Quentin Tarantino reveals the “Inglourious Basterds” star he fired and then rehired

Derek LawrenceFri, November 13, 2026 at 9:20 PM UTC

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Quentin Tarantino; Brad Pitt in ‘Inglourious Basterds’Credit: Kevin Winter/Getty; Francois DuhamelKey Points -

Quentin Tarantino says he initially fired Mélanie Laurent from Inglourious Basterds.

The French actress won him back over and was recast as Shoshanna.

Tarantino did permanently move on from Isabelle Huppert.

Quentin Tarantino has revealed the Inglourious Basterds star whom he fired after a “terrible” table read.

In the 2009 Oscar-winning film, Mélanie Laurent gave a standout performance as Shoshanna, a young Jewish woman whose family was killed by a high-ranking Nazi, Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz), prompting her to flee to France. It is there she was reunited with Landa, who doesn’t recognize her, and begins to plot the assassination of Adolf Hitler (Martin Wuttke).

The film was almost much different, however, as the French actress was originally cut loose by Tarantino.

“Mélanie Laurent’s table read was terrible,” Tarantino shared in Jay Glennie’s new book The Making of Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds, according to PEOPLE. “It wasn’t good enough to be terrible ... The most exciting day of preproduction for me is the table read. That is the closest I get to seeing the movie for the first time. Well, Mélanie was terrible, so I fired her.”

Mélanie Laurent in ‘Inglourious Basterds’Credit: Everett

Laurent refused to give up that easily, insisting that she didn’t feel well on the day. She called and told Tarantino that she was going to fly herself to Germany and wait until he would see her again, even threatening to still show up on set. He agreed to “return to square one” and go through three days of rehearsal to prove that “she was his Shoshanna.” And she was.

“I love Mélanie,” the director said. “If we were not talking about the making of Inglourious Basterds, I would never think about the table read again for the simple reason Mélanie is my Shosanna. She did a wonderful job.”

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Isabelle Huppert on Sept. 29, 2026 in Paris, FranceCredit: Julien Hekimian/Getty

It wasn’t the same happy ending for the Oscar-nominated actress who was originally cast as Shoshanna’s aunt. Tarantino picked Isabelle Huppert to portray Madame Ada Mimieux, the French woman who takes in Shoshanna and passes down her movie theater upon her death. Huppert wasn’t terrible at the table read... she just wasn’t there.

“She didn’t show up, so f--- it. I fired her,” Tarantino claimed. “I mean, I love Isabelle Huppert — Heaven’s Gate and all that — but there were issues with her contract. It just kept stalling ... As far as I’m concerned, if you’re cast and you are not at that table, I don’t owe you jack s---! You can be fired, especially if I get excited by what somebody else did in your absence.”

Hong Kong star Maggie Cheung then replaced Huppert, only for the role to be cut from the final version of the film.

“I have no moral compass when it comes to giving roles to actors: They have to be right,” Tarantino further explained. “They have to feel like they are right for the world I have created. I don’t owe them s---. I owe my film the best actors I can find. Period.”

Entertainment Weekly has reached out to Laurent and Huppert’s representatives for comment.

on Entertainment Weekly

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