Quentin Tarantino found his debut in Hollywood with the modern crime thriller Reservoir Dogs. While he was able to gather a cast full of big names, there was also an actor who whole project more realism Could lend: the former criminal Edward Bunker.
In front of reservoir Dogs, Edward Bunker was a convicted criminal
Before his time as an actor and author, Edward Bunker was a criminal for about 30 years. According to a Collider article from 2024, he earned his money, among other things Extortion and as a bank robber. The latter in particular should benefit him later for his role at Reservoir Dogs.
When he had completed his criminal career, he had been in various prisons for a total of 18 years. During his prison sentence, he read a lot and started writing himself. He incorporated his experiences in his works and they also helped him to build a life outside of crime. Bunker had a first great success with the Roman No Beast So Fierce and the associated adaptation hour of probation with Dustin Hoffman in the leading role.
Edward Bunker has learned a lot from Tarantinos Reservoir Dogs
In 1992 Bunker was finally part of the occupation in Reservoir Dogs. As a former bank robber, he was able to contribute a lot to make the film more realistic. In an interview with Brooklynail, Bunker told about his experience with the cult director:
[…] When I got the script and it started with eight pages of dialogue, I thought: ‘Man, what the hell is that?’ And then we went to the shoot of this scene and attracted these black suits. I said, ‘This is not real, the waitress will recognize us after the job.’
However, Tarantino did not intend to make the film as realistic as possible. He had his own vision and while Bunker was right in reality Tarantino’s goal another:
But when I saw the film, I realized that it shouldn’t be real. It is really such a dark comedy as it can be and it worked. So from Quentin I learned to make my dialog more relaxed and incorporate the unusual.
Thus, Tarantino and Bunker were able to learn from each other and benefit from the joint cooperation. Bunker wrote an autobiography about his life in 2000, which he even named after his role in Reservoir Dogs: Mr. Blue: Memoirs of a Renegade. For this book he received the renowned Dagger Award for crime literature.