David Duchovny Reveals Quentin Tarantino Rejected His Reservoir Dogs Audition

Here’s a crazy piece of film trivia: The X-Files star David Duchovny auditioned to be in Reservoir Dogs, but was rejected by Quentin Tarantino himself! In a recent interview, Duchovny explained that he auditioned for the role of “Mr. Orange” in Reservoir Dogs – the most pivotal role in the film, which ultimately went to actor Tim Roth. 

“I auditioned for Pulp Fiction, and it was… No, not Pulp Fiction. I auditioned for Reservoir Dogs. That was like in the late ’80s,” Duchovny revealed to Collider at the press junket for Netflix’s new romantic-comedy, You People. 

The new Netflix film sees Duchovny playing the father to Jonah Hill’s character, with the mom being played by Veep’s Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Louis-Dreyfus was in the junket with Duchovny and teased him, asking, “Did you get it?” in reference to Reservoir Dogs.

Duchovny sarcastically answered,”Yeah. I’m fantastic in it. They did this head replacement of Tim Roth on me. It really pissed me off. I didn’t know. I went to the premiere, and I was like, ‘Oh, Tim Roth’s head is on mine.’” 

On a serious note, Duchovny explained that “I auditioned for Quentin Tarantino, and this is not an imitation of Quentin, but he’s a high-energy guy, and he goes, ‘I really like what you do. I just don’t know if I want you to do it in my movie.’ It was the best rejection I ever got in my life.”

Reservoir Dogs has become one of the more iconic independent films of the 1990s, not to mention one of the most revered debut movies for a filmmaker ever. Aside from cementing Tarantino’s name and signature as a dialogue poet and retro reference guru, Reservoir Dogs also made stars of its cast. In addition to Tim Roth, the movie starred Harvey Keitel (Mr. White), Michael Madsen (Mr. Blonde), and Steve Buscemi (Mr. Pink) who all went on to have much bigger careers afterward. 

Of course, David Duchovny didn’t do too shabby himself: the actor hit it big in the 1990s  and early 00s with The X-Files TV series – then hit it big again in the 2010s with Showtime’s long-running hit series, Californication. Duchovny has popped in both TV and movie roles in between his two big series – including Netflix’s You People, which brings him together with Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Eddie Murphy, Nia Long, Lauren London, Mike Epps, Deon Cole, Rhea Perlman, and many others. 

You People will stream on Netflix on January 27th.