Quentin Tarantino revealed the best character he’s ever written as Hans Landa from 2009’s Inglourious Basterds. Attending the Jerusalem Film Festival, Tarantino told the audience that Colonel Landa is his number one character.
“Landa is the best character I’ve ever written and maybe the best I ever will write. I didn’t realise that he was a linguistic genius. He’s probably one of the only Nazis in history who could speak perfect Yiddish.”
Tarantino further revealed that he had trouble casting Landa and almost scrapped the film if he could not find the right fit. Luckily, Christoph Waltz came to the rescue. Tarantino remembers, “getting worried. Unless I found the perfect Landa, I was going to pull the movie. I gave myself one more week and then I was going to pull the plug. Then Christoph Waltz came in and it was obvious that he was the guy; he could do everything. He was amazing, he gave us our movie back.”
The festival awarded Tarantino a lifetime achievement award for his cinematic contributions, along with him hosting a screening of Pulp Fiction.
