Some Tarantino 'Pulp Fiction' Footage Is Lost Forever, Thanks To A Prank
During the filming of Pulp Fiction, Quentin Tarantino played a bunch of pranks on his cowriter, Roger Avary. Supposedly played a bunch of pranks, anyway. Avary claims he did, but we can't seem to find any details on what these pranks were. That's surprising because Hollywood folk are otherwise pretty candid when talking about their pranks. Just read up some time about, say, Tarantino's prank calls with George Clooney.
But anyway, Roger Avary said he'd been the victim of unspecific Tarantino pranks. So when the two of them attended the Oscars in 1995, he decided to get back at the director. Avary approached the cameraman tasked with keeping the lens on Tarantino and paid him $500, telling him to cut away from the man if he actually did win an award that evening.
Avary and Tarantino both won that night's award for Best Original Screenplay, and as instructed, the cameraman cut his feed at the crucial moment. You'll just have to imagine Tarantino's facial contortions as his name is announced as the winner—history is to be forever denied that footage.
It was bold of Avary to even assume Tarantino would win. Pulp Fiction is looked back on as a game changer today, but that year, Forrest Gump was very much favored to beat it out for awards. When collecting his statue, Tarantino predicted that it would be the only award the film would win despite seven nominations, and he was right.
Avary went on not to be so proud that he was turning into a Tarantino-esque prankster. He took a long break from filmmaking and would later refer to the temptation to prank as a dark side of his personality he had to fight. Tarantino, meanwhile, continued pranking freely. To this day, when he catches someone falling asleep on set, he photographs them with a sex toy named "Big Jerry."
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For more pranks, see also:
6 Famous People Who Hilariously Trolled Their Own Fans
55 Tales Of Famous Folks Goofing Off
6 Behind-The-Scenes Movie Pranks That Were Total Madness
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