Roger Avary and Quentin Tarantino got together on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast to share the origins of their cult classic Killing Zoe while also discussing how their friendship started.
While Avary and Tarantino have been hosting a podcast called 'The Video Archives Podcast' since 2022, they had quite the fallout after working together on Pulp Fiction.
According to an interview by The Independent, Roger Avary and Quentin Tarantino's friendship became strained after Avary felt sidelined in the credits for Pulp Fiction, where he received only a 'Story By' credit despite his significant contribution to the film's screenplay.
Avary had co-written multiple scripts with Tarantino and played a major role in shaping films like True Romance, Reservoir Dogs, and Natural Born Killers. However, his grievances intensified when he learned that Tarantino had incorporated a monologue from a script Avary had been working on for Sleep With Me without crediting him.
Avary was upset, feeling that his intellectual property was being used without acknowledgment. Despite Tarantino’s apology, the incident left a lasting impact, though Avary later downplayed the situation.
Roger Avary and Tarantino's dispute over Pulp Fiction explored
According to a feature in Far Out Magazine, following the release of Reservoir Dogs, Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avary reunited to combine their scenes, leading to the creation of the first draft of Pulp Fiction. However, Avary eventually left the project to direct Killing Zoe. In a 2002 interview with The State Hornet, Avary shared:
“Quentin [Tarantino] and I, we were buddies and we would write together. We wrote Pulp Fiction not thinking that it would turn into what it turned into. It surprised us as much as anybody else. All of a sudden it’s the cultural barometer it became and to be perfectly frank with you my writing range went through the roof.”
Pulp Fiction did indeed rise to unprecedented heights, winning the Palme d'Or at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival and several prestigious awards, including the Golden Globe for Best Screenplay. However, while Tarantino was honored with the Golden Globe, he did not mention Avary in his acceptance speech.
In a 2003 interview with Playboy, Tarantino explained:
"He’d [Avary] written a whole script for a movie. I didn’t want to do the whole thing, only one section that fit into Pulp Fiction,” describing how he adapted a part of Avary’s script for the film, specifically the section involving the boxer and pawnshop scene.
Tarantino continued by adding:
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“I bought that script the way you’d buy a book to make into a movie, just to adapt the part that I liked. That was the scene when the boxer throws the fight and gets chased down by the other guy and they end up in a pawnshop with two guys who are serial killers”.
Although Tarantino's role in Pulp Fiction is often highlighted, Avary's contributions were critical, particularly considering the lasting influence of the film on modern cinema. Despite his creative restrictions, much like when adapting Elmore Leonard’s novel for Jackie Brown, Avary's involvement likely played a key part in making Pulp Fiction a standout classic.
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