“I thought it was a cool story,” the “Say Anything” star said of the Oscar-winning crime film.

John Cusack says he met with Quentin Tarantino about being in Pulp Fiction but was never offered a role

“I thought it was a cool story,” the “Say Anything” star said of the Oscar-winning crime film.

By Wesley Stenzel

Wesley Stenzel

Wesley Stenzel is a news writer at **. He began writing for EW in 2022.

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September 29, 2026 6:00 p.m. ET

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John Cusack in San Diego, Calif., on July 24, 2026; Quentin Tarantino in ‘Pulp Fiction’. Credit:

Katie Jones/Variety via Getty; Miramax Films/Courtesy Everett

- John Cusack reflected on the rumors that he was considered for a key role in *Pulp Fiction*.

- The *Say Anything* actor remembered meeting with Quentin Tarantino to discuss the film.

- Cusack also recalled his time working on *The Thin Red Line*.

John Cusack has several generation-defining classics in his filmography — and he almost added another one to the list in the mid-‘90s.

The *High Fidelity* star reflected on the rumor that he was originally in the running to appear in *Pulp Fiction* as Lance, the robe-wearing drug dealer ultimately portrayed by his *Say Anything* costar Eric Stoltz.

Cusack confirmed that he discussed the project with writer-director Quentin Tarantino.

“I do remember meeting with him about that movie,” he said during an interview with *Happy Sad Confused*. “We went to a Denny’s and he basically told me the whole story of the movie.”

Eric Stoltz in ‘Pulp Fiction’.

Miramax/Courtesy Everett

The *Grosse Pointe Blank* actor said that Tarantino acted out the whole movie for him in the restaurant, and then moved on to another topic. “He was telling me about how cool his new TV and screening room were and his projectors and stuff,” he recalled. “And he was kind of geeking out on that stuff.”

Cusack remembered thinking *Pulp Fiction* had potential, but he never heard more about it. “I thought it was a cool story, but I never got it offered or turned it down,” he explained.

The *Being John Malkovich* actor also discussed appearing in 1998’s *The Thin Red Line*, which featured an all-star cast of performers who weren’t entirely sure how big their roles would be in the final cut of the movie because of director Terrence Malick’s unpredictable editing style.

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“I knew I wasn’t the lead, but I knew that because of the way he was shooting it and the nature of the novel, that the only linear part of the story is, ‘Captain Gaff’ — me and Nick Nolte — ‘go get that hill,’” he explained. “Everything else was like a river that could go anywhere, you know? It was just like a three-hour tone poem, so I knew that part would stay in, but yeah, that was great, working with [Malick]. Great working with Nick Nolte, too, who was another [example of] getting to work with your heroes.”

John Cusack in San Diego, Calif., on July 24, 2026.

Katie Jones/Variety via Getty

Elsewhere in the interview, Cusack set the record straight about a rumor that he turned down another notable project.

“Some of those things are so weird, because there was this whole riff that I had turned down Walter White,” he said, referring to *Breaking Bad*‘s iconic protagonist. “And I never, ever remembered that, and I was like, ‘Did that happen and I blacked it out? Did I lose time?’”

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Cusack asked the show’s creator directly after hearing the rumors.“I met Vince Gilligan in New York, and I was like, ‘Hey, man, I love your show, it’s awesome. I gotta know, everyone is saying you offered me that — did you offer me that?’” he remembered asking. “He was like, ‘No.’ I was like, ‘Thank you, Vince!’”

Original Article on Source

Source: “EW Crime”