Quentin Tarantino wants to be remembered for his characters, defends the many “rip-offs” (2025)

Name any of Quentin Tarantino’s nine films and you’ve got a genuine task of deciding who the best character is. OK, so Hans Landa has no competition in Inglourious Basterds, but by and large that holds. And it’s these characters – the Landas, the Vegas, the Candies, the Winnfields, the Booths – that Tarantino most wants to be remembered for.

Appearing at the Cannes Film Festival last month – which Tarantino had the honor of opening – the director said that he’s less concerned about the overall films being remembered for generations but rather the characters, as that’s what he has become most proud of. “I hope when I sail off this mortal coil, I hope that the things people remember the most about my movies are my characters. Not so much the scenarios because the scenarios are more or less…They’re genre movies…They’re more or less genre scenarios that I twist and turn in a few different ways. But the characters…I hope the characters live on, my creation of my characters.”

The only problem with Tarantino writing such damn good characters is the wave of wannabes that hit the scene in the ‘90s and 2000s. We’re talking Guy Ritchie and Grosse Pointe Blank and Things to Do in Denver… and 2 Days in the Valley and Go and on and on. And while the flood was plenty embarrassing at times, QT took most of them as a compliment. “I’m always thrilled. I mean, some people get touchy about that. I like it. It means my work has meant something…I have seen sometimes where people have knocked off something but for the most part, it’s usually out of enthusiasm. They’re taking their homages or they’re taking my inspiration and they’re finding their own way but they want to take along with them what they like.” Tarantino would go on to cite the likes of Brian De Palma and Sergio Leone – two directors he has been accused of “ripping off” in the past – before noting that he, like those men, clearly has a legacy he is leaving behind.

We still don’t know what Quentin Tarantino’s 10th and final film will be, but it’s almost a guarantee that he’ll be giving us some even more memorable characters to conclude his directing career. Elsewhere, one of his greatest, Cliff Booth from Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, will be the star of David Fincher’s next film.

Who is your favorite character in Quentin Tarantino’s oeuvre? Share your top 3 below!