Harvey Keitel
Although Steve Buscemi auditioned for role, Mr. White would eventually go to Harvey Keitel. Keitel was right at home in this gritty urban crime drama, having risen to stardom on the wings of similar early entries in Martin Scorsese’s career. Keitel could pretty much have had his choice of any role in the film, since it was his involvement that lifted Reservoir Dogs from being basically being a 16mm home movie made by Tarantino and his friends into a major independent release.
Tim Roth
Mr. Orange is the pivotal character in the film; the MacGuffin of sorts since the plot really boils down to the question of “which one of these is not the like the other.” Despite being not just the key figure, but also the character requiring the most depth, one would think actors were lining up for the part. In fact, most of the actors who were finally cast told Tarantino they would prefer pretty much any other of the “color-coded” roles than Mr. Orange. Even Roth himself tested for Mr. Blonde and Mr. Pink. Unlike the other actors, however, he was all-too-eager take the juicy role, even though it meant spending practically the entire film lying on the floor in a pool of blood.
Michael Madsen
Mr. Blonde is actually Vic Vega, which makes Madsen the on-screen brother of John Travolta, who plays Vince Vega, Mr. Blonde’s brother. Interestingly, despite his on-screen reputation as a tough guy, Madsen was reluctant to sink into his character’s psychopathy and even had trouble in his fight scene with actor Kirk Baltz.
Steve Buscemi
Quentin Tarantino had planned on playing Mr. Pink himself and told Buscemi that when he arrived to audition. So set was the director on playing the role that he let Buscemi know there was absolutely no way he was going to give up the part unless Buscemi gave a reading that was simply too good to reject. Buscemi did just that.
Quentin Tarantino
Having given up his plum role of Mr. Pink in the face of Buscemi's killer audition, Tarantino satisfied his acting urges by playing the less interesting Mr. Brown.
Lawrence Tierney
Tierney’s film debut came in 1943 and during a long career he played John Dillinger, starred in one of the grittiest film noirs of all time—Born to Kill—and even gave voice to the store security guard who catches Bart Simpson trying to shoplift a video game. Well past the age of 70 by the Tarantino cast him, Tierney is mostly remembered by the cast for ruining a number of takes of the breakfast conversation that opens the film because he couldn’t remember his lines.
Chris Penn
The film famously opens with a freewheeling breakfast conversation covering a variety of pop culture topics. The very first topic involves a song by Madonna. Actor Chris Penn is the brother of Sean Penn who was, of course, at one time married to Madonna.
Kirk Baltz
To delve deeper into character, Nash asked Michael Madsen to drive him around locked inside the trunk of the car just like his character. Madsen decided to make sure that Nash really found out what it was like by taking the car down a long alley with lots of holes and then stopping to place at order at a Taco Bell before finally letting Baltz out.
