"I have no moral compass when it comes to giving roles to actors."

And it turns out that two French actors, Mélanie Laurent and Isabelle Huppert, were originally fired from the production.

According to NME, Tarantino said the table read is the moment he first sees a cast come together, and a bad one cost the two actors the part.

Why did Quentin Tarantino fire the two actors?

Tarantino told author Jay Glennie, for the new book The Making of Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds, that the table read is "the closest I get to seeing the movie for the first time". He said Laurent fell short of that standard.

"Mélanie was terrible, so I fired her," he said.

Laurent, originally cast as Shosana Dreyfus, asked for a second chance days later, and Tarantino agreed. "I love Mélanie," he said. "She did a wonderful job."

Huper, cast as Madame Mimieux, did not return, and the character was cut from the finished film.

What else did Tarantino say?

The director was pretty blunt about his approach, as you might expect from him.

"I have no moral compass when it comes to giving roles to actors," he said. "They have to be right for the world I have created."

"I don't owe them shit," he added. "I owe my film the best actors I can find."

The book arrives as Tarantino prepares to release The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth, a follow-up to his 2019 film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

Inglourious Basterds was a huge success, grossing more than $320 million worldwide and earning eight Oscar nominations, including Best Picture.