“I’ve been doing it for 30 years, and it’s time to wrap up the show. You know, it’s…I’ve done it, I’ve given my whole life to it. And you know, I didn’t start a family until late in life,” Tarantino said. “I don’t want to become this old man who’s out of touch… already I’m feeling a bit like an old man out of touch when it comes to the current movies that are out right now. And that’s what happens. That’s exactly what happens.”
On the timing, the Academy Award-winning filmmaker explained that he wants to leave while he is still on top and his fans care about his work.
In his words, “I’ve always kind of equated if you’re doing movies on, you know, on the level that I’ve been doing. Actually the level I’ve been allowed to do. It’s, I equate it to mountain climbing, and so this movie is my Mount Everest, and this movie is Kilimanjaro, and this movie is Fuji. And I’ve spent all that time on the mountain and I’m an entertainer. I want to leave you wanting more.”
While Tarantino plans to quit with his next project, he has no idea what the last one will be about or when it will be released.
“I’m also not in a giant hurry to make my last movie either,” he told Wallace. “So I’ve got my book, I’m doing a few other things and then I’ll figure out what the next movie will be.”
The iconic filmmaker also shared his views on the current state of the movie industry which is being disrupted by streaming services, leaving theatres in distress as more people prefer to watch their movies in the comfort of their homes.
“Right now, I don’t even know what a movie is. Is that something that plays on Netflix? Is that something that plays on Amazon and everyone want and people watch it on their couch with their wife or their husband? Is that a movie? Because my last movie opened up in 3000 theaters and played all over the world for a couple of months,” he said. “Now the thing is, I don’t have the answer to that question, but I don’t think anybody else does either. I think it remains to be seen situation and so by that time I’ll know what movies even are a few years from now.”
This is not the first time Tarantino has talked about retiring. While promoting his last film, ‘Once Upon a Time in… Hollywood’ in 2019, he said, “I kind of like the idea of making 10 motion pictures and then, boom, that’s it, that’s done. The filmography is locked and there you go.”
He added that he does not plan to go away completely, revealing that he would continue to write after retiring.
“I’m not saying that I’ll just disappear like J.D. Salinger (the reclusive author of ‘Catcher in the Rye’),” he said.
Tarantino has written and directed a total of nine films, counting the ‘Kill Bill Vol. One and Two’ as one project, since he entered the movie industry in 1992 with “Reservoir Dogs.”
He has won two Oscars for writing and at least one Academy Award for every movie he has directed since the 2007 action/thriller ‘Death Proof.’
