“Pulp Fiction”'s Rosanna Arquette blasts Quentin Tarantino's use of N-word in films: 'It's not art, it's just racist'
“Pulp Fiction”'s Rosanna Arquette blasts Quentin Tarantino's use of N-word in films: 'It's not art, it's just racist'
Wesley StenzelSat, March 7, 2026 at 10:08 PM UTC
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Quentin Tarantino in 'Pulp Fiction'Credit: Miramax Films
Rosanna Arquette has one major issue with Quentin Tarantino's vocabulary.
The Desperately Seeking Susan actress, who appeared in Pulp Fiction as the wife of the drug dealer played by Eric Stoltz, said that she doesn't think the filmmaker should have used racist language in the 1994 classic.
"It's iconic, a great film on a lot of levels," Arquette said of Pulp Fiction in an interview with U.K. outlet The Times. "But personally I am over the use of the N-word — I hate it."
Rosanna Arquette in New York City on Feb. 9, 2026Credit: Gary Gershoff/Getty
Arquette doesn't appreciate that Tarantino has continued to use the slur throughout his filmography. "I cannot stand that he [Tarantino] has been given a hall pass," she said. "It's not art, it's just racist and creepy."
Entertainment Weekly has reached out to representatives for Tarantino for comment.
Arquette is not the first to criticize Tarantino for using the N-word in his movies. Spike Lee publicly slammed the Reservoir Dogs filmmaker after the slur was used dozens of times in his 1997 movie Jackie Brown.
"I'm not against the word," Lee told Variety. "And I use it, but not excessively. And some people speak that way. But, Quentin is infatuated with that word. What does he want to be made — an honorary Black man?"
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Lee added, "I want Quentin to know that all African-Americans do not think that word is trendy or slick."
Rosanna Arquette in 'Pulp Fiction'Credit: Miramax/courtesy Everett Collection
The Butler filmmaker Lee Daniels shared similar sentiments in a 2022 interview with CNN. "10 years ago, 15 years ago, I would've said, I would've checked it off as artistic," he said of Tarantino's use of the slur. "But n---- is our word. That's my word. And you have no right to say that."
Tarantino received more criticism for using the N-word numerous times in his Oscar-winning screenplay for 2012's Django Unchained. Following his Oscar win, the filmmaker defended using the word in the press room at the awards ceremony.
"If somebody is out there actually saying when it comes to the word n-----, the fact that I was using it in the movie more than it was being used in the antebellum south in Mississippi, then feel free to make that case," he said. "But no one's actually making that case. They are saying I should lie, that I should whitewash, that I should massage, and I never do that when it comes to my characters."
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Samuel L. Jackson, who appeared in both Pulp Fiction and Django (as well as several other Tarantino projects) has also defended the filmmaker's use of the slur.
"You can't just tell a writer he can't talk, write the words, put the words in the mouths of the people from their ethnicities, the way that they use their words," he told Esquire in 2019. "You cannot do that, because then it becomes an untruth; it's not honest. It's just not honest. And half the time, too, there are other ways. And I generally add like at least five n----s to what Quentin has already written."
on Entertainment Weekly
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
