Rosanna Arquette, who appeared in Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction as Jody, the wife of Eric Stoltz’s drug dealer character Lance, is speaking out against the director’s repeated use of the N word in his films.
In a new interview with The Times, Arquette praised Pulp Fiction as “iconic” but admitted she has long been uncomfortable with its language.
“Personally I am over the use of the N word — I hate it,” she said. “I cannot stand that he has been given a hall pass. It’s not art, it’s just racist and creepy.”
Arquette’s remarks add to a chorus of voices who have criticized Tarantino’s vocabulary over the years.
Spike Lee famously condemned the director’s use of the slur in Jackie Brown (1997), telling Variety, “Quentin is infatuated with that word. What does he want to be made — an honorary Black man?”
In 2022, filmmaker Lee Daniels echoed similar concerns, saying Tarantino had no right to use the word, “Ten years ago, 15 years ago … I would’ve checked it off as artistic. But ‘n—–’ is our word. That’s my word. And you have no right to say that.”
Tarantino himself has defended his scripts, particularly Django Unchained (2012), which used the slur dozens of times.
