Michael Madsen almost refused his role in Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs as he only wanted to be killed on-screen by Harvey Keitel.
Madsen played diamond thief Mr Blonde in the 1992 thriller, who meets a violent end at the hands of Tim Roth’s undercover cop Mr Orange during the climax of Tarantino’s debut film.
In a new documentary, QT8: The First Eight, Madsen reveals he wasn’t happy to be killed by an unknown actor like Roth.
“I don’t know why [Tarantino] had me stuck in his head to play Mr Blonde,” Madsen says in the film. “I didn’t want to play Mr Blonde. I didn’t want to get shot by Tim Roth. I didn’t want to be killed by Tim Roth.”
He continues, “I was like, ‘Hey man, who is Tim Roth?’ I would let Harvey Keitel kill me, but I’m not getting killed by Tim Roth.”
At the time of production, Roth was a newcomer to the American film industry with few acting credits outside his native UK. Madsen, meanwhile, had appeared in films including Thelma & Louise, The Natural and WarGames.
Both actors have gone on to reappear in a number of Tarantino projects. Madsen starred in Kill Bill and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, while Roth appeared in Pulp Fiction and Four Rooms. The pair also reunited in Tarantino’s 2015 film The Hateful Eight.
QT8: The First Eight explores the making of Tarantino’s first eight films, with appearances from collaborators including Roth, Samuel L Jackson, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Lucy Liu, Christoph Waltz and the late Robert Forster. It will be released in the UK on 13 December.
