10 behind-the-scenes facts about the making of From Dusk Till Dawn

10 PHOTOS

1 fact

Quentin Tarantino originally planned to sit in the director's chair of From Dusk Till Dawn himself, between the filming of Pulp Fiction and Jackie Brown. However, he changed his mind and decided to better concentrate on the script and his acting. Tony Scott and Renny Harlin were not opposed to taking the place of the director, but in the end, Tarantino preferred his friend Robert Rodriguez.

2 fact

The role of George Clooney in From Dusk Till Dawn, for which he was paid $250,000, made him a movie star. His type of calculating robber was very different from his usual role as a kind doctor from the TV series ER. The idea for Seth Gekko to get the tattoo was suggested by Clooney himself, inspired by Once Were Warriors. Since this was Clooney's first starring role, his name appears in the opening credits as the second most important name after Harvey Keitel, who, unlike him, was a big star in the 90s.

3 fact

In the original script, Salma Hayek's character was named "Blonde Death" and she was a white woman. However, after seeing Hayek's performance in Desperado, Tarantino rewrote the character as Latino and renamed her Santanico Pandemonium, based on the bloody Mexican horror film Satan's Inferno (1975), which Tarantino saw on the shelves of a video store. The role required Hayek to wear an albino Burmese python around her neck, but she had a terrible phobia of snakes. She had to spend two months with a therapist to overcome this fear of filming.

4 fact

Production of From Dusk Till Dawn was put on hold due to various production delays. The exterior of the Titty Twister strip club was damaged by a fire and had to be restored. Other delays were caused by dust storms and threats of strikes, as the crew was not unionized.

5 fact

Quentin Tarantino loves long, text-heavy dialogue where his eloquent, pompous characters engage in all sorts of wild conversations. Judging by the interview, it is clear that the director himself is insanely verbose. However, in From Dusk Till Dawn, his character doesn't have many lines until he's turned into a vampire. Quentin Tarantino understood this and found it strange that his character was so laconic, but it was too late to rewrite the script.

6 fact

One of the most famous monologues in Tarantino's filmography is the passage from the Bible Ezekiel 25:17, which is spoken by Samuel L. Jackson's character from Pulp Fiction. This monologue was originally written for "From Dusk Till Dawn", which Jacob Fuller delivered in the run-up to the characters' final fight against the vampires. Well, he actually started his life in a movie starring Sonny Teeba.

7 fact

Quentin Tarantino is famous for having so much stylized violence in his films that it is perceived as a satirical critique of on-screen violence. However, there was one scene in From Dusk Till Dawn that was too violent even for him. In it, the vampire stripper's belly would open up like a big mouth, then she would put someone's head in there and bite it off. Tarantino thought it was too much. The scene is available in the deleted scenes section of the Special Edition DVD.

8 fact

Salma Hayek didn't have a choreographer for her dance. Director Robert Rodriguez advised Hayek to feel the music and reproduce the dance to its rhythm. He later used the same technique with Jessica Alba in Sin City. The script suggested that the song in this dance scene should be "Down in Mexico" by The Coasters, but Rodriguez decided to use Tito & Tarantula's "After Dark" instead. Tarantino later used "Down in Mexico" in Death Proof.

9 fact

Before George Clooney was cast as Seth Gekko, the role was offered to many actors including Antonio Banderas, Steve Buscemi, Robert De Niro, Jeff Goldblum, Michael Madsen, Tim Roth, Christopher Walken, and James Woods, but they all turned it down due to conflicts. in the schedule. The only actor to turn down the role for reasons unrelated to the scheduling was John Travolta, who was not interested in vampire films and opted to star in Pulp Fiction instead.

10 fact

It was the first screenplay that Quentin Tarantino was paid to write. He was paid only $1,500 by the special effects company KNB, led by Robert Kurtzman, who was going to make his directorial debut with the script but ended up doing the special effects for this film. KNB also made a free special effect for the iconic Reservoir Dogs ear-cutting scene.