Miramax
During a recent appearance on Tom Segura and Bert Kreischer’s 2 Bears, 1 Cave podcast, acclaimed director Quentin Tarantino revealed that a Pulp Fiction studio exec wanted Johnny Depp to be cast as Pumpkin, the bookending role that was ultimately played by Tim Roth.
The director went on to reveal that when he put forward his names, the studio questioned why he wanted Roth over Depp for the role, and would not offer Roth the role until others had turned it down. In response, Tarantino asked them:
“‘Do you think Johnny Depp playing the role of Pumpkin in this movie, which is the opening scene and the closing scene that’s it, do you think that will add that much to the box office?’” [NME via 2 Bears, 1 Cave Podcast]
Roth, of course, has been one of Tarantino’s most frequent collaborators as he also starred in his feature film debut Reservoir Dogs, and in 2015’s The Hateful Eight.
Depp isn’t the only A-lister to *almost* be cast in Pulp Fiction, as Tarantino had a famously massively and detailed list of all the actors he thought could be potential fits for the parts in the film. It’s understandable that the studio wanted to cast Depp, who was coming off films such as Edward Scissorhands and What’s Eating Gilbert Grape.
For example, among the names considered for Vincent (eventually played by John Travolta) were Alec Baldwin, Gary Oldman, Michael Keaton, Andy Garcia, Dennis Quaid, and Denzel Washington.
Additionally, as Tarantino mentioned, Johnny Depp was Tarantino’s second choice for Pumpkin, who was played by Tim Roth. Christian Slater, Gary Oldman, Nick Cage, and John Cusack were also options for the role.