Rosanna Arquette Criticizes Quentin Tarantino for Using N-Word in Movies: 'It’s Not Art, It’s Just Racist and Creepy'
Rosanna Arquette Criticizes Quentin Tarantino for Using N-Word in Movies: 'It’s Not Art, It’s Just Racist and Creepy'
Tommy McArdleMon, March 9, 2026 at 6:55 PM UTC
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Rosanna Arquette; Quentin TarantinoCredit: Getty(2) -
Rosanna Arquette described her Pulp Fiction director Quentin Tarantino's use of the N-word in his movies as "just racist and creepy" in a new interview
Arquette had a small role in 1994's Pulp Fiction as Jody, the wife of Eric Stoltz's character Lance
Samuel L. Jackson, one of Tarantino's longtime collaborators, has defended the filmmaker's use of racist language in his movies over the years
Rosanna Arquette is not a fan of her Pulp Fiction director Quentin Tarantino's penchant for including the N-word in his movies.
Arquette, 66, voiced her opposition to one of Tarantino's frequent style choices as a writer and director in an interview with the U.K.'s The Sunday Times on March 7, while she discussed a number of projects from her nearly 50-year-long acting career, including her latest role in Charli xcx's recent mockumentary The Moment.
“It’s iconic, a great film on a lot of levels," she said while discussing 1994's Pulp Fiction, the movie that rocketed Tarantino, now 62, to superstardom in Hollywood. Arquette played a small role in the movie as Jody, the wife of Eric Stoltz's drug dealer character Lance, who appears in scenes with John Travolta's Vincent Vega throughout the movie.
"But personally, I am over the use of the N-word — I hate it. I cannot stand that [Tarantino] has been given a hall pass," Arquette added. "It’s not art, it’s just racist and creepy.”
Rosanna Arquette in 1994's Pulp FictionCredit: Everett
Pulp Fiction is the second of nine movies Tarantino has written and directed. His movies are well known for their inclusion of profanity — in 2019, the Dallas Observer charted every swear word featured throughout each of his films — and his use of the N-word, particularly in 2012's Django Unchained and 2015's The Hateful Eight, has remained controversial over the years. (According to Dallas Observer, the N-word is said 110 times in Django Unchained and roughly 47 times in The Hateful Eight.)
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Quentin Tarantino on Nov. 19, 2025Credit: Frazer Harrison/Getty
Samuel L. Jackson, who appears in six of Tarantino's nine movies (including Pulp Fiction, Django Unchained and The Hateful Eight), has consistently defended Tarantino from criticism. He described controversy regarding Django Unchained as "some bulls---" in a 2019 interview with Esquire.
He also said that the notion that Tarantino only uses racist language in his movies to be provocative is "not true" in a documentary titled QT8: The First Eight, per a 2022 Variety article. "There’s no dishonesty in anything that [Tarantino] writes or how people talk, feel or speak [in his movies]," Jackson said at that time.
Arquette also told The Sunday Times that she never received any percentage of Pulp Fiction's box office success, for which she blamed disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein, who produced the movie. (Dozens of women, including Arquette, have brought allegations of sexual misconduct against Weinstein over the years: he is currently serving a criminal sentence for his 2022 convictions for sex crimes charges in California.)
“I’m the only person who didn’t get a back end [a share of the takings]. Everybody made money except me," she said.
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Source: “AOL Entertainment”
