Legendary actor Robert De Niro is very particular about the kind of shoes his characters wear in the movies. Director Quentin Tarantino once explained how a highly detailed discussion about De Niro’s character’s appearance in his 1997 movie, Jackie Brown convinced De Niro to star in the movie. Tarantino’s detailed explanation about the kind of shoes De Niro’s character wears in the movie forced the actor to say yes to the film.
1997’s Jackie Brown was a massive success. Apart from being a financial success, the film also earned several nominations and prestigious awards. The film also featured Pam Grier, Samuel L. Jackson, Robert Forster, Bridget Fonda, and Michael Keaton.
Robert De Niro had a detailed discussion about shoes with Quentin Tarantino
While advising a group of graduate design students at UCLA’s Design Showcase West in 2016, director Quentin Tarantino recalled the time he had a detailed discussion about shoes with actor Robert De Niro and how it helped convince the actor to star in the movie (via IndieWire),
“The minute Robert De Niro figures out the pair of shoes his character would wear, that’s about 75% of him getting a handle on who the character is,” adding, “Years later, I am kind of talking him into playing the character and he goes, ‘What kind of shoes does he wear?’ I go, ‘Well, it’s funny that you asked that because the character of Louis has been in jail for the last five years, and so he had just a clunky pair of old black, what a while ago would have been dress shoes.”
Robert De Niro played the supporting role of Louis Gara, a criminal associate and former cellmate of Ordell Robbie (Samuel L. Jackson).
This small detail convinced Robert De Niro to star in the film
Tarantino further explained that this small detail about De Niro’s character’s shoes convinced the actor to star in the movie without any hesitations,
“Because he has been in jail for five years, he took off his street clothes, all those street clothes were put into a paper bag. So, he’s just been wearing the clothes that were in that paper bag for the last five years, and then the toe of the shoe got folded over a little because of all the stuff down. That one shoe – the toe of it is kind of curled over, just a little bit. Needless to say, he really enjoyed the detail that I gave him, so I ended up working with Robert De Niro.”
Robert Forster earned a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his work in the movie. At the time of its release, 1997 Jackie Brown received positive reviews from viewers around the globe. On a budget of $12 million, the film grossed over $74 million at the global box office.
