Iconic 90s Star Could Have Played Bill in Kill Bill, According to Tarantino Himself

Quentin Tarantino is known as a director who never makes mistakes in choosing actors for his films, and the Kill Bill is another proof of that.

More surprising is the fact that the director couldn't decide until the last minute who would play Bill, one of the most important characters of the film series. It turns out that not only David Carradine, who eventually got the role, and Warren Beatty (Bonnie and Clyde, Bugsy), but also Die Hard star Bruce Willis was in the lead during the casting process.

"I wrote [the character of] Bill for Warren Beatty and it ended up not working out. And then I cast David Carradine, and kind of rewrote it for David Carradine. Bruce would have been my third choice. … When I read the original version of Kill Bill, it kind of cracks me up now, because it's the Warren Beatty version," Tarantino revealed on the ReelBlend podcast.

According to the director, if not for Carradine, the leader of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad would have been portrayed by Willis. Bill was created as some sort of 'evil James Bond ', and Bruce fit that description better than anyone else.

"Bruce could have actually played that evil James Bond kind of character and I would have just leaned into his personality maybe just a little bit more. A little less Cristal. A little bit more Coors, all right. A little less champagne, a little more beer."

Given Bruce Willis' health problems that led to his retirement from acting, Willis-as-Bill is now a casting that never was for Tarantino fans. Sadly, Willis got to work with the acclaimed director only once, on set of now-iconic Pulp Fiction back in 1994.