Interview w/ David Carradine

During his recent Seattle stop, I got the chance to meet multi-talented actor, composer, and director David Carradine who was kind enough to talk about the journey that was ?Kill Bill.?

There were rumors of a big fight scene you had that was removed from the picture, what could you tell me about this?

Yeah, it was shot for a scene that was supposed to happen at a high stakes poker game. Quentin wrote the chapel scene that he thought superseded it and he cut it, as he did not think we could have both. The scene was filmed as he did not want to let go of the moment, but it did not really belong in the film.

It will be in the DVD, though I am not sure where it will go in, as the one scene I can think of will interfere with the flow. It was decided when the film was cut into two parts to not really show Bill in the first part. So some other juicy stuff was cut but should make it to DVD, which will be the life of the film, as you do not expect a Tarantino film on network television.

Expanding on that, I had heard there was enough footage that there could have been a third film.

The original idea was for two 90-minute movies, which ended up with the first film being over 90- minutes and the second over 2 hours and 20 minutes, and there was always the plan to shoot extra scenes. For example, I do not have a scene with Daryl Hannah and we wanted to have something that would show how our relationship happened, how she became the number one lady, and why Bill and his brother do not get along.

I figured that a woman had to be behind the hatred, and none of that is explained in the original concept. I asked Quentin about more shoots and he said that if he couldn't make two films from all of the footage that he shot, then he did not deserve to. We shot about 1.2 million feet of film, which has to be close to a record.

Bill seems to become more of a presence as the film goes on, how did the character evolve over shooting?

With the original plan to do one film, it was intended to keep Bill out of it for a while and build up the image that he was this evil and monstrous guy that you actually like when you meet him. He is charming, so they kept him a mystery in part one, giving you two different films, as the first is pure action and the second is more of a rambling narrative, as Quentin was writing up until the very end.

How much input did you have into the character?

A lot. Quentin wrote it for me. He had read my autobiography and he collects 16 MM prints of ?Kung Fu? and ?Shane,? so in many ways he was basing the character on me before he even contacted me about it.

The monologue about the Goldfish and Superman is very interesting, as it shows the complexity of Bill, how did this come about?

In Beijing, Quentin and I sat in a cigar lounge and talked about comic heroes and before long, there was a rewrite and it was in the film. It is an interesting scene; here is Bill having this oddly inappropriate conversation in front of this little girl and being all sweet and kind. Yet Bill has this big knife in his hand and it makes you realize how dangerous he is, as you are not sure what he is going to do next.

There is a bit where Uma comes out after watching the video with the kid, and I take a fast draw at her and try to get her downstairs. The notion that Bill loves her yet knows she is there to kill him and he has to take his shot when he sees it. There was also a line that was removed about not forgetting all of her training. Even though those scenes are gone, the feeling of what is coming next is always there with Bill.