Tim Roth: Don't fall asleep on a Quentin Tarantino set

Beware of Big Jerry

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Photo: Jon Pack/NBC

Quentin Tarantino movies stand out for their cartoonish violence, colorful dialogue, and fearless handling of touchy subjects. According to Tim Roth, who’s worked with Tarantino since Reservoir Dogs and currently stars in The Hateful Eight, those aren’t the only things that separate a Tarantino film from other movies. Roth explained to Seth Meyers on Thursday that there are different rules on a Tarantino set. Most notably, cell phones aren’t allowed, and neither is falling asleep. Failure to comply can lead to disastrous consequences. In the latter case, it means facing the wrath of “Big Jerry.”

“If you fall asleep on set, the camera crew are ready for you,” Roth said. “They’ve got Big Jerry in a bag. Big Jerry is a dildo that’s about that big. It’s purple, I think. If you fall asleep, they put it into photographs with you and you go on a Board of Shame.”

Resistance to Big Jerry is futile, Roth said. Fighting against such a picture only makes things worse.

“If you take that photo down angrily, it gets bigger,” Roth said. “Eventually what they do is— I think this happened onDjango Unchained, where somebody got so furious about this picture they put it all on T-shirts, and the whole crew was wearing them.”

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The phone rule is also enforced, though a little less drastically. That’s up to Checkpoint Charlie.

“Checkpoint Charlie is a huge deal. You have to hand in your phone,” Roth said. “The guy’s name is Spencer, bless him. He sat in a pickup truck on the side of a mountain in Colorado, and was growing a beard. That was it. His beard just got longer and longer. His job was to take people’s phones and charge them, and then give them back.”

Watch the clip below.

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