“That’s the era that most of my actors made their bones, and that’s the era when I made my bones,” Tarantino added. “There was a throwback to ‘Reservoir Dogs’ quality to this whole [movie] so there was this kind of full circle quality going on. So I was like, the actress should be from that same boat as the [other] actors, and there were about three actresses from that period that really kind of made an indelible mark on me. I started going on little film festivals of the three, and frankly, it was the Jennifer Jason Leigh film festival that I enjoyed the most.”
He went on to explain that he watched films of hers like “Single White Female,” “Heart of Midnight,” “The Men’s Club,” and “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” while sussing out if he wanted her for the “The Hateful Eight” role. “But it was more kind of the combination of ‘Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle’ and ‘Georgia’ and ‘Miami Blues’ and ‘The Hitcher,'” the director said of what struck him in Leigh’s career highlights. “Another big one that helped was a Paul Verhoeven movie she did, ‘Flesh+Blood,’ with Rutger Hauer. She’s terrific in it.”
An exploration of these titles and what kind of opportunities they afforded Leigh as a performer enticed Tarantino and got him thinking about her in the Daisy Domergue part. Plus, he knew she was the kind of actress he wanted in the role.