Tom Waits Auditioned for Reservoir Dogs, Says Quentin Tarantino

Yesterday, at the Tribeca Film Festival, Quentin Tarantino, Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen and Steve Buscemi sat down to discuss their cult hit Reservoir Dogs in celebration of the film’s 25th anniversary. As Variety reports, the panel revealed some fascinating facts about the film. Tarantino, for instance, revealed that Tom Waits auditioned for the film—Tarantino had Waits read the foul-mouthed, film-opening Madonna speech that Tarantino ended up delivering himself. Tarantino further said that Waits was one of the first to call the script “poetic.”

Tarantino also opened up about the film’s mixed reception—apparently, the film saw walkouts even at the Sitges Horror Film Festival, where longtime horror director Wes Craven (of Scream, The Hills Have Eyes and A Nightmare On Elm Street fame) walked out.

Waits, for his part, has an on-and-off acting career made up mostly of cameos. Before Reservoir Dogs, he did, however, find himself in a few Francis Ford Coppola joints, including Rumble Fish and The Cotton Club. He also has an Oscar nomination for Best Original Musical for 1983’s One From the Heart. Watch the aforementioned Reservoir Dogs scene below (and imagine Waits in it), listen to Paste Cloud audio of a 1977 Tom Waits show beneath that and read Paste’s top seven non-musical Tom Waits moments here.