“Pulp Fiction”’s Rosanna Arquette blasts Quentin Tarantino’s use of N-word in movies: ‘It isn’t artwork, it is simply racist’

Rosanna Arquette in 1994's 'Pulp Fiction' Rosanna Arquette in 1994's 'Pulp Fiction'
Rosanna Arquette in 1994's 'Pulp Fiction'. Credit score:

Miramax/courtesy Everett Assortment

Rosanna Arquette has a significant situation with Quentin Tarantino's vocabulary.

The Desperately Searching for Susan actress, who appeared in Pulp Fiction because the spouse of a drug vendor named Lance performed by Eric Stoltz, doesn't suppose the filmmaker ought to have used racist language within the 1994 traditional.

"It's iconic, an excellent movie on quite a lot of ranges," Arquette mentioned of Pulp Fiction in a brand new interview with U.K. outlet The Times. "However personally I’m over the usage of the N-word — I hate it."

Rosanna Arquette in New York City on Feb. 9, 2026
Rosanna Arquette in New York Metropolis on Feb. 9, 2026.

Gary Gershoff/Getty

Arquette added that she doesn't recognize how Tarantino has continued to make use of the slur all through his filmography. "I can not stand that he has been given a corridor go," she mentioned. "It's not artwork, it's simply racist and creepy."

Representatives for Tarantino didn’t instantly reply to Leisure Weekly's request for remark.

Arquette isn’t the primary star to criticize Tarantino for utilizing the N-word in his films. Spike Lee publicly slammed the Reservoir Canine director after it confirmed up dozens of occasions in his 1997 crime thriller, Jackie Brown.

"I'm not in opposition to the phrase," Lee informed Selection that yr. "And I exploit it, however not excessively. And a few folks communicate that approach. However Quentin is infatuated with that phrase. What does he wish to be made — an honorary Black man?"

Lee added, "I need Quentin to know that each one African Individuals don’t suppose that phrase is stylish or slick."

Quentin Tarantino in Pulp Fiction
Quentin Tarantino in 'Pulp Fiction'.

Miramax Movies

The Butler filmmaker Lee Daniels expressed related sentiments in a 2022 interview with CNN. "Ten years in the past, 15 years in the past … I’d've checked it off as creative," he mentioned of Tarantino's use of the slur. "However 'n—–' is our phrase. That's my phrase. And you haven’t any proper to say that."

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Tarantino obtained criticism for utilizing the N-word quite a few occasions in his Oscar-winning screenplay for 2012's Django Unchained. Following his Oscars victory, the filmmaker defended utilizing the slur within the press room on the awards ceremony.

"If any individual is on the market truly saying with regards to the phrase n—–, the truth that I used to be utilizing it within the film greater than it was getting used within the antebellum South in Mississippi, then be at liberty to make that case," he mentioned. "However nobody's truly making that case. They’re saying I ought to lie, that I ought to whitewash, that I ought to therapeutic massage, and I by no means try this with regards to my characters."

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Samuel L. Jackson, who appeared in each Pulp Fiction and Django (in addition to a number of different Tarantino initiatives), has defended the filmmaker's use of the phrase in his work. "You may't simply inform a author he can't discuss, write the phrases, put the phrases within the mouths of the folks from their ethnicities, the way in which that they use their phrases," he informed Esquire in 2019. "You can’t try this, as a result of then it turns into an untruth; it's not sincere. It's simply not sincere."

He continued, "And I typically add like not less than 5 'n—–'s to what Quentin has already written."

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