Quentin Tarantino’s Bruce Willis remark draws reaction from Joe Rogan

Filmmaker Quentin Tarantino surprised and amused podcaster Joe Rogan when he shared an anecdote about working with actor Bruce Willis in the 1990s.

Tarantino recently appeared on the podcast The Joe Rogan Experiencealong with fellow filmmaker Roger Avary, with whom he worked on the classic 1994 film Pulp Fictionstarring Willis, Samuel L. Jackson and Uma Thurman, among others.

Their time on set became a talking point as Rogan and his guests discussed various wildfires that have swept through Southern California over the years, including the devastating blaze that ravaged large parts of Malibu in 1993.

“It actually happened while we were shooting Pulp Fiction,” Tarantino said of the sprawling fire, prompting Rogan to respond with a surprised, “Really?”

“We actually put a TV up on the set because Bruce Willis might lose his house… So we had a little TV area so in between takes we (could) see what’s happening with the fire.”

Talking about the way it was reported at the time, Tarantino said: “There were all these reports that Bruce Willis and his family are on top of the house with their water hose. I’m like, ‘No, that isn’t he – he’s right here!”

The comment drew laughter from the men in the studio during a light-hearted pause in the middle of heavy discussion about their various experiences with the California wildfires.

After the Malibu fire in 1993 Los Angeles Times reported that actors Sean Penn and Ali McGraw were among those whose homes were destroyed. According to the publication, Willis and then-wife Demi Moore’s property emerged from the fire “largely unscathed,” despite reports that they had lost “half” of their house.

Willis and Moore, who share three children, announced their separation in 1998 and their divorce was finalized in 2000. Moore has supported Willis and his current wife Emma Heming in recent years after Armageddon star was diagnosed with aphasia – a form of dementia that affects one’s ability to communicate.

Elsewhere on The Joe Rogan Experiencethe titular host, who now lives in Texas, talked about his personal experiences with the California wildfires.

“I was evacuated three times when I lived there,” fhv Fear factor host Rogan told Tarantino and Avary. “I used to live in Bell Canyon and… it was rough.”

“I’ve been really lucky,” chimed in Tarantino. “I’m almost afraid to say it because I’ve lived in the Hollywood Hills (and) some of the fire that happens, it never happened around me.”

“I’m literally kind of on top of the hill on a bunch of rocks,” he says Kill Bill added director. “If it turns into an inferno, I’m still f*****.”

Rogan then shared, “When I was filming Fear factorI talked to this guy (from) the fire department. He said: ‘It will just be a matter of time. There will come a day when a fire hits LA and the wind is the right way and we won’t be able to stop it. It’s just going to burn right through to the sea… It’s just a matter of time – we all know that.”

Beowulf director Avary surmised that increased construction around the glitzy enclave of Malibu has worsened matters over the years.

“I grew up in California, and when I was young there was constant fire burning through Malibu,” he recalled. “But now they’ve put all those houses where there were never houses.”

Calling the fires a “natural process,” he said, “When you put all that incendiary burning in there, all of a sudden we end up with these, like super firestorms, where everything just goes crazy. I think it’s overdevelopment that’s the cause to these crazy kinds of fires that we get.”

“Yeah, but it’s a cool place to live,” Rogan said. “You don’t want to stop people from developing in Malibu. You know, it’s just too nice. You just take your chances, roll the dice.”

“You take your chances and you roll your dice wherever you live,” Avary replied.