When Quentin Tarantino was a 12-year-old aspiring filmmaker, he vowed to never share his fortune with his mother.
The Academy Award-winning movie director and screenwriter stuck to his promise. Connie Zastoupil has never reaped the benefits of his success.
Tarantino, 58, explained the backstory on a recent episode of “The Moment” podcast, which is hosted by “Billions” co-creator Brian Koppelman.
“My mom was bitching at me about [writing screenplays] ... and then in the middle of her little tirade, she said, ‘Oh, and by the way, this little writing career’ — with the finger quotes and everything — ‘This little writing career that you’re doing? That s--- is over,’” Tarantino recalled. “I go, ‘OK lady, when I become a successful writer, you will never see one penny from my success. There will be no house for you. There’s no vacation for you, no Elvis Cadillac for mommy. You get nothing. Because you said that.’”
Tarantino said he once helped his mother when she got into “a jam with the IRS,” but that’s the only time he’s opened his wallet for her.
“There are consequences for your words as you deal with your children,” Tarantino declared. “Remember there are consequences for your sarcastic tone about what’s meaningful to them.”
In 1994, Zastoupil revealed that her son used to write her “sad Mother’s Day stories" to commemorate the holiday.
“He’d always kill me and tell me how bad he felt about it,” Zastoupil told Entertainment Weekly at the time. “It was enough to bring a tear to a mother’s eye.”
Tarantino and his wife, Israeli singer Daniella Pick, are parents to an 18-month-old son named Leo.
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