Reservoir Dogs has become a classic of independent cinema as well as one of Quentin Tarantino’s best works, but the production of Reservoir Dogs came across a couple of obstacles and issues, the biggest one being a fight between Tarantino and a cast member, who ended up being fired. Quentin Tarantino has earned a place in film history thanks to his visual and narrative style as well as the big amounts of violence and blood in each of his movies, which have also drawn a lot of controversy. Tarantino’s career as a filmmaker began in 1992 with Reservoir Dogs, which introduced the audience to his peculiar style.
Reservoir Dogs is a crime movie that followed a group of thieves with nicknames based on colors and whose planned heist of a jewelry store goes terribly wrong – and to further complicate it all, there’s an undercover cop among them. This team is assembled and led by crime boss Joe Cabot (Lawrence Tierney) and his son Eddie “Nice Guy” Cabot (Chris Penn), and is formed by Mr. White (Harvey Keitel), Mr. Orange (Tim Roth), Mr. Blonde (Michael Madsen), Mr. Pink (Steve Buscemi), Mr. Blue (Edward Bunker), and Mr. Brown (Tarantino).
As mentioned above, Reservoir Dogs is now regarded as a classic of independent cinema and a cult movie, and while it wasn’t a box office hit, it was (and still is) praised by critics. However, the production of Reservoir Dogs didn’t go smoothly, as Tarantino, the cast, and the crew had to deal with Lawrence Tierney, who was a problematic presence on set, so much so that Tarantino ended up firing him.
What Happened To Lawrence Tierney After Reservoir Dogs
Joe Cabot was a crime boss and the mastermind behind the heist that went wrong at the beginning of Reservoir Dogs, and he was the one who put together the team, recruiting different criminals whose skills would be useful for the robbery. Cabot was a long-time friend of Mr. White, Blonde, and Pink, but the botched heist created so much tension and distrust among the team that Joe, Eddie, and White ended up in a Mexican standoff where both Joe and Eddie were killed. Cabot was played by Lawrence Tierney, who was best known for playing mobsters, so Joe Cabot was a fitting role – unfortunately, Tierney was a difficult person to deal with. In an interview with The Guardian, Tarantino shared that they decided to shoot Tierney’s scenes first because he “was a complete lunatic by that time” and “was personally challenging to every aspect of filmmaking”. Tarantino recalls that, by the end of that first week of shooting Reservoir Dogs, they “had a blow out and got into a fist fight”, which led to Tarantino firing Tierney and the crew burst into applause as “everybody on set hated Tierney”.
After that, Tarantino thought he was going to get fired by the studio, but Harvey Keitel intervened and assured the studio everything would be fine, so production of Reservoir Dogs continued. Unfortunately, Tierney had a reputation for being difficult to work with and being aggressive, and in July 1991, during the filming of Reservoir Dogs, Tierney shot at his nephew in a drunken rage and was arrested and bailed, and was released for a day from jail to continue filming his scenes. Between this and his attitude on set, Tarantino never worked with him again. After Reservoir Dogs, Tierney appeared in Eddie Presley and Junior, but after suffering a mild stroke in 1995, his career slowed down, and his final acting role was a small part in the 1999 independent movie Evicted. Tierney retired from acting at age 80, and two years later, in 2002, he passed away. Lawrence Tierney definitely made Joe Cabot a man to be feared, and even though his attitude on set made the cast and crew uncomfortable, Quentin Tarantino surely learned a lot from that specific experience.