True Romance: 15 Years Later
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ENTERTAINMENT
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More than a decade after it tanked at the box office, Tarantino, Gandolfini, and others dish the behind-the-scenes dirt on the making of a true cult classic.
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ACT I: WRITER MEETS DIRECTOR | ACT II: ACTORS MEET MORE ACTORS
ACT III: MOVIE MEETS MULTIPLEX
[ACT III: MOVIE MEETS MULTIPLEX, LOSES MONEY, EARNS FANS]
 When the movie wrapped, the actors wiped off the fake blood and went their separate ways, while Scott dived into editing and working with Warner Bros. to market his movie. All concerned had high hopes.
Scott: We had test screenings in Orange County. Christian was a date-movie star at the time, so our focus group was a little miscast. Two thirds of the theater emptied when Gary blew away Sam Jackson, and the rest left when Christian blew away Gary.
Hopper: Every time they showed it to an audience, they’d get standing ovations.
Tarantino: Warner Bros. was going to change the title to Reckless Hearts. I called Patricia, Christian, and Tony and said, “Let’s go to the press junket and talk about how bad that title is and how good the real title is. We’ll name the head of the marketing department in every interview so he’s on the fucking hook.”
Rubinek: The movie bombed. I don’t think the studio knew how to market this kind of movie. If they released it today, it would be a hit.
Int. Lee’s Suite, the Beverly Ambassador Hotel
LEE: You know what I’d like to do right now? I’d like to see Dr. Zhivago.
Hopper: I was surprised. The movie had no theatrical life—it came and went in a week. Were people expecting a traditional love story?
Indeed, True Romance made a miserable $11.5 million at the box office. It did receive some good reviews, but not from Senator Bob Dole, who, as a presidential candidate in 1995, lambasted it as an example of movies that “revel in mindless violence and loveless sex.”
Arquette: Senators talked about True Romance because they were advocating more censorship. Bob Dole said our movie was “disgusting”—or maybe that I was disgusting.
Tarantino: I knew Dole hadn’t seen True Romance or Natural Born Killers. I couldn’t believe that a guy running for president of the United States, the land of the free and the home of the brave, was condemning art he hadn’t even seen. You fucking asshole, you’d say anything to get elected.
Sizemore: I was in True Romance and Natural Born Killers. That’s why I went to prison.
[Editors’ note: Using a prosthetic penis to fake a court-ordered drug test didn’t help.]
Hopper: I don’t know anyone in the industry who hasn’t seen it now. It’s a wonderful movie, and not just because I have a great scene.
Rapaport: People still call me Dick Ritchie. I’ve had people come up and start quoting Christopher Walken, and it scares the shit out of me, because I don’t realize they’re movie lines.
Oldman: My most quoted line is, “I know I’m pretty, but I ain’t as pretty as a pair of titties.”
Tarantino: People have told me that they put the “You’re so cool” line in their wedding vows. I even met a couple with matching your so cool tattoos. True Romance and Reservoir Dogs were the growing pains for Pulp Fiction’s success. Audiences were seeing something they hadn’t seen before—comedy and violence switching on a dime. They’d be horrified one second and laughing the next.
Int. The Beverly Ambassador—day
ELVIS: I gotta hand it to ya, Clarence. That was cool. Man, you were cooler than cool.
ACT I: WRITER MEETS DIRECTOR | ACT II: ACTORS MEET MORE ACTORS
ACT III: MOVIE MEETS MULTIPLEX
True Romance is on our list of 300 Movies to See Before You Die! Click here to see the other 299.
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