Quentin Tarantino’s foot fetish explained: A history of his obsession with feet

Quentin Tarantino is inarguably one of the best directors of his generation, with almost universal acclaim throughout his movie career.

With nine movies under his belt, Tarantino has said he plans to make one more movie and then retire from directing. Fans will miss out on a lot when this happens, not the least of which is Tarantino’s obsession with feet.

Here is a look at Quentin Tarantino’s foot fetish in his movie career.

Mia Wallace in Pulp Fiction

Quentin Tarantino’s first movie was Reservoir Dogs, and it was a straight-up heist movie. However, his second movie was his breakout hit and the one that made him a mainstream success.

Pulp Fiction followed a pair of hitmen and told a series of interconnected tales. It was also where Tarantino started his obsession with camera shots focusing on a person’s feet.

There are two major instances where Uma Thurman’s Mia Wallace is shown barefoot, with the camera focused on her feet. One of these is when she is first introduced and is dancing with her feet as the main focus of the shot.

There is also a great conversation between Jules (Samuel L. Jackson) and Vincent Vega (John Travolta) about Mia’s feet. In the story, a man gave her a foot massage so her husband, Marcellus Wallace, threw the man off a building.

Vincent put it straight when he said: “I’ve given a million ladies a million foot massages and they all meant something, but we act like they don’t but they do. And that’s what’s so cool fu**in’ cool about them.”

Jackie Brown

In Jackie Brown, the feet that the camera focused on the most was the character of Melanie (Bridget Fonda). Often the camera focuses on her from the angle of her feet up to her face, with the feet in the front focus of the screen.

Fonda’s feet are also very noticeable as she wears jewelry on her toes, making it impossible not to notice Tarantino’s obsession with feet.

This was around the same time where Tarantino was in a film directed by his buddy Robert Rodriguez called From Dusk Till Dawn. In this film, he got his biggest moment when Salma Hayek put her foot in his mouth.

Kill Bill

Uma Thurman was back in Kill Bill as The Bride, seeking revenge on the people who ruined her wedding by killing her groom and the entire wedding party,  leaving her for dead.

At one point, The Bride is in the hospital and is trying to get her body to work again. Much of this scene shows her trying to walk and the entire scene focuses on her feet.

What is humorous is that Thurman said Tarantino denies a foot fetish in his films.

“Well, it started in Pulp Fiction with that foot massage speech,” Thurman told the Irish Examiner. “He denies his foot fetish, but he’s accused of it regularly. I don’t think it’s me in particular. Many people commented during Kill Bill that he could release a whole version entirely on the foot-shots that he took of all the actors, shoed, un-shoed.”

Inglourious Basterds

Another actress that got a big shot of her feet in Tarantino’s films was Diane Kruger in Inglourious Basterds.

She said that she asked him about it but he denied it, saying it was all something that the media made up about him.

“Six close-ups later on my foot and not on my face, and I say, ‘Sure, sure thing, Quentin’,” Krueger explained to SheKnows. “So, I don’t know. You ask him.”

Krueger also said that Tarantino made sure she had a pedicure and her foot never looked better.

Death Proof

In Death Proof, Quentin Tarantino’s section of Grindhouse, he went one step further.

There was one scene where Stuntman Mike (Kurt Russell) was licking Abethany’s (Rosario Dawson) feet. That was par for course, but what was even more shocking was when Jungle Julia got her leg chopped off and it flew out of the car, feet first.

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

Even with Tarantino’s last film, the foot fetish was still evident and upfront.

This time it was two actresses who got their feet showcased in Margot Robbie (Sharon Tate) and Margaret Quallet (Pussycat).

The case with Tate was the only moment that really needed the constant closeups on the feet, as Sharon Tate.

“Sharon [Tate] apparently hated wearing shoes and she would sometimes put rubber bands around her ankles to make it look like she was wearing sandals so she could get into restaurants,” Robbie told the Hollywood Reporter. “I feel the same! I’m a Gold Coast girl. You can get away going to most places barefoot.”

However, when it comes to Qualley, she was a little leery about the entire idea of her feet being the center of attention.

“I genuinely was like, ‘Quentin, this is a bad idea. I don’t have good feet,'” Qualley told IndieWire. “I’m genuinely telling you these are not good feet, look at these. I know I’m self-deprecating, but I’m not being in this particular instance.

“I used to actually be pretty mortified with my feet,” she said. “Maybe I can finally just give up that now.”