Michael Madsen Regretted Starring In A Major Kevin Costner Flop

Late character actor Michael Madsen's filmography is as varied as it is vast, with well over 300 acting credits to his name. Madsen brought a special something to every role, an edge of danger lurking behind his ice blue eyes, and it served him especially well in Westerns. Two of Madsen's very best performances are in Quentin Tarantino's "The Hateful Eight" and "Kill Bill Vol. 2," which are Westerns/Western-adjacent, but there was one film in the Wild West he regretted starring in that turned out to be an absolute flop. 

In an interview with The Guardian in 2004, Madsen shared the complicated choice he had to make when he decided to star as Virgil Earp, brother of the titular Wyatt (Kevin Costner) in the 1994 movie "Wyatt Earp." Ultimately, it came between him working with Tarantino once more in the director's second film, "Pulp Fiction," or starring in "Wyatt Earp," directed by Lawrence Kasdan. Of those two movies, only one was nominated for an Academy Award (and it didn't rhyme with "quiet burp"), so it's pretty obvious that he made the wrong choice, but was "Wyatt Earp" really that bad? Obviously, it's going to be a bit of a slog in comparison to the 1993 film "Tombstone," which starred Kurt Russell as Wyatt Earp and has become one of the all-time dad movies, but it's got some good performances and gorgeous vistas, at least.

Madsen told The Guardian that "Wyatt Earp" was "three hours of nausea," alluding to the fact that critics (and audiences) found the movie to be overlong and kind of boring. Dennis Quaid, who played Earp's close friend Doc Holliday in "Wyatt Earp," similarly told Larry King that the first half of the movie was a "history lesson," which led to it flopping. Madsen has endured his fair share of flops in his expansive career, however, so there's more to his regret than just a box office and critical failure. The biggest problem was likely that it caused a rift between Madsen and Tarantino, who wanted Madsen to play Vincent Vega in "Pulp Fiction," the role that ended up rebooting John Travolta's career. Madsen had played Vic Vega, better known as Mr. Blonde, in "Reservoir Dogs," so it made sense, but the actor wanted to play legendary lawman Wyatt Earp's older brother in the sprawling (and impressive) Western's cast instead.

Thankfully, Tarantino was feeling a bit more forgiving around the time that he was writing "Kill Bill," and he ended up casting Madsen as the titular Bill's younger, less-successful brother, Budd. As Budd, Madsen was able to really show his full range as an actor, leaning into a vulnerability that you rarely see in his other work. 

Honestly, it probably all worked out for the best, because the chemistry that Travolta and co-star Uma Thurman share in "Pulp Fiction" is utterly electric, and it might not have worked with Madsen, but we can always wonder what might have been.