Quentin Tarantino fired Mélanie Laurent from Inglourious Basterds after her table read, then gave her the role back after 3 days of rehearsal. “Well, Mélanie was terrible, so I fired her.”
Laurent offered to pay for her own flight back to Germany and a hotel after Tarantino cut her from the film. She wanted another chance to play Shosanna Dreyfus, the French cinema owner whose family was killed by a Nazi officer.
Tarantino recounts the reversal in Jay Glennie’s book The Making of Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds. He said the cast’s table read is his first chance to hear the movie come together beyond his own readings of the script. Laurent’s performance prompted him to drop her before filming began.
Laurent called him days later, explaining that she’d been unwell during the read and offering to return at her own expense. Her determination persuaded him to reconsider. He agreed to work with her for 3 days of rehearsal, after which she won back the role.
“Let me just go on the record for everybody to know: I love Mélanie,” Tarantino said. “She did a wonderful job.” He said he’d have no reason to revisit the firing outside a book examining the film’s production history.
Another casting decision stayed final. Tarantino said Isabelle Huppert missed the table read while her contract negotiations were stalled. He replaced her with Maggie Cheung as Madame Ada Mimieux, who gives Shosanna shelter in Paris.
Cheung’s scenes were eventually removed, too. Tarantino said her performance was strong, but the explanation of how Shosanna came to own the cinema was unnecessary. The finished film handled it with a time jump and Shosanna saying she’d inherited the property from her aunt.
The 2009 film premiered at Cannes that May, where Christoph Waltz won best actor, and reached theaters in August. It earned $321 million worldwide.
