Quentin Tarantino keeps a childhood promise to never share his wealth with his mom

Do not cross Quentin Tarantino. Apparently, the director behind films like Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, The Hateful Eight, and Pulp Fiction can really hold onto a grudge… or, keep a promise.

As a young man, he once swore he’d never share a cent of his future earnings with his mother, Connie Zastoupil, after she allegedly discouraged him from pursuing a career in writing and filmmaking. It’s a promise that the now-58-year-old has kept for decades now.

Tarantino was a recent guest on Billions co-creator Brian Koppelman’s The Moment podcast where he told the host the story of his suppressed childhood ambitions in which, as he tells it, his teachers and mother joined forces against his creative talents.

After his teachers complained about his in-class performance (Tarantino was caught writing fledgling screenplays during class time) the filmmaker’s mother chewed him out. His mom, he told Koppelman, “was b---hing at me about that... and then in the middle of her little tirade, she said, ‘Oh, and by the way, this little ‘writing career’' – with the finger quotes and everything – 'This little ‘writing career’ that you’re doing? That s--t is over.’”

It isn’t difficult to imagine the words of his (likely quite frustrated mother) coming out of the mouths of many parents (who are, sadly, unlikely to be equipped with a crystal ball and often just want their child to choose a stable, steady career like nursing or teaching or tech CEO-ing). Quentin, however, took those words to heart, carving out a little space for a grudge that’s lasted the rest of his life thus far. 

“When she said that to me in that sarcastic way, I go, ‘OK, lady, when I become a successful writer, you will never see one penny from my success. There will be no house for you. There’s no vacation for you, no Elvis Cadillac for mommy. You get nothing. Because you said that,’” he revealed.

Seeming to doubt that Tarantino would be able to keep such a promise, Koppelman asked him if he’d followed through with it. “Yeah,” Tarantino said. “I helped her out with a jam with the IRS. But no house. No Cadillac, no house.”

Tarantino is said to pull in $20 million in advance of a film’s production and is contracted to receive additional millions if the project performs well at the box office — which can translate into another $30 to 40 million. Let those numbers be a lesson the next time you tell your future Twitch or TikTok megastar offspring to clean their room or complete their algebra homework.

“There are consequences for your words as you deal with your children,” said Tarantino. “Remember there are consequences for your sarcastic tone about what’s meaningful to them.”

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