While Madsen says he turned down the position as a result of his prior commitments, Travolta had a different story as to how he ran into Vincent Vega, which he informed. Supanova at Comic Con & Gaming Event in 2019where he offered Tarantino the two roles after they had spent quite an odd evening together.
“One was ‘From Dusk Till Dawn.’ Then he offered me ‘Pulp Fiction.’ And he said, ‘You didn’t react that much to the Vampire movie but you liked the second film. Why?’ I said, ‘I’m not a big vampire person, it’s not that it’s not a great story, it’s just that I liked Vincent Vega’s story better’. He said, ‘Oh, interesting’ … he first I had put Michael Madsen on his mind from the very beginning and I changed his mind that night, one way or another, and he decided to give me that role and offered me on the spot.
While Travolta’s story appears to contradict Madsen’s story, there seems to be no hard feelings over Madsen’s ending, in response to his reaction. “Qt8,” where he acknowledged how the situation in “Pulp Fiction” breathed new life into Travolta’s then struggling profession.
“Isn’t it true that John Travolta had a part in it, it became John’s comeback? He was doing movies about talking kids! And all of a sudden he’s Vincent Vega! He had that wig. Someone Travolta Hadn’t seen it with a af***ing gun. It’s a very, very big, huge reason for the film to work.”
So while Madsen certainly would have played the role, I’m glad we got a Travolta performance as a substitute that revived his career.
