Actor Bo Svenson doesn’t mind rearranging his personal schedule for weeks at a time – at least when it’s at the behest of director Quentin Tarantino.
Svenson, the ‘70s action star who first worked with Tarantino on “Kill Bill Vol. 2,” got a call from the director regarding a cameo in the director‘s new film, “Inglourious Basterds.” He plays an American Army colonel in the film.
The conversation led to Svenson being on set for five weeks for the movie, opening nationwide Aug. 22.
“It’s very, very small,” Svenson says of his role with a laugh. “Anything Quentin wants to do is fine with me. I’m thrilled … he’s conceivably the most dynamic person I’ve ever met – on the set and off the set.”
Svenson’s appearance in “Basterds” helps link the movie with its inspiration, the 1977 World War II actioner “Inglorious Bastards.” Svenson led a ragtag group of soldiers against the Nazi war machine in that entertaining thriller.
The two movies’ plots share little in common, but Tarantino found a thread to connect them, Svenson says.
“Quentin was attracted to the title and the fact that the characters in the original were inglorious yet had a sense of dignity to them. They were willing to die for America, willing to die for the good America represented in World War II,“ he says.
In Tarantino’s “Basterds,” the heroes are Jewish soldiers out to collect as many Nazi scalps as possible. Brad Pitt co-stars as the leader of the scalp-hunting unit, and Christoph Waltz steals every scene he’s in as an SS officer.
The new film will surely spark interest in the original, directed by Italian action veteran Enzo Castellari.
“For me personally, it doesn’t change my life one way or another [if people catch up with the original]. But I’m thrilled on behalf of Enzo who did a lovely job with a relatively small amount of money,” he says.
Tarantino documented his affection for ‘70s films with his contribution to the recent “Grindhouse” double feature – “Death Proof.“
Svenson, who starred in a number of ’70s actioners like “Bastards” and the “Walking Tall” sequels, longs for that era, too.
“A great deal of the so-called action movies of the ‘70s had a much stronger organic origin. People were people. I fail to see that today,” he says. “There’s a coolness about movies, but they don’t grab me.”
“But the audiences today are different than the audiences of the ‘70s,” he adds. “They’re confronted with a whole different set of social and cultural variables.”
“Today, we don’t want to be affected on an emotional level. We go to the movies just to be taken on an audio-visual trip,” he continues.
Tarantino remains one of the industry’s most “fearless” directors, he says, regardless of the times.
“So many filmmakers today are chicken [expletive]. They’re afraid to go with their instinct, go with their creative juices. So many filmmakers and producers second guess themselves into the type of movies we see today. They’re spectacular to look at yet are empty,” he says. “They’re philosophically empty.”
(Photo: Action star Bo Svenson helped power the 1977 film “Inglorious Bastards,” which inspired the new Quentin Tarantino movie of the same name.)
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