SUBMITTED BY katystarlet

December 19, 2002 — Rod Grier (who happens to be the brother of actress Pam Grier) has been tapped by Tarantino to create original artwork for the revenge thriller "Kill Bill." The film stars Uma Thurman, Vivica fox, Lucy Liu, Darryl Hannah, Michael Madsen, and David Darradine.

CountingDown has caught up with the fortunate artist to chat a bit about his involvement in Kill Bill:

CountingDown: Tell us a little bit about your involvement with KILL BILL?
Rod Grier: I was commisioned to design 8 military commemorative plates for specific scenes in Vivica Fox's house in the first part of the movie. It took about four months of work and collaboration with Quentin Tarantino and Sandy Wasco (the art director for Kill Bill). Quentin also decided to use 5 of my original paintings for scenes in Vivica's house as well. It was a wonderful experience! They used a total of thirteen pieces of my artwork. Four of my "Original Paintings" used in the movie "Kill Bill", can be purchased as limited edition prints on my website www.rodgrierimages.com.

CD: How did you end up getting that "gig"?
RG: Actually, I was invited to the world premeire of "Jackie Brown" in December of 1997. I decided that I had to somehow promote my artwork in a subtle way. So, I put 5, nicely matted "original prints "of my paintings in a brown plastic "Glad" trash bag. When I got to the premeire I found Quentin,Tarantino, congradulated him on his new movie, then I told him I had some prints of my artwork to give him and the cast members as a Christmas gift From Pam (Grier) and myself. I gave one to Bridget Fonda, One to Samuel L. Jackson, and the last 3 paintings I gave to Quentin. Which he took home and showed his Mom. One month later his mom called me and said, "I think your art is great!" She later bought some work from me when I was studying at UCLA in the spring of 1998. To make a long story short, Four years goes by when last March 2002, I get a call from Sandy Wasco (the art director for "kill Bill" at the Supercool Manchu Prod. office). She said, "Quentin would like to know if you would do some artwork for his new movie". And I said (still almost in shock) Sure, I would love to!

CD: Can you tell us a bit about KILL BILL, how it's going, what it's about and all those juicy details?
RG: I visited the set of "Kill Bill" last October 2002. Every comment I heard form everyone involved was that this movie is "Something Special". Everyone was "upbeat" and happy. It was a very relaxed, fun, set to be around and everyone loved working with Quentin. I think in some ways this movie will "Break New Ground" for motion pictures....

CD: So what's working with the film's director Quentin Tarantino like?
RG: Again, Quentin pays a lot of attention to "detail". He did when he asked for certain things in the design of the 8 commemorative plates. I noticed the crew members were laughing a lot on the set of "Kill Bill". I think Quentin has a lot of fun when he works on his films. I can't say enough good things about my experience with "Kill Bill".

CD: Thank you!