John Travolta landed Pulp Fiction by playing board games, doing Quentin Tarantino's finances

It might seem like Vincent Vega was a role tailor-made for John Travolta, what with the dancing and all.

But before he signed on to star in Pulp Fiction, Travolta spent a transformative day with writer-director Quentin Tarantino. It began when Travolta realized that Tarantino was living in his former Hollywood apartment...and got weirder from there.

During the Turner Classic Movies film festival's opening night 30th anniversary screening of the film, Travolta — joined by costars Uma Thurman, Harvey Keitel, and Samuel L. Jackson — reminisced about the meeting that rejuvenated his career.

"I spent almost 24 hours with Quentin initially because I got a call from an agent that said, 'There's a young new director, who made Reservoir Dogs, and he's desperate to meet you. You're his favorite actor and he wants to do something with you,'" Travolta recalled during the conversation with TCM host Ben Mankiewicz. "So I went to this apartment on 1236 Crescent Heights Boulevard in Hollywood, and I said, 'This is very familiar.' And I knocked on his door and I said, 'Don't say a word. If you go left, it's the living room and the kitchen is attached. If you go right, it's a bedroom.' He said, 'How do you know that?' I said, 'I used to live here.' So, we were off and running."

The meeting was an opportunity for Tarantino to fulfill a lifelong fantasy: play board games based on several of Travolta's most famous projects with the man himself. "It was the Saturday Night Fever game, the Grease Game, the Welcome Back Kotter Game," he said. "Then Quentin said, 'If we play it, just once in a while, I want you to throw out a line that you would've said, "You've got nose with a rubber hose." But don't tell me when you're going to do it.'"

Travolta even struck his signature Saturday Night Fever disco pose as he explained how the game featured that iconic dance move as part of the spinning wheel's arrow.

After their games, Travolta also decided to do a bit of a check-in on Tarantino, who was still a young and struggling creative. "I thought, 'Okay, I don't know this boy, but I need to know how he's doing financially,'" he recalled. "So I went through his finances with him. I said, 'Okay, now you're an up-and-coming artist. You have to have some reserves. Tell me how much you have.'" And I went through his whole accounting, and I felt a little better after that."

Little did Travolta know that gesture would solidify him as Vincent Vega in Tarantino's mind. At the time, Tarantino was tossing around both From Dusk Till Dawn, which he co-wrote, and Pulp Fiction. He pitched both to Travolta, who gravitated much more strongly to Pulp.

"A week later, he offered me the role of Vincent," Travolta concluded. "And I said, 'Why? What did you see in me that could convince you that I could play this role?' He said, 'It was you helping me with my finances. You had this analytical, theoretical, philosophical viewpoint that I need for that character.' He said, 'I want him to be thoughtful about whatever he's gone through.' And that was it."

The annual TCM Classic Film Festival runs April 18-21.

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