Pulp Fiction cast honors Bruce Willis for 30th anniversary

At a special event to celebrate Pulp Fiction’s 30th anniversary, actor Bruce Willis wasn’t present, but he was honored by his family and former castmates.

2024 marks the 30th anniversary of Quentin Tarantino‘s 1994 cult classic, Pulp Fiction. Aside from the visceral violence and pop culture-permeating iconography (everyone’s met that couple dressed up as Vincent and Mia for Halloween at least once), one of the movie’s most enduring elements is its cast.

Among John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, and Uma Thurman, Bruce Willis was a major Pulp Fiction player. On Thursday, the stars attended an event to celebrate the Tarantino movie‘s 30th anniversary, with the exclusion of Willis. In 2023, the actor’s family announced that he had a aphasia condition which had developed into frontotemporal dementia.

This came one year after it was announced that he would be “stepping away” from acting. While he was not at the Pulp Fiction screening, he was honored by the cast and his family. His wife, Emma Heming Willis, was there with his daughter Tallulah, who represented Willis by wearing a baseball cap with “Bruce” embroidered on the front.

Speaking to Entertainment Tonight, John Travolta made sure to mention his co-star. “Bruce and I had a history,” he said. “We did Look Who’s Talking together, and we had a massive success with it. So we were [friends]. We had been on vacation together, Kelly [Preston] and I with Bruce and Demi [Moore]. So this was not new. We were comfortable with each other.

“It was very easy to be with each other and relax, you know?” he added. “And there was real genuine care. And we felt lucky we were in a very special movie.”

In Tarantino’s masterpiece, Willis plays Butch, a boxer who must go on the run with his girlfriend after double-crossing storied crime boss Marsellus Wallace.

Excluding John McClane, Butch is one of Willis’ most iconic roles in his filmography, with his scenes easily being some of the most horrific. Upon release, Pulp Fiction was nominated for seven Academy Awards, winning one for Best Original Screenplay. To this day, it’s not only considered to be Tarantino’s best movie — it’s a landmark of postmodern cinema.

For more, check out our list of all the new movies to stream now, and all the new movies to watch in theaters this month.