2008 Larry Bishop movie?<\/p>\n

\n\tMADSEN: <\/strong>Yeah. So, I think Hateful Eight\u2019s the fourth one, really. To be honest.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: <\/strong>When did you first hear about it?<\/p>\n

\n\tMADSEN: <\/strong>Well, you know, I was actually sitting with a couple of cops. I was in my house and a handyman that we had had absconded with some things from the house \u2014 my wife\u2019s watch and some jewelry. And I when I found out, I basically told the guy that I was going to cause him\u2026<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: Discomfort<\/strong>?<\/p>\n

\n\tMADSEN: <\/strong>Yes, sir. And so, his father ended up getting in touch with me saying that he had a checkered past and I should forgive him. But I should file charges on him so that he would take it seriously. So, I did. And I had a couple of cops at my house. I was sitting in the kitchen with these policemen, and I was talking about this fella, and my cell phone rang. I hardly ever answer the f*cking thing. I always wanna see who it is first. And I never answer it. And for some reason, I don\u2019t know why, I answered it. I said hello. It was, \u201cHey, Mike, it\u2019s Quentin.\u201d And I hadn\u2019t spoken to him since the time I was gonna do Django. He was trying to find a part for me in Django.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: What part did he offer you in Django?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tMADSEN: <\/strong>The only part that I wanted was Leo\u2019s part. I wanted to play Calvin. I thought it was the best role in the film. But he wanted me in a smaller role, and it wasn\u2019t working out somehow, so it didn\u2019t happen. But I hadn\u2019t heard from him since before that. You know, there\u2019s all these stupid vicious things on the internet, like, \u201cMadsen owes Quentin $1 million,\u201d and, \u201cMadsen will never work with Quentin again\u201d \u2014 all this stupid sh*t, you know? And I go, \u201cHey, man, what\u2019s up?\u201d And he goes, \u201cAh, I just wrote this Western. And I want you to be in it.\u201d I said, \u201cReally?\u201d And he goes, \u201cYeah.\u201d And I go, \u201cOh, well, OK.\u201d So he goes, \u201cWhy don\u2019t you come over?\u201d We used to do that all the time. That happened for Kill Bill. \u2019Cause he wanted me to play a character named Mister Barrel in Kill Bill.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: Who was that?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tMADSEN: <\/strong>Mister Barrel was a guy who had a mask on a stick. It was a Lone Ranger mask, and he\u2019d whip it up and hold it in front of his face when he was about to kill somebody. He was part of Uma Thurman\u2019s bodyguard team. So, one day he rang me up and he said, \u201cListen, I don\u2019t want you to play Mister Barrel any more. I want you to be Budd. Come over.\u201d So, I went over. My sons were swimming in his pool, he had a bottle of tequila, and we drank some tequila. He said, \u201cYou wanna play Budd?\u201d I said, \u201cYeah, man.\u201d And he goes, \u201cWell, I already gave the part to another actor. So, I\u2019m gonna have to tell the other actor that he doesn\u2019t have the part. So, you gotta give me a couple days to work that out. But I want you to be Budd.\u2019 And I said, \u201cOK.\u201d Then he goes, \u201cBut I want you to read it right here in my house.\u201d Which I did. I sat there and I read the whole script in his house while he walked around doing things.<\/p>\n

\n\tSo, it was the same thing with Hateful Eight. He said, \u201cWill you come over?\u201d And I said, \u201cNow?\u201d He was like, \u201cWell\u2026\u201d And I said, \u201cOK, can I come tomorrow?\u201d He said, \u201cYeah, come tomorrow.\u201d I said OK. Now, I know his gate code. And I said, \u201cDid you change your gate code?\u201d And he goes no. So, the next day I went over to his house, and it was as if we hadn\u2019t only seen each other the day before. He has so much great stuff in his house. I mean, I don\u2019t know if you\u2019ve ever been in there\u2026<\/p>\n

\n\tHe\u2019s got so much great stuff in there, man. He\u2019s just got the coolest sh*t in there. Y\u2019know, me and him, we both love movies so much. And he has so many things that are so cool. Like, memorabilia stuff. And he gave me Hateful Eight. And I said, \u201cHoly sh*t, man!\u201d And he goes, \u201cWell, y\u2019know, read it.\u201d I\u2019m like, \u201cRight now?\u201d And he goes, \u201cWell turn to page\u2026\u201d whatever. So, I did it. He says, \u201cJust a couple lines.\u201d So, I read, like, four lines. He goes, \u201cOK, OK. That\u2019s great, that\u2019s great.\u201d He gave it to me, and I took it home. I read it and I realized it was probably the greatest part he\u2019s ever wrote for me, you know?<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: What happened then?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tMADSEN: <\/strong>I left, like, three days later to go to Italy, \u2019cause I was shooting a picture in Rome. About a week later I was in an elevator with somebody, and the guy he was with, he was looking at his cell phone. And he goes, \u201cOh sh*t. Holy sh*t.\u201d I go, \u201cWhat?\u201d He goes, \u201cTarantino\u2019s not gonna make Hateful Eight.\u201d I say, \u201cOh no, why?\u201d He says, \u201cSomebody leaked the script. Somebody gave the screenplay to someone.\u201d I went, \u201cOh my God.\u201d And on the internet, it said, \u201cI\u2019ve only given the script to three people \u2014 Tim Roth, Michael Madsen and Bruce Dern. And I know for sure it wasn\u2019t Tim.\u201d And I\u2019m like, \u201cWhy would I do that?\u201d I mean, he had inadvertently fingered me, right? So, I called him up from the lobby of the hotel at the Valadier in Rome. And I said, \u201cQuentin, in the name of God, would you please make a public statement that I didn\u2019t leak your script?\u201d And he started laughing on the phone. And he thought it was so funny. And I go, \u201cWell, I didn\u2019t obviously do it, so please tell someone.\u201d Meanwhile, on my Facebook, I\u2019m getting messages from people, saying, \u201cYou traitor. You ignorant f*cker \u2014 you\u2019ve ruined our life.\u201d And I\u2019m like, \u201cI didn\u2019t do it!!!\u201d It was so funny. Even my own son, he was like, \u201cDad, why did you do that?\u201d I was like, \u201cI didn\u2019t do it!!!\u201d Somebody actually put on the internet a picture of me. They\u2019d Photoshopped a picture of me and Edward Snowden, and I\u2019m giving Edward Snowden the Hateful Eight script. It was really an uncomfortable time.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: Did Quentin do anything?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tMADSEN: <\/strong>No, and I kept saying, \u201cPlease, please, do something. Do something, please.\u201d And so, the genius that he is, instead of publicly, like, falling down in front of everybody, he decides to stage a live reading at the Mary Pickford Theater, for f*ck\u2019s sake. Right? And I heard that he was gonna do this publicly. And I was thinking, OK, does he think that I\u2019m the one? And so, I called him. And he never answers his f*cking telephone ever. And he answered his phone. Which was astounding to me. And I said, \u201cI see you\u2019re gonna do this thing over at the Pickford Theater,\u201d and he goes, \u201cYeah.\u201d I go, \u201cWell, I\u2019m Joe Gage.\u201d And he goes, \u201cYeah.\u201d And I said, \u201cSo I\u2019m gonna be in it?\u201d He goes, \u201cYeah.\u201d And I go, \u201cOK.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: So, you had to ask him to find out?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tMADSEN: <\/strong>That\u2019s kind what Quentin is like. Here\u2019s a funny story. You know when Uma Thurman is buried [in Kill Bill], when I bury Uma? She\u2019s in the box. And she gets a razor out of her boot, and she cuts the ropes on her boot. That razor is the exact same razor that I used as Mr. Blonde in Reservoir Dogs.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: How do you know that?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tMADSEN: <\/strong>We were in London at the premiere of Kill Bill. We\u2019re walking outside. And Quentin goes, \u201cSo, how\u2019d you like the movie? \u201cI go, \u201cOh, it was pretty good.\u201d And he goes, \u201cNo, no, no \u2014 how\u2019d you like it? How\u2019d you like that scene when she\u2019s buried?\u201d And I go, \u201cIt was great, man. It\u2019s pretty good.\u201d And he goes, \u201cOK, so\u2026 what about the razor?\u201d And I go, \u201cThe razor?\u201d And he goes, \u201cMichael, that was Mr. Blonde\u2019s razor. I gave it to her to use in the movie.\u201d And I go, \u201cOh my God. Why didn\u2019t you tell me?\u201d And he goes, \u201cI was waiting for you to ask me.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: The live reading sounded amazing. What kind of rehearsal time did you have?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tMADSEN: <\/strong>Well, you know, I\u2019m no theater actor, that\u2019s for sure. I really am not. The whole theater thing to me is kind of pointless. I just don\u2019t get it. But we read through it for about two weeks to get ready to do it. Then we all sat in chairs, and we had like, you know, those metal things, those orchestra stands, to put the scripts on. We all sat there and then Quentin came out. He had a big cowboy hat on, and he kind of officiated over the whole thing. Y\u2019know, there were a lot of people there. They were all dressed up. I remember everybody was all dressed up. And it was quite an affair. Fancy clothes.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: <\/strong>Were you nervous?<\/p>\n

\n\tMADSEN: <\/strong>I feel very uncomfortable on stage. I\u2019m a motion picture actor, you know? I need to be in motion. I\u2019m very uncomfortable just sitting. And so, for me, it was academic. I mean, we\u2019d read it so many times that I already knew it. So, I didn\u2019t really have to, you know, study. But it was interesting because the energy in the theater was so big. It was just big. And afterwards Quentin said, \u201cWow, that really went well.\u201d He goes, \u201cI didn\u2019t think it would go that well.\u201d And we were like, \u201cYeah, it did, man.\u201d The Weinsteins were there \u2014 Bob and Harvey were walking around \u2014 and it seems to me like that\u2019s when he made the decision to make the movie. \u2019Cause he had said he wasn\u2019t gonna do it. But he told the whole audience, he said, \u201cYou know what? I rewrote the middle, and I rewrote the ending. So, what you guys just saw ain\u2019t gonna happen. And you won\u2019t know what\u2019s gonna happen till you see the movie, \u2019cause I rewrote it. So, f*ck everybody, right?\u201d He gave everybody a punch. And the rewrite is so stunningly, insanely good. But I don\u2019t know where it comes from. I really don\u2019t.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: I\u2019ve read the script, it\u2019s fantastic.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tMADSEN: <\/strong>Oh, it\u2019s more than fantastic. That\u2019s just another reason why I love him. \u2019Cause let\u2019s face it; I wouldn\u2019t have a career if it wasn\u2019t for him. I would have been dead and buried long ago if it wasn\u2019t for Quentin. My life would have taken a bad turn. But\u2026 He\u2019s a f*cking genius, man. I have so much fun with him\u2026 [Pauses] When I was a little boy, I really didn\u2019t know what to do with myself. I was in trouble quite a bit. And I loved motion pictures. I don\u2019t know why, but it seemed like there was something noble about it. About storytelling. Sometimes when we\u2019re hanging out, he knows about those moments in films that I remember from being a little boy. And we share a knowledge with each other about movies that I\u2019ve never had with any other director I\u2019ve ever worked with \u2014 I never had it with any other director I\u2019ve ever worked with. And I\u2019ve been with some pretty good cats, man. I made some good sh*t, man, y\u2019know? Donnie Brasco and The Getaway and all that. It was all pretty good stuff. But with him, there\u2019s this weird kind of symbiotic notion we have with each other that I\u2019m so blessed to have. We\u2019ve had it from the beginning. And he\u2019s sort of a film historian. I mean, there\u2019s like nothing about any movie that I\u2019ve ever known in my life that he doesn\u2019t already know about. And it\u2019s pretty bizarre. It\u2019s\u2026 Can you ask me a question, so I don\u2019t just keep rambling?<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: Tell me about Joe Gage. What was it about the character?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tMADSEN: <\/strong>Well, first of all, I will tell you the best story of all about me and him. And it kind of sums it up. It really does. It kind of sums up the whole thing. When Quentin asked me to do Kill Bill, I was making a Western in Mexico. I had gone through Durango on my way back into California, and I bought that white hat. That f*cking Stetson, right? So, we started to do the read-throughs in Culver City for Kill Bill, and I started showing up at the read-throughs with that f*cking white hat on. I\u2019m just working on trying to figure out who Budd was, what my character was gonna be, and all that. And I kept going in that white hat. And Quentin he comes up to me and he goes, \u201cYou\u2019re not gonna wear that hat.\u201d And I go, \u201cWhat?\u201d He goes, \u201cIn the movie. When we shoot the movie, you\u2019re not gonna wear that hat.\u201d And I go, \u201cI\u2019m not?\u201d He goes no. And I go, \u201cLook, Budd lives in a trailer. He\u2019s a bouncer in a strip club. His swordplay\u2019s over. He\u2019s a bum, he\u2019s an idiot. He\u2019s done. I wanna make a kind of like a cool character out of him.\u201d And Quentin goes, \u201cNo, no, no. I want you to cut your hair too.\u201d I go, \u201cReally?\u201d He says, \u201cYeah. I want it all cut it off and you\u2019re not wearing that f*cking hat.\u201d I was like, \u201cWell, all right.\u201d But I didn\u2019t cut my hair, and I kept going to rehearsal in that f*cking hat.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: How come you wear it in the movie?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tMADSEN: <\/strong>One day that we were doing the props \u2014 I was getting propped up \u2014 and Quentin comes walking up behind me and he goes, \u201cOK, OK. Michael, Michael. Y\u2019know, the thing is, now I can\u2019t picture you without the hat. Because you keep wearing that goddamn thing, and so, y\u2019know, now I get it. OK, fine.\u201d I\u2019m like, \u201cOh, I can wear the hat?\u201d He goes, \u201cYou can wear the hat.\u201d The first stuff that we shoot is the stuff at the graveyard where I have to bury Uma. I gotta pull her out of the truck, throw her down, make this offer to her of a flashlight, and I got a can of mace that I\u2019m gonna spray it in her eyeball. And I didn\u2019t wanna start with that scene. I didn\u2019t want that to be the first stuff we shot. \u2019Cause I didn\u2019t know what to do with Budd, right?<\/p>\n

\n\tBut we did it. It was like 3am in the morning. There I am in my hat, right? And so he shoots it. And we\u2019re all like, \u201cYeah, OK, cool, right, right.\u201d So, then we go out to Barstow to shoot the strip club scenes. And, you know, the truck pulls up. I get out of the truck, I smoke a cigarette, I got my hat, I\u2019m all cool. I walk across the parking lot. Boom, boom, boom \u2014 here comes Budd. We shot all that. Then I\u2019m in my trailer and all of a sudden there\u2019s a knock at my door. It\u2019s Quentin. And he gives me some handwritten pages. He goes, \u201cThis is what we\u2019re gonna do today.\u201d And it\u2019s the scene where f*cking Larry [Bishop] is telling me take off that f*cking hat. That \u201csh*t-kicker\u201d f*cking hat. And, y\u2019know, I\u2019m not that good of an actor.<\/p>\n

\n\tSee, when I take that hat off, I\u2019m really Michael Madsen. I didn\u2019t wanna take my hat off. It had become an integral thing with me. And I didn\u2019t wanna do it. But I had to do it. \u2019Cause he wrote it. \u2019Cause he wrote a scene where I have to take it off. It was so demeaning. It was so demoralizing. And I took the f*cking thing off, and I watched that scene many, many times. And it\u2019s funny, \u2019cause, you know, it\u2019s a defining moment for Budd. Because for some reason it gives Budd pathos. It gives him\u2026 He suddenly becomes a man. He becomes a person with a conscience. And he becomes an interesting guy, and you go \u201cWow, man, Budd\u2019s not such a bad guy, is he? But the genius of him thinking to do that to him as an actor, that\u2019s insanity. I mean, that\u2019s George Stevens. That\u2019s John Ford. That\u2019s Hitchcock. That\u2019s a story that I\u2019ve not told many times, but he knew, psychologically, that it was gonna come off that way on the screen. And I think it gave Budd a morality in the piece when not many other characters have that.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: <\/strong>Well, talking about morality, The Hateful Eight is a very interesting film in terms of morality. Everybody has a dark side.<\/p>\n

\n\tMADSEN: <\/strong>Yeah, when I first read it, I wanted to be John Ruth. And I remember thinking, \u201cQuentin, hey, no, I\u2019m John Ruth, man. Who\u2019s this Joe Gage person? I don\u2019t wanna be the cowboy fellow, man. I wanna be John Ruth, man.\u201d But then when I get to the part where he\u2019s f*cking throwing up blood on the floor, I go, \u201cOh well, maybe not\u2026\u201d [Laughs] And he, then I realize Joe Gage is probably the best role in the film.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: Why do you say that?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tMADSEN: <\/strong>Well, because, first of all, he wrote it for me. And, you see, I was a big Steve McQueen fan. And I know that Steve, he didn\u2019t like to do explanation. He didn\u2019t wanna explain plot. He didn\u2019t wanna be the guy who says, \u201cWell, see, the reason that buckboard\u2019s coming up the road is because\u2026 blah, blah, blah.\u201d Steve\u2019s not gonna do that. He\u2019s just gonna be the guy that sits there. And you wonder what the f*ck is on that guy\u2019s mind, y\u2019know? And I\u2019m much better that way. I don\u2019t wanna have a lot to say. And so, Joe Gage, he\u2019s there through the whole goddamn story. But he doesn\u2019t really have a whole lot to say. And you don\u2019t really find out why he\u2019s even there until it rolls back and you find out who he\u2019s with and what they\u2019re doing. And that appeals to me greatly. I don\u2019t wanna be all over the place with ten different monologues. There\u2019s a lot of talking in that movie. I mean, Sam and Walt have a lot of dialogue, man. You know, I don\u2019t wanna be that guy. I\u2019m happy to just sit there and when the time comes\u2026 When the guns come out, that\u2019s the fun part for me.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: It\u2019s interesting that your character writes a lot.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tMADSEN: <\/strong>Well, I wrote four books. I\u2019ve written four books of short stories and poems and things. Stories about my life when I was a little kid. And Quentin knows it. \u2019Cause I\u2019ve given them to him. And it\u2019s funny, because every time I\u2019ve ever given him a book, he\u2019s never went, \u201cOh, Michael, wow, your books are great.\u201d He never said a f*cking word. But now here I am, Joe Gage, and he goes, \u201cSo you know why I made Joe do that?\u201d I\u2019m like, \u201cNo, I don\u2019t know why.\u201d He goes, \u201cBecause you\u2019re a writer, Michael. So, I wrote that in the part for you.\u201d See so it\u2019s like a personal compliment, that he allowed me to have my guy do that. Even though he\u2019s a f*cking butcher, let\u2019s face it.<\/p>\n

\n\tSo how has it the shoot been? First of all, what\u2019s it been like with the 70mm camera?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tMADSEN: <\/strong>Well, I\u2019m fascinated by it. I mean, I hate the digital sh*t. I hate the hi-def sh*t. The first time I heard somebody on The Hateful Eight set say, \u201cCheck the gate,\u201d it was like I almost got a f*cking hard-on. I was like, \u201cOh my God, man.\u201d My balls started to tingle. I was like, \u201cOh my God, check the gate. Check the gate. Check the gate.\u201d It was such a wonderful thing to hear.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: <\/strong>When was the last time you\u2019d heard that?<\/p>\n

\n\tMADSEN: <\/strong>Probably been about eight or nine years maybe since I\u2019ve heard that. Because it\u2019s all this stupid digital sh*t. And I don\u2019t like it at all. And it\u2019s like crucifying what a movie\u2019s supposed to be, a movie, man. And to be on the set, you know, to see that great big, f*cking Panavision mag box, man. You see that big machine, you know? It\u2019s like, wow, man, wow. Wow, we\u2019re making a movie here, you know? There\u2019s lenses that they\u2019re using that they last used on Ben-Hur for f*ck\u2019s sake. Did you know that?<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: <\/strong>Yeah.<\/p>\n

\n\tMADSEN: <\/strong>I mean, I\u2019m sitting there the other day, I\u2019m sitting in front of the camera and Bob Richardson is, like, the greatest. I mean, it\u2019s not just Quentin, you have Bob shooting you. There\u2019s a lot of anxiety that doesn\u2019t exist. \u2019Cause you know he\u2019s gonna get you. And you know he\u2019s gonna get you good, you know? And I was looking at him, and I had heard the thing about the Ben-Hur thing. And he\u2019s all casual, Bob, and he\u2019s just sitting there, doing his thing. And I said, \u201cIs this one of the ones that they used on Ben-Hur?\u201d And he goes, \u201cYeah. And I go, \u201cRight.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMADSEN: <\/strong>Y\u2019know, who gets to do that? You know what I mean? Cinemascope, Super Cinerama, that\u2019s what created movies, y\u2019know. And for Quentin to be the guy who\u2019s bringing that back is such a wonderful, amazing thing. And he wants everybody to be cold. He likes it that we\u2019re here in the cold. He wants us to actually be cold. And we f*cking are. You know what I\u2019m saying? The elements are what they are. We\u2019re actually in the elements; we\u2019re not pretending to be cold. We are f*cking cold. You know what I\u2019m saying? And who else is gonna get away with that except Quentin Tarantino? He told us, \u201cYou guys. Listen, you\u2019re gonna be cold. We\u2019re not putting any heaters in Minnie\u2019s, OK?\u201d And everyone\u2019s like, \u201cOK, Quentin.\u201d But it is f*cking freezing in there.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: It looked quite warm in the dailies.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tMADSEN: <\/strong>Well, you get used to it. But you don\u2019t have to act like you\u2019re cold just \u2019cause you are f*cking cold. Outside the windows they\u2019re blowing this fake snow, but they only do that when it\u2019s not really snowing, just to keep it going. But it takes me an hour to get dressed. \u2019Cause I got a lot of sh*t on. And by the time you get your f*cking pants on, and your gun, and your vest, and your sh*t, you start to actually realize how tough it would be, or how tough it was, to actually live in that day and time and to be one of those guys. Y\u2019know, I said the other day, when we were sitting in the coach, \u201cCan you imagine what it would be like to travel 50 miles in this f*cking thing? It\u2019s no wonder everybody\u2019s killing each other.\u201d I mean, no wonder they were all killing each other. You realize what a tough, hard life it really must have been. And I think Quentin\u2019s into the realism of it \u2014 I mean, he wants it to really happen more so than just to pretend it\u2019s happening. And he\u2019s been that way since Reservoir Dogs.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: Well, this script reminded me a lot of Reservoir Dogs\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tMADSEN: <\/strong>I think, in a really weird way, it\u2019s an homage to Reservoir Dogs. First of all, Tim and I are in it. I\u2019m Mr. Blonde and he\u2019s f*cking Mr. Orange, y\u2019know? There\u2019s a lot of bloodshed. It\u2019s like a weird spaghetti western version of Reservoir Dogs. Zoe Bell was Uma\u2019s stunt double in Kill Bill. There\u2019s a scene in Kill Bill when Budd\u2019s in his trailer, and The Bride\u2019s creeping around outside. She\u2019s got her sword; she flings open the door and she\u2019s gonna come in and get me. I\u2019m standing there with a shotgun \u2014 BLAM! \u2014 and I shoot her. That was Zoe Bell who took the ratchet and went up into the air. And now she\u2019s in the f*cking Hateful Eight playing Six-Horse Judy. And I\u2019m gonna shoot her again. So, you see, there\u2019s this weird continuity. Quentin has this insanely wonderful way of making sure everything is connected to something else.<\/p>\n

\n\tY\u2019know, he\u2019s seen films of mine that I\u2019ve never even seen myself. And he knows dialogue that I\u2019ve said that I don\u2019t even remember saying. He\u2019ll bring it up out of nowhere in the middle of the day sometimes: \u201c\u2019Member that time, \u2019member when you said that one line?\u201d I\u2019m like, \u201cYou saw that?\u201d \u201cOh yeah, I did, yeah.\u201d Like, how the f*ck\u2026? I did a TV series called Vengeance Unlimited. And he\u2019s seen every episode. He\u2019s even put in lines that he\u2019s heard me say in some other obscure f*cking thing. \u2019Cause he loves it. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: Going back to Reservoir Dogs \u2014 how did you get involved with that?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tMADSEN: <\/strong>See, I don\u2019t really know. I did a movie called Kill Me Again with Val Kilmer. And there\u2019s a scene in the movie where I have a guy tied up in a chair. And I\u2019m hitting him with a baseball bat, then I go around behind him, and I cut his throat in slow motion and his chair falls over. I have a memory of him telling me that he saw that, and that that\u2019s why he considered me for Mr. Blonde. But then a couple years later, I went on a talk show, and someone was asking me how I got Mr. Blonde. I told that story \u2014 I said, \u201cWell, Quentin saw me in this thing, Kill Me Again.\u201d And then when I saw Quentin at his house, he goes, \u201cWhy the f*ck did you say that?\u201d I go, \u201cWell, you told me that.\u201d He goes, \u201cNo, I didn\u2019t. That\u2019s not why I cast you in the film. I never even saw that f*cking movie.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSo, I don\u2019t know. But I know that I was at an agency, one of the bigger agencies, and they sent me the script. I read it and I thought it was really incredible. I said, \u201cHey, man, I really love this.\u201d I had done Thelma and Louise with Harvey Keitel. All of my scenes with Harvey, unfortunately, were cut out of the movie. Not all of them, but me and Harvey had done a few scenes together that were not in the film, whether for plot reason or timing or whatever. But I was really sad that it was cut out, because I love Harvey. He\u2019s Godfather to my son Max. But when I heard that Harvey was gonna play Mr. White, I was like, \u201cOh my God, I have to do this.\u201d And my agents, believe it or not, they were like, \u201cYou know, nobody knows this guy, Quentin. He\u2019s got no money. Nobody\u2019s gonna get paid. You might wanna take a pass.\u201d And I was like, \u201cNo. Not only am I not gonna take a pass, I\u2019m gonna fire you f*ckers. So, f*ck you, OK? \u2019Cause Harvey Keitel is Mr. White. And I\u2019m gonna go shoot with Harvey Keitel.\u201d But I wanted to play Mr. Pink.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: <\/strong>Really? Why was that?<\/p>\n

\n\tMADSEN: <\/strong>Because Mr. Pink had so many more scenes with Harvey. More interaction. And I so very much wanted to have that with Harvey. I hadn\u2019t even met Quentin at this point. One of the producers called me up and he goes, \u201cHey, man, what the f*ck is wrong with you?\u201d I\u2019m like, \u201cWhat do you mean?\u201d They go, \u201cYou have this role, Mr. Blonde. We\u2019re offering you this role. What is your problem?\u201d And I go, \u201cWell, you know, I kind of wanna play Mr. Pink. And they were like, \u201cOh my God. No, man, you\u2019re not playing Mr. Pink. And I pushed it. In my naivet\u00e9! And finally they called me, they said, \u201cOK. Quentin\u2019s at 20th Century Fox. Harvey Keitel\u2019s in town. They\u2019ll meet you in the bungalow in the back of Fox lot. And Quentin says that you can come in and you can read for Mr. Pink.\u201d So, I actually went in, and I auditioned for Mr. Pink. Even though Mr. Blonde was on the table.<\/p>\n

\n\tI went in there and that was the first time I met Quentin. He was standing there. Harvey was sitting there. I remember Harvey had bare feet for some reason. I don\u2019t know why. I remember that. But Harvey was sitting there, and he was like, \u201cHey, Mike.\u201d And I go, \u201cHey, man.\u201d We hugged each other, \u2019cause we hadn\u2019t seen each other since Thelma and Louise. And Quentin\u2019s like, \u201cOK, let\u2019s see what you got. Go ahead.\u201d I had memorized all of Mr. Pink\u2019s stuff, right? And I was like, \u201cYeah, OK, watch this sh*t.\u201d Harvey did it with me, and I thought I was really getting there. I thought I really got it. At the end, Quentin looks at me and he goes, \u201cNope, you\u2019re not Mr. Pink.\u201d And I go, \u201cOh man. Oh man. Oh f*ck.\u201d And then he goes, \u201cI already have Mr. Pink.\u201d I go, \u201cWho is it?\u201d He goes, \u201cWell, it\u2019s an actor in New York I met, his name is Steve Buscemi.\u201d And I said, \u201cWho the f*ck is Steve Buscemi?\u201d He goes, \u201cWell, nobody knows him now, but they will. And he\u2019s gonna be Mr. Pink.\u201d And then he goes, \u201cHere\u2019s the thing, you\u2019re not Mr. Pink, you\u2019re Mr. Blonde. And if you\u2019re not Mr. Blonde, you\u2019re not in the movie.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: So, you took that surprise well!<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tMADSEN: <\/strong>Reluctantly, I took the role, which ended up, like, changing my life. I mean, it literally gave me a career in motion pictures. It really did. I mean, I\u2019ve done some 160 films. And the only ones that anybody ever wants to talk about are the ones that I made with Quentin. Especially Dogs.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: <\/strong>It\u2019s been said that you were quite uncomfortable with the violence in that film.<\/p>\n

\n\tMADSEN: <\/strong>No, it wasn\u2019t that I was uncomfortable with it, it was I didn\u2019t really understand what the big deal was. \u2019Cause I didn\u2019t really see it as being so violent. I didn\u2019t really understand what the big to-do was.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u00a0DEADLINE: And it\u2019s been said that you had trouble getting into character.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tMADSEN: <\/strong>Oh no, there was only one part where\u2026 [Pauses] See, Quentin allows me to improv. And he doesn\u2019t do that with everybody. Really. He really doesn\u2019t. For some reason he lets me do stuff that isn\u2019t scripted. And if he doesn\u2019t like it, he\u2019ll say, \u201cMichael, no, you\u2019re not gonna do that.\u201d But there are things that I\u2019ve done in Kill Bill and in Dogs [that he kept]. Like when I was speaking in the [severed] ear. That was not in the script. I did that on the spur of the moment, because I was nervous. I cut the ear off, and I walked into frame with it, and I honestly didn\u2019t know what to do. Quentin was off-camera, and he was going, \u201cThrow it. Toss it. Toss it. Throw it. Michael, throw it.\u201d And I just didn\u2019t really wanna throw it. I\u2019d just cut this f*cking guy\u2019s ear off. You know, why have I done this horrible thing? So, I started talking in the ear. And then I threw it.<\/p>\n

\n\tThree days later, Quentin comes up to me and he goes, \u201cAh, remember when you were talking to the ear?\u201d I go, \u201cYeah.\u201d And he goes, \u201cWe\u2019re gonna keep it in the movie.\u201d So, y\u2019know, he\u2019s smart that way. But when we were rehearsing the scene with Kirk Baltz [who plays the policeman], Kirk started going off on one, saying, \u201cDon\u2019t burn me, I\u2019m a father, I have children, oh God, I have little children, don\u2019t burn me up\u2026\u201d I said, \u201cY\u2019know, Quentin, I\u2019ve played villains and I\u2019ll be a bad guy, but I gotta draw the line somewhere. I\u2019m not gonna kill any children. I\u2019m not gonna kill any women. That ain\u2019t my thing, man. And if he\u2019s gonna say that, if he\u2019s gonna start talking about being a father and having kids, there is no f*cking way that I\u2019m gonna drop that Zippo. I\u2019m not gonna light him on fire. As a man. As an actor. Even as Mr. f*cking Blonde. Somewhere, the man has to have a conscience of some kind. And if he says that, man, I\u2019m not gonna f*cking burn him up.\u201d Then Quentin goes, \u201cWell, actually, you don\u2019t anyway, because Tim shoots you. And I go, \u201cOK, that\u2019s true.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: So, you didn\u2019t end up having to play it\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tMADSEN: <\/strong>I didn\u2019t have to do it. For me, it was like a James Cagney thing. Because if you watch Angels with Dirty Faces, Jimmy Cagney, he plays Rocky Sullivan, and the Bowery Boys are in it. He\u2019s a gangster and he\u2019s, like, the big hero to all the juvenile delinquent kids. And at the end of the movie, he goes to the electric chair. Pat O\u2019Brien comes to him and says, \u201cRocky, listen, I want you to turn chicken. I want you to be yellow. I want you to be scared when they throw the switch. Be scared. You know, do it for the boys. \u2019Cause they think you\u2019re supercool and they\u2019re gonna grow up like you. Don\u2019t do it. Go out like a f*cking rat.\u201d And he goes, \u201cAh, f*ck you, Father,\u201d and he punches the guard. \u201cF*ck you, man!\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThey put him in the chair and there\u2019s this wonderful, wonderful shot where you don\u2019t see him, but there\u2019s a shadow on the wall. And all of a sudden, man, you realize it\u2019s about to happen. All of a sudden, Cagney starts this mournful sound: \u201cI don\u2019t wanna die. Please don\u2019t kill me.\u201d It\u2019s so incredible. Oh my God. And then it leaves you with that question in your mind \u2014 was he really afraid to die? Or did he do that for the boys, \u2019cause he knew what he was, and he didn\u2019t want them to grow up and face that same fate? Now, I had read Cagney\u2019s biography, and in his biography the person writing it, the ghostwriter, whatever that is, asked him what did. He asked, \u201cDid your character do that for the boys or was he f*cking scared to die?\u201d And Cagney goes, \u201cThat\u2019s a question that I will never answer.\u201d And it\u2019s the same for me, with Dogs. You can hear Kirk faintly say something about having children and being a father. And then I get shot. So, for me, it\u2019s like, \u201cOK, when Mr. Blond heard that, would he have set the cop on fire? Would I set him on fire?\u201d That was my little Cagney moment. I got that from Quentin, see. The beauty of that kind of unanswerable question.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: He\u2019s very fond of that.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tMADSEN: <\/strong>Huh?<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: The suitcase in Pulp Fiction, for instance.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tMADSEN: <\/strong>Oh, of course. He wrote Vincent for me. I was supposed to do Pulp Fiction. But what happened is. Promise me that you\u2019ll write this, just for the f*cking record, man.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: OK.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tMADSEN: <\/strong>You know what, I was shooting a movie called The Getaway. I had four days off during that movie. I really wanted to see my son, Christian. And it was Father\u2019s Day. I wanted to go to LA, and I wanted to see my son for Father\u2019s Day. I left Phoenix, Arizona, I went to LA, I saw my son. Had a wonderful, nice afternoon. It was a great, wonderful Father Day. And my agent said, \u201cOh, you\u2019re in LA.\u201d I go, \u201cYeah, man. And he goes Larry Kasdan wants to see you.\u201d And I said, \u201cFor what?\u201d And he goes, \u201cHe\u2019s making Wyatt Earp.\u201d And I go, \u201cWow. Well, f*ck, man, I wanna be Doc Holliday.\u201d Man, I wanted to be Doc Holliday. Because of Kirk Douglas. Kirk Douglas in Gunfight at the OK Corral is the greatest f*cking Doc Holliday that anybody\u2019s ever played and nobody will ever do it any better. Part of me was like, \u201cCome on, man. You can\u2019t touch it.\u201d But I wanted to do it. I wanted to try it. That was my boyhood dream \u2014 to be Doc Holliday, man. I thought, man, \u201cI can smoke this f*cker, man. I\u2019ll be so good. I know what to do.\u201d So, I went to see Larry. I sat in his office, and I said, \u201cHey, man, I said, I gotta go back to Arizona, I\u2019m shooting this f*cking movie called The Getaway. And, you know, I wanna play Doc Holliday.<\/p>\n

\n\tHe started laughing, and he leans forward, he goes, \u201cNow, well, Michael, I already have another actor to be Doc Holliday, and y\u2019know, it\u2019s not gonna happen.\u201d I go, \u201cWell who is it?\u201d He goes, \u201cOh it\u2019s Dennis Quaid.\u201d I started to get up and he goes, \u201cHow about Virgil? What do you think about Virgil?\u201d Then I realized, well, Virgil, he walks down the OK Corral, doesn\u2019t he? So, in my mind I\u2019m thinking, wow, man, I am gonna walk down the OK Corral. I\u2019m gonna repeat Western history, man. I did Reservoir Dogs, and I did The Getaway and I\u2019m playing all these savages. Now I\u2019m gonna be Virgil Earp, man. And I\u2019m gonna walk down the OK f*cking Corral. And I said, \u201cYeah, Larry, absolutely I\u2019ll do it.\u201d Right then and there I said, yes, I\u2019d do it.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe next day, I was at CAA. They wrote up my contracts and signed me up to play Virgil Earp in Wyatt Earp. I went back to Arizona; I finished The Getaway. I went to New York to do publicity for The Getaway. And Quentin rang me up and asked me if I\u2019d read a script. I was at the Regency Hotel in Manhattan, and the f*cking script was at the concierge. I read it and I thought, Holy sh*t, y\u2019know? It was pretty goddamn good. So, I called my agent, and I said, \u201cHey, man, I got this thing from Quentin.\u201d And he said, \u201cWell, you might as well forget it.\u201d I was like, \u201cWell, why is that?\u201d \u201c\u2019Cause you\u2019re doing Wyatt Earp.\u201d I couldn\u2019t get out of it. Larry wanted two and a half weeks of rehearsal before shooting the movie. Which in my mind was a complete and total waste of time. And if they would have let me out of the rehearsal time, I could have done both movies. But he wouldn\u2019t do it. Larry wouldn\u2019t do it.<\/p>\n

\n\tY\u2019know, if Wyatt Earp had turned out to be some big Academy Award-winning movie, I would have been genius, right, \u2019cause I didn\u2019t do the gangster picture. But then again, if I had done it, whatever would have happened to John Travolta? \u2019Cause he was doing movies about babies talking. He was over. You know what I\u2019m saying? So, you know, I just had this conversation with Quentin in Cannes last year. We were driving in a car, me and him. And he was saying, \u201cWhat if you had been Vincent?\u201d And I go, \u201cWell, y\u2019know, I thought about it a lot of times.\u201d He goes, \u201cMichael, the thing is it would have been a different movie.\u201d I said, \u201cIt would. But Quentin, honestly \u2014 would it have been the big thing that it was without Travolta?\u201d Wasn\u2019t that part of the whole thing, that John came out of obscurity? He had the long hair. It was this huge thing. And honestly people started taking a much bigger look at Reservoir Dogs because of Pulp Fiction. So, originally, it was Larry Fishburne and me. Larry Fishburne turned it down. And that\u2019s when he went to [Travolta and] Sam [Jackson]. But I couldn\u2019t do it because I was under contract for Wyatt Earp. And all these years, man, it\u2019s this thing. This lingering thing. No, man, I didn\u2019t turn it down. And if I had done it, it would have been a different thing. I wouldn\u2019t have played it that way. I wouldn\u2019t have done it like that. It would have been a different thing. And it would have been a different movie.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: It\u2019s interesting, it looks like an even more different film now because neither Travolta nor Bruce Willis are as famous as they were back then. It looks even more like a character piece.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tMADSEN: <\/strong>Yeah. I saw it on the beach in Cannes at an outdoor screening.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: <\/strong>I was there; I saw it.<\/p>\n

\n\tMADSEN: <\/strong>OK, I mean, it was pretty mind-boggling. And frame by frame\u2026 I can\u2019t help it. Quentin told me the same thing, he goes, \u201cI\u2019ve always imagined you in all those scenes.\u201d And I watch the movie and I kind of I realize what I would have done that would have been a bit different. I think it would have been a little more edgy.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: Travolta plays him as quite dopey\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tMADSEN: <\/strong>Yeah, yeah. I had never met John until Cannes of last year. I was at an outside cocktail thing. I walked in and I was looking around and someone said, \u201cOh, hey, Quentin\u2019s over there.\u201d So, I walked around the corner and there\u2019s Quentin, but he\u2019s sitting with John. And I had never met John before. It was so awkward. I was like, \u201cOh f*ck, man.\u201d But I wasn\u2019t gonna stop and turn around. So, I went right up to the table. And John stood up. He stood up, and as I walked over, he hugged me. It was such an odd moment. It was very strange. You know, it had become a turning point in both of our lives. It was so bizarre. \u2019Cause Quentin, for years, has been threatening to make this movie called The Vega Brothers with me and John. In fact, I asked him the other day, \u201cI go, Quentin, let me just ask you flat out, are we ever going to really make The Vega Brothers?\u201d And he goes, \u201cWell, not unless someone invents a time machine. But I definitely wanna do something with you guys. There\u2019s something about you two guys together that I noticed that day when you met. There\u2019s something there. And it\u2019s in my brain.\u201d I went, \u201cWell, OK.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: <\/strong>You started out with Quentin when nobody knew who he was. Is he more confident now, or has he always been confident?<\/p>\n

\n\tMADSEN: <\/strong>He\u2019s exactly the same as he was in Reservoir Dogs, he just has a lot bigger toys. He\u2019s got a much bigger stage to play on. But he\u2019s exactly the same. His energy to me is amazing. He\u2019s so excited, and he loves making movies. It\u2019s so good to be around that kind of energy. If you work on a film, usually you go in and you\u2019re kind of like, \u201cWell, y\u2019know, man, I don\u2019t know \u2014 this thing might not be so good.\u201d But when you\u2019re working with Quentin you already know that it\u2019s gonna be good. All the anxiety is gone. \u2019Cause you know it\u2019s gonna be something: this is probably gonna be good. And it\u2019s because of him. Y\u2019know, he has this boyish masculinity. He loves what he does, man. He loves every minute of it. And he laughs at his own material. Which makes me laugh, \u2019cause he\u2019s laughing at something that he actually wrote.<\/p>\n

\n\tTo me that\u2019s really funny. It\u2019s like we crack up together a lot. He has this crazy kind of drive to really make things real and make it work. And he\u2019s the only guy who\u2019s successfully been able to join together horrendous violence with a strange, strange undertone of humor. Everybody\u2019s been trying to copy him for 20 f*cking years, and nobody can do it. They can\u2019t get there. They\u2019ll never be able to do it. If you watch television, any day you watch TV, they\u2019ll be some people walking in slow motion in a f*cking toothpaste commercial. Or they\u2019ll use some jingle from Kill Bill or some sports thing or something. His movies have been injected into the human psyche. And people think they can copy it, y\u2019know. And they can\u2019t for some reason. You know, Sally Menke, who unfortunately died?<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: <\/strong>I met Sally, yes.<\/p>\n

\n\tMADSEN: <\/strong>Well, you know, it\u2019s a cause of big sadness in my life that I never really got to know Sally that well. Back in the day, I was a pretty\u2026 I was kind of\u2026 I was\u2026 I don\u2019t know what the word for it is, but I was\u2026<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: Exacting?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tMADSEN: <\/strong>Huh?<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: Exacting? Demanding?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tMADSEN: <\/strong>No, I was just\u2026 I was very impatient. I got it from my dad. I was an impatient cat. And I just didn\u2019t really have a lot of time for anything. And I just was incredibly cynical. And I never really got to know Sally. But she was Quentin\u2019s goddess of editing. I mean, the two of them together were such a force. They knew how to cut me. I remember her saying to me once, \u201cMichael, you have all kind of things that you do. When we watch your stuff, we try to grab certain things that you do and put them in there.\u201d And because she had known me, over time, she was probably responsible for getting certain things. I was so sad when she I heard that she passed away. That\u2019s just blew me down. It was so f*cking sad. I know for Quentin, it must have been really sad too \u2019cause he lost one of his key players. And everybody was like, whoa, what\u2019s gonna happen to Quentin? But obviously he\u2019s persevering.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: <\/strong>Yeah.<\/p>\n

\n\tMADSEN: <\/strong>He\u2019s got Bob [Richardson] now. You know, Andrzej Sekula did Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs. But now he\u2019s with Bob and, between the two of them, they have five Academy Awards. Holy sh*t, man. That\u2019s pretty good. Maybe I\u2019ll get one of those. I think it\u2019s time for me to get a little trophy.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: Quentin likes to have an adventure with his productions. He went to Santa Barbara for Death Proof, Germany for Inglourious Basterds, Japan for Kill Bill. You didn\u2019t travel to Japan, did you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tMADSEN: <\/strong>I was gonna go to Beijing \u2019cause I was gonna play Mister Barrel. But he swapped me out for Budd, so I didn\u2019t end up going.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut even so, you\u2019re in a very deserted setting. Where does Budd live?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tMADSEN: <\/strong>In Barstow.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: Yeah. It\u2019s away from the city, is what I\u2019m saying.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tMADSEN: <\/strong>Yeah, the desert. Yeah.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: Yeah. I just wonder if that\u2019s interesting for you as an actor\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tMADSEN: <\/strong>Oh yeah, it\u2019s a part of the whole adventure. I mean, look at this, man. I\u2019m from Chicago. I\u2019m a f*cking blue-collar kid from Chicago. I was an auto mechanic, man, y\u2019know? I mean, what the f*ck am I doing in Telluride? Y\u2019know, with ski people, Making a movie. It\u2019s part of the whole thing. It\u2019s tremendous, and he knows it. Quentin does this stuff on purpose. He knows that the environment creates a reality. Like, I\u2019m Joe Gage, all right? And when I go on the set, let\u2019s just say that I would have a drawer. If I open that f*cking drawer, there\u2019s gonna be stuff in there that Joe Gage would have. That you may never, ever see on screen. It might never be in the movie. But it\u2019s there. It\u2019s there \u2019cause Quentin put it there. \u2019Cause he wanted it to be there. He creates this when we were doing wardrobe \u2014 when you go in for your fitting, he has mannequins with the other characters\u2019 wardrobe on. So, when I\u2019m getting dressed in my sh*t, I\u2019m in the room with my gang. With the outlaws. They\u2019re right there with me. On mannequins, but they\u2019re there, you know what I\u2019m saying?<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s crazy. It\u2019s insanity. But how wonderful it is, right? He had this little doll called Johnny West. Or at least I think he was called Johnny West. That\u2019s a plastic doll that he had called Johnny West. And goddamn it, he was like, \u201cThis is Michael Madsen.\u201d He gave it to wardrobe, saying, \u201cThis is Michael Madsen. And they made my clothes exactly like this f*cking doll.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: What sort of doll was it?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tMADSEN: <\/strong>Like, a GI Joe-size cowboy character. Did you know that in his house he actually has the video store that he worked in? He bought the entire contents of the store. The inventory, the shelves, the f*cking calendar, the f*cking cash register. And he put it in a room in his house. So, when you go in his f*cking house, he\u2019ll take you right upstairs, you go in it and you\u2019re in the video store that he worked in. \u2019Cause he bought all the sh*t. He has all the VHSes and the f*cking Beta tapes\u2026 Oh my God. He has the bar from Kill Bill. Remember the bar where Gogo stabs that guy in the belly?<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: Yeah.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tMADSEN: <\/strong>OK. He has that bar in the basement of his house. He had it dismantled and shipped from f*cking China to his house. And rebuilt it down in his f*cking basement. I mean, he has a game room where he has all games and lunchboxes. All this crazy memorabilia from Kung Fu and from The Rifleman and from Bonanza and just the most obscure sh*t you ever imagined. Whoever even knew they made a board game for some of these shows, y\u2019know? And my character is this incredible combination of characters like The Virginian. We talked about The Virginian. And I brought up Vera Cruz with Burt Lancaster. I wanted my hat to be like Burt Lancaster\u2019s hat in Vera Cruz, and that\u2019s exactly the f*cking hat that I have. I really liked The Virginian, \u2019cause he always had that super-cool black vest. And also Nick Barkley, who was played by Peter Breck in The Big Valley. I wanted to do some Nick Barkley. I wanted to do some Virginian. I wanted to do some Burt Lancaster \u2014 these are the characters that were put together for Michael Madsen to be Joe Gage.<\/p>\n

\n\tWho else does that? I mean, what a wonderful thing, to have all that going for you. You know, to be in a cowboy movie, paying homage to the guys that you watched \u2014 the guys that were in your memory as characters. And even the character\u2019s name. My other character name [in The Hateful Eight] besides Joe Gage is Grouch Douglas. Quentin knows I love Kirk [Douglas], right? I said, \u201cYou named me f*cking Grouch Douglas because you know I like Kirk, don\u2019t you?\u201d He said, \u201cOh yeah, of course.\u201d So, you know, I even got that. It\u2019s a wonderful thing, man. It\u2019s a gift that you get. My little son is here [in Telluride]. My wife and my son are here, and I feel like the hand of God is like on my shoulder, y\u2019know? Like, \u201cI gotcha, Mike,\u201d you know what I mean?<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: <\/strong>Is it true you started in theater?<\/p>\n

\n\tMADSEN: <\/strong>Huh?<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: <\/strong>You started with theatre, didn\u2019t you?<\/p>\n

\n\tMADSEN: <\/strong>Well, you know, that whole thing kind of got blown out of proportion. I mean, I did maybe about two months with Steppenwolf in Chicago. I did some scene-study classes. But that\u2019s all.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: So it wasn\u2019t a big deal?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tMADSEN: <\/strong>Nah, it wasn\u2019t what it was made out to be on the internet. There\u2019s so much bullsh*t on the internet. It\u2019s all bullsh*t. Everything they say about me on there is all a crock of f*cking bullsh*t. I went there for about two months. I was very, very impatient. I wanted to get on with sh*t, OK? I wanted to go to New York. I went to New York, and I met Sergio Leone. Like, Sergio Leone walked around his house in a robe with a giant pot of pasta. Eating it out of the pot with a fork. Speaking in Italian. Telling me I should be an actor \u2014 I should be an actor. He told me that I reminded him of Henry Fonda. I mean, what a compliment from him, right? He wanted to put me in a movie.<\/p>\n

\n\tI stayed at his house in his brownstone, and he lived right next door to Katharine Hepburn. One day he calls me upstairs. I go upstairs. He looks over the edge, and I look over the edge. He didn\u2019t speak a lot of English, so he had an interpreter named Brian. Brian would tell me what he said. I look over and I see this old woman with this big hat, and she\u2019s gardening. And he goes, \u201cHepburn, Hepburn, Hepburn.\u201d I looked at Brian and he goes, \u201cYeah, man, that\u2019s her. That\u2019s Katharine Hepburn.\u201d He lived right next door to Katharine Hepburn. F*cking living in New York, right? It was so amazing. I go, \u201cWhat is she doing?\u201d And in Italian he said, \u201cOh, she\u2019s picking up sticks.\u201d And she was \u2014 she was picking up all these tiny little twigs out of the garden, for some reason. And he told me, \u201cMichael, you should be an actor.\u201d In Italian. I was a very young man. I didn\u2019t know what the f*ck I was doing. I was fixing cars at Joe Jacobs\u2019 Chevrolet [in Illinois].<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: So how did you meet Leone?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tMADSEN: <\/strong>Well, this really weird thing happened. It was my sister Virginia, who, y\u2019know, got nominated for f*cking Sideways.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: Oh yeah.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tMADSEN: <\/strong>She had an agent, \u2019cause she was doing singing telegrams. And she was doing theater. I had went with a buddy of mine, I was going to school to be a paramedic, \u2019cause I thought maybe I would make more money than fixing cars. My father was a firefighter, and my dad really wanted me to be a cop or a firefighter. So, I figured I\u2019d be a paramedic. Y\u2019know, I thought it\u2019d be cool riding in an ambulance and saving people \u2014 that kind of thing. But this kid that I went to school with was an actor. His name is Chip. And he asked me to go with him to this audition, \u2019cause we used to ride the train together to go to school. So, I said, \u201cOK, man.\u201d I went with him to this thing. And there was like 50 guys in this big auditorium. There were people from LA.<\/p>\n

\n\tThey were casting a movie called WarGames. I watched these guys go down one by one and they\u2019d sit down at the table, and they\u2019d read. Then, 10 seconds later, the people doing the auditions are like, \u201cThat\u2019s great. See you later.\u201d And these guys would walk out all sad. Chip went down there, he said two words, and they were like, \u201cThank you very much. Thank you.\u201d I thought it was so funny. When he\u2019d finished, I got up to go, \u2019cause we were leaving together. We\u2019re walking out the door. And this guy was sitting there \u00b1 Marty Brest is who it was. Who later did Scent of a Woman and all this other stuff. He was sitting there, and he goes, \u201cHey, where are you going?\u201d In front of all these people. And I go, \u201cWe\u2019re leaving.\u201d And he goes, \u201cWhy?\u201d I said, \u201cWhat do you mean, why?\u201d He goes, \u201cWhy didn\u2019t you read?\u201d And I go, man, I didn\u2019t come here for that, man. And he goes, \u201cAre you an actor?\u201d And I go, \u201cNo, man.\u201d He goes, \u201cOh, is this your buddy?\u201d I go, \u201cYeah, man. And he goes, \u201cDo you wanna read?\u201d I go, \u201cWell I don\u2019t know. Not really. I\u2019m sure I\u2019m not gonna sit down at that f*cking table, I\u2019ll tell you that.\u201d And he goes, \u201cWell, we\u2019ll do it over here. Let\u2019s go over here and do it over here away from everybody.\u201d And I was like, \u201cWow, OK.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMeanwhile Chip wants to kill me. Y\u2019know, I know now why, but I didn\u2019t understand why he was mad then. He was like, \u201cYou f*cking asshole. You\u2019re gonna do it, aren\u2019t you?\u201d And I go, \u201cWell yeah, man.\u201d So, I went over, we set these metal chairs, and we sat down, and he gave me two pages to read. He goes, \u201cOK, I\u2019m this guy and you\u2019re that guy.\u201d And I read it with him. He says, you know, \u201cHave you ever thought about being an actor?\u201d And I said, \u201cNo, man. I mean, I like Humphrey Bogart and I really like Robert Mitchum, and I get what they\u2019re doing. I understand it.\u201d He goes, \u201cYou know, if you went to LA or New York, you would get work as an actor.\u201d I said, \u201cYou think so?\u201d And he goes, \u201cYeah.\u201d I said, \u201cWell, buddy, you know what, man? I got about $400 to my name, so the chances of that happening are f*cking non-existent, OK? It ain\u2019t gonna happen.\u201d He goes, \u201cYou know what an agent is?\u201d I go, \u201cYeah, yeah, my sister has an agent.\u201d He goes \u201cOh what\u2019s her name? And I told him. He goes, \u201cI know her.\u201d I go, \u201cOh you do?\u201d He goes, \u201cOh yeah.\u201d And he goes, \u201cSo if I wanted to reach you, I could reach you through her?\u201d I went, \u201cYeah, sure.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tAnd, like, a week later, my sister comes in the house \u2014 my sister who had been doing theater all through high school, and singing telegrams, and having voice lessons, with Marilyn Monroe posters in her room, while there\u2019s me stealing cars and, y\u2019know, just doin\u2019 bad stuff. She comes in the house, and she goes, \u201cDid you meet some people from LA?\u201d And I go yeah. And she goes, \u201cWell my agent wants to talk to you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tI was like, \u201cReally?\u201d She goes, \u201cYeah.\u201d So, I took the f*cking train down there. I went in her office, and she goes, \u201cYou know these people from California, they wanna give you a part in a movie?\u201d And I said, \u201cWhat, are you insane?\u201d She goes, \u201cNo, no. It\u2019s a small scene that takes place in the beginning of the film. You\u2019re a soldier in a missile silo. You and your buddy have to simultaneously turn keys to launch a ballistic missile. And your partner chickens out and he can\u2019t do it.\u201d John Spencer was the other actor. She goes, \u201cDo you wanna do it?\u201d I go, \u201cF*ck. In front of a camera? Oh my God. Oh, my sh*t, man.\u201d She goes. \u201cThey\u2019ll fly you to LA, they\u2019ll put you up in a hotel, and they\u2019re gonna give you $900. And I was like, \u201cHoly f*ck, man. Holy sh*t, man.\u201d Then she goes, \u201cBut there\u2019s one thing they want you to do.\u201d I go, \u201cOh my God, what\u2019s that?\u201d And she had one of those f*cking camcorders. Remember those goddamn things where you put the VHS tape in it, right?<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: Yeah.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tMADSEN: <\/strong>And she gets it out and she puts it on the table. She points it at me, and she goes, \u201cJust tell a story.\u201d I go, \u201cTell a story about what?\u201d And she goes, \u201cMichael, I don\u2019t know. Just make something up. I don\u2019t care. I\u2019m gonna start it and I want you to just talk.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: <\/strong>What did you do?<\/p>\n

\n\tMADSEN: <\/strong>About a week before that, I had been in this little diner. And this guy sitting next to me was being a real asshole to the waitress. Just being a dick, man. I just let it go on for a while, while I was eating, but I was getting angry. She was kind of cute, y\u2019know. So finally, I took the mustard pot and I went [he makes a whooshing sound] I shot it right in his face. And I told the story of doing that. And she sent that f*cking tape to Cis Corman who was Sergio Leone\u2019s casting director. I don\u2019t know why she did that or why that happened, you know. But shortly thereafter, they flew me to New York.<\/p>\n

\n\tThey f*cking put me on a plane and\u2026 I\u2019d never been out of Chicago. I went to New York City. Sergio Leone wanted to meet me. And I stayed at his goddamn house, man. He told me he wanted to put me in film. And then, unfortunately, he died. And then I went to California and did this stupid f*cking thing \u2014 WarGames. I didn\u2019t wanna go back to Chicago. No f*cking way. So, I got a newspaper, and I looked in the want ads in the newspaper, \u2019cause I knew that I could get a job at a gas station anywhere on the planet Earth. And there was a full-service gas station attendant needed in Beverly Hills. At the Union 76. At Crescent Drive and little Santa Monica Boulevard. And the second day I was in California, I f*cking went there and I applied for the job, and I got hired. I went to MGM Studios, and I shot WarGames. They still had the big neon lion up on top, y\u2019know, with the big numbers on the soundstages. And the first time I\u2026 [Madsen chokes up.]<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: Are you OK?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tMADSEN: <\/strong>Yeah, no, I\u2019m fine. It was raining. It was raining the first day I got there. I\u2019ll never forget it. I had to take a taxi. And I got out of the cab, and it was raining so hard. I couldn\u2019t believe it was happening. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: So, you kind of caught the tail end of old Hollywood\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tMADSEN: <\/strong>Oh sure, Schwab\u2019s was still there. Schwab\u2019s was at the corner of Laurel Canyon and Sunset. I used to go in Schwab\u2019s every day and have lunch in there. I went to Bartels\u2019 Harley-Davidson when they were on Washington Boulevard, and I got my first motorcycle. I got my first Harley, my \u201974 Sportster. And I had a job at the gas station. So, by the time I got done with WarGames, I made enough money on that thing to rent a little apartment. I had an apartment up by Griffith Park up on Western and Franklin. I had my f*cking motorbike, and I would drive every day to Beverly Hills to go pumping gas. I drove a tow truck. And I changed flat tires.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: Did you pursue movies at the same time?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tMADSEN: <\/strong>Well, I didn\u2019t know what to do. See, a lot of people used to come in there. Warren Beatty would come in there. Jack Lemmon would come in there. Jack Lemmon would roll up in his f*cking MG and I\u2019d give him gas in his f*cking car. Warren Beatty would come in really late at night and he would always use the payphone inside. Nobody had cell phones back then, so he\u2019d go in and he\u2019d put change in the f*cking phone, and he\u2019d be on the phone. He\u2019d come back out and he\u2019d stare at me, you know. And he asked me one time, \u201cAre you an actor?\u201d And I go, \u201cYeah, well I\u2019ve done a little,\u201d and he goes, \u201cReally?\u201d And I go, \u201cOh yeah.\u201d He goes, \u201cDo you have any headshots?\u201d And I go, \u201cNah, I don\u2019t.\u201d And he goes, \u201cWell you should, you gotta get some of those.\u201d I go, \u201cOK, man.\u201d And he goes, \u201cYou know, if you ever do that, send one over to my office.\u201d I go, \u201cOK, Warren Beatty, where is your goddamn office? \u201cAnd he goes, \u201cOh, it\u2019s at Paramount\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tDon Knotts used to come in there. Cicely Tyson would come in there. Peter Falk would come in there. All these people I had seen in movies my whole life would come in there; I\u2019m pumping gas in their f*cking cars. I was wiping their goddamn f*cking windshields, you know? There was one particular girl \u2014 we became fond of each other. And she would come in and, y\u2019know, she usually had a little short skirt on. I was happy to wash that window! I started staying at her house now and again, and she introduced me to an agent. And it was Andy Friedman, with the Smith and Friedman Agency, and they started submitting me for episodic television. I did St. Elsewhere, I did Miami Vice and Tour of Duty, Jake and the Fatman. And Cagney and Lacey. The episode of Cagney and Lacey I did, Tyne Daly won an Emmy for. Didn\u2019t even mention my name when she got her Emmy. And I was so\u2026 I remember feeling so kind of like\u2026 Wow. It wasn\u2019t about the ego or the fame, I just thought, \u201cWow.\u201d The whole episode was about me and her. And she won an Emmy for the f*cking thing, and she didn\u2019t even say anything about me. And that was my first realization about Hollywood, right? The insidiousness of the whole f*cking thing.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: <\/strong>But you seemed to get through it\u2026<\/p>\n

\n\tMADSEN: <\/strong>Well, I kept pumping gas. I remember when I got Thelma and Louise. I told my boss, I go, \u201cHey, man, look I got this movie and I\u2019m gonna go do it.\u201d And he goes, \u201cY\u2019know, why didn\u2019t you tell us you were an actor when we hired you? Goddamn it.\u201d I was like, \u201cWell I didn\u2019t really think I was, man.\u201d And he goes, \u201cWe need you around here, Michael. Make up your f*cking mind. The chances of you making it any further are a billion to one. You got these stupid TV shows you keep taking time off to do and now you\u2019re gonna go and do a f*cking movie, is that it?\u201d I was like, \u201cYeah.\u201d And he goes, \u201cWell goddamn it, you\u2019re fired.\u201d I was like, \u201cOh man. You give me two dollars and 50 cents an hour and I got my little motorbike over there. And I live up on Western and Franklin. I think I\u2019ll take my shot. I\u2019ll take my chance, right?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: So, what keeps you in the business?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tMADSEN: <\/strong>LA is a festering wound. It\u2019s a festering wound that has gangrene. Y\u2019know, LA is all about crucifying. Building people up and then crucifying them. They find out something negative about you and they fry you on the f*cking griddle, man. And they love it, y\u2019know. But I don\u2019t give a sh*t, \u2019cause I\u2019ve always stayed employed and I\u2019ve always kept working. I have five sons. I\u2019ve been married three times. I could have done without that, but my wife and my sons are everything to me, and I\u2019ve been able to give them a great life because of what I do. I\u2019ve been all over the f*cking world. Who gets to go all around the world? Who gets to do that? Just some dumbass, f*cking juvenile delinquent from Chicago. I\u2019ve been everywhere. I\u2019ve been all over the f*cking planet making movies. Rumors of my demise are greatly exaggerated.<\/p>\n

\n\tDEADLINE: Do you have any regrets?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tMADSEN: <\/strong>I don\u2019t regret not doing Pulp Fiction. But I do regret making Wyatt Earp. Because I can\u2019t say anything nice about Wyatt Earp, y\u2019know? It\u2019s boring. It\u2019s long. It\u2019s stupid and boring. It\u2019s a giant close-up of Kevin for three f*cking hours. I remember I got the quote of the day one time. I got the quote of the day on the call sheet: \u201cThere\u2019s a rumor that Wyatt had some brothers.\u201d Y\u2019know, I wish I could say something good about it, because the only f*cking reason I did it is \u2018cause I wanted to walk down that goddamn street to the OK Corral. If I had known how long it was gonna take to walk down there, man\u2026 We did it, like, 10 times. And if I knew that the movie was gonna be that f*cking boring and stupid, I would rather have rode the horses down there \u2014 taken a f*cking taxicab or something else.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut no, Quentin\u2019s pictures are\u2026 there\u2019s something very individualistic about each one of them, everyone that he\u2019s done. I happen to feel like I\u2019ve been in the best of his work. I\u2019ve been very lucky to be in the best ones that he\u2019s made. Kill Bill is ridiculously great. It\u2019s better than anybody even gives it credit for. Django \u2014 I wanted to play Calvin in Django. I wanted Leo DiCaprio\u2019s part. To me that would have been the greatest part in the film. Obviously, that didn\u2019t happen. But, you know, Dogs was his first shot, man, and to be in that was a pretty goddamn, pretty cool thing, and over time it just gets bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger. And now in The Hateful Eight, I\u2019ve really come full circle with him. Richard Gladstein was the producer of Reservoir Dogs and Quentin got him back for Hateful Eight. Now that\u2019s pretty cool, right. I mean, it\u2019s a nice, nice package. It\u2019s a wonderful blessing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Once upon a time in Hollywood, the charismatic heavy with smarts and a heart was a familiar archetype…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":37534,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[171,30424,29492,29705,29493,30252,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-37533","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-kill-bill","10":"tag-michael-madsen","11":"tag-quentin-tarantino","12":"tag-reservoir-dogs","13":"tag-the-hateful-eight","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114793906391479289","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37533"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37533\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}