Pulp Fiction's Most Disturbing Scene Scared Off This Actor
Pulp Fiction may be one of the most perfectly cast movies ever made — but at least one actor flat-out refused to even read for it.
The role? Marsellus Wallace, the tough, mysterious crime boss eventually played by Ving Rhames. The actor who turned it down? Max Julien — blaxploitation legend and star of The Mack. Quentin Tarantino wanted him in the room. Julien wanted nothing to do with it.
Why? You can probably guess. That basement scene. You know the one.
As Samuel L. Jackson told Vanity Fair, Julien didn't just say no — he wouldn't even entertain it.
"Max Julien wasn't going to do that. He's The Mack. He's Goldie. He's like, 'No, I don't think my fans want to see that.'"
And that was that. No audition, no callback, no dice.
Meanwhile, Ving Rhames said yes — and crushed it.
"Because of the way I look, I don't ever get the opportunity to play vulnerable people," he explained.
So while Julien couldn't imagine letting his cool, untouchable image take that kind of hit, Rhames saw a rare chance to subvert expectations. And it paid off.
Julien wasn't the only one who turned Tarantino down. Laurence Fishburne famously passed on the role of Jules Winnfield — which became a career-redefining moment for Jackson — and Mickey Rourke said no, too. But here's the thing: those guys were offered roles outright. Julien? He got asked to audition. And said no way.
To be fair, it's not like Tarantino didn't have studio pressure. The suits were pushing him to cast big names like Johnny Depp or even Daniel Day-Lewis. He ignored them. He had a vision, and when Matt Dillon hesitated too long on a part, he got the boot, too.
In the end, everything clicked. Rhames brought the perfect mix of menace and vulnerability to Marsellus Wallace. Julien stuck to his image. And Pulp Fiction became a cultural earthquake without him.