Rosanna Arquette is speaking out about the language used in Pulp Fiction, saying she takes issue with director Quentin Tarantino repeatedly using the N-word in his films.
In a recent interview with The Times, Arquette reflected on the legacy of the 1994 classic while acknowledging its cultural impact. The actress, who played the wife of a drug dealer in the film, said she still considers the movie influential but feels uncomfortable with the racial slur appearing throughout Tarantino’s work.
“It’s iconic, a great film on a lot of levels,” Arquette said. “But personally I am over the use of the N-word.”
The actress also questioned why Tarantino has largely avoided sustained criticism for including the slur across multiple films in his career.
“I cannot stand that he has been given a hall pass,” she said, adding that she doesn’t view the repeated usage as artistic expression. “It's not art, it's just racist and creepy."
Representatives for Tarantino did not immediately respond to requests for comment regarding Arquette’s remarks.
Debate around the director’s use of the N-word has followed his work for decades. Tarantino’s scripts, including those for Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown, and Django Unchained, feature characters who use the word frequently, a choice the filmmaker has defended as part of authentic dialogue.
The criticism is not new, though. Spike Lee publicly challenged Tarantino’s use of the word in the 1990s, saying at the time that the director appeared overly focused on it and questioning whether it was necessary for storytelling.
Filmmaker Lee Daniels has also raised concerns about the practice, arguing that the term carries cultural weight that should not be treated casually in film.
At the same time, some actors who have worked closely with Tarantino have defended his approach. Samuel L. Jackson, a frequent collaborator who appeared in both Pulp Fiction and Django Unchained, has previously said that restricting writers from depicting how characters realistically speak would compromise storytelling.