This scene came pretty close to featuring a dancing Daniel Day-Lewis.
Travolta’s career was six feet under when Quentin Tarantino was shopping Pulp Fiction around. Tarantino had Travolta as a non-negotiable but Harvey Weinstein wanted anyone but. ‘The entire list [of demands] is approved … except for John Travolta. I can get Daniel Day-Lewis, Sean Penn, William Hurt.’
Mike Simpson, Tarantino’s agent, shared more in a Vanity Fair feature from 2013. “At midnight our time, three in the morning in New York, Harvey said, ‘Let’s just close the deal, and we’ll address that tomorrow in good faith.’” Simpson told him, ‘You’re going to agree to it right now, or there’s no deal. You’ve got 15 seconds to agree to it. If I hang up, it’s over.’ “Harvey kept talking, arguing, and I said, ‘O.K., 15, 14.’ When I got to eight, Harvey says, ‘O.K., f– it.’”
When Weinstein later saw the finished film in Los Angeles, he announced, 20 minutes in, “I’m so glad I had the idea to cast John Travolta.” Simpson gives the benefit of the doubt that he was being facetious.
The diner is Jack Rabbit Slim’s.
The music is the late, great Chuck Berry.