Many people promise themselves the first thing they\u2019d do if they became millionaires is pay off their parents\u2019 mortgage. But despite having two Oscars and an estimated $150 million fortune, Quentin Tarantino has vowed his mother will never see a penny of it.<\/p>\n
And it\u2019s all because when he was 12 years old, his mom once mocked his writing ambitions. Connie Zastoupil was at her wits\u2019 end after teachers told her he wasn\u2019t concentrating on the lesson\u2014and he\u2019s still punishing her decades later.<\/p>\n
Speaking on The Moment podcast with host Brian Koppelman, Tarantino previously revealed: \u201cMy mom always had a hard time about my scholastic non-ability,\u201d adding that she \u201cwas b\u2013ching at me\u201d about writing screenplays.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then in the middle of her little tirade, she said, \u2018Oh, and by the way, this little \u2018writing career,\u2019 with the finger quotes and everything. This little \u2018writing career\u2019 that you\u2019re doing? That s\u2014 is over.’\u201d<\/p>\n
That last line there prompted the \u201cOnce Upon a Time in Hollywood\u201d director to make a promise to himself that he\u2019s still holding onto today\u2014and that vow is currently going viral years later on social media.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen she said that to me in that sarcastic way, I was in my head and I go, \u2018OK lady, when I become a successful writer, you will never see one penny from my success. There will be no house for you. There\u2019s no vacation for you, no Elvis Cadillac for mommy. You get nothing because you said that.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
And he\u2019s stuck to it, with one exception. Tarantino said he\u2019s still never bought his mother a house or a car, though \u201cI helped her out of a jam with the IRS.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tarantino went on to write and direct Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill, Django Unchained, cementing his status as one of Hollywood\u2019s most successful filmmakers in Hollywood\u2014and has earned millions in the process. His mother, who\u00a0is a 75-year-old nurse\u00a0living in Tennessee, hasn\u2019t seen any of it.<\/p>\n
Tarantino grew up with a teen mom who let him drop out of school at 15<\/p>\n
Koppelman urged Tarantino to forget his vow, because his moms jab might have helped fuel his drive to succeed, as opposed to hindering it, by pushing him to prove her wrong. But he was having none of it: \u201cRemember: There are consequences for your sarcastic tone about what\u2019s meaningful to them,\u201d Tarantino said.<\/p>\n
His mother may have mocked his writing, but she also had a hand in making him the filmmaker he is today.<\/p>\n
She was just 16 when she gave birth to him in Knoxville, Tennessee, in 1963. His father, an aspiring actor named Tony Tarantino, left before he was born, and she raised her son while working double shifts as a nurse.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After moving to Los Angeles, she let him watch far more than most kids. Her then-husband, musician Curtis Zastoupil, took him to film screenings, and she allowed him to see grown-up films like Carnal Knowledge and Deliverance.<\/p>\n
By 14, he\u2019d written a screenplay called Captain Peachfuzz and the Anchovy Bandit. And by 16, she allowed him to drop out of highschool, as long as he got a job.<\/p>\n
He became an usher at a Torrance cinema, then spent five years working at the video store Video Archives, soaking up every film on the shelves\u2014and the rest is history. \u201cWhen people ask me if I went to film school, I tell them, \u2018No, I went to films,\u2019\u201d Tarantino once told Rolling Stones.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n Tarantino\u2019s best money advice: \u2018Don\u2019t become an employee of your house\u2019<\/p>\n Tarantino isn\u2019t just stingy with his mother. He\u2019s also living in the same home since 1996\u2014and he didn\u2019t splash out on the LA mansion until long after he could afford it.<\/p>\n And he even warned fellow Hollywood director Eli Roth to be careful not to get trapped by the lifestyle that comes with success.<\/p>\n \u201c\u2018Don\u2019t buy a house as soon as you\u2019re successful, hold on to your money,\u2019 Tarantino told Roth, advising him to wait \u201cuntil you can afford to completely pay for it outright.\u201d<\/p>\n Many in the industry use their first million-dollar paycheck to get a mortgage, Roth told Fortune. \u201cBut you basically become an employee of your house. So every decision that you make becomes, \u2018Can I pay my mortgage?\u2019 Not, \u2018Is this best for my career?\u2019<\/p>\n Tarantino told Roth that he waited years before purchasing his current home for exactly that reason: \u201cHe goes, \u2018I didn\u2019t buy a house until Jackie Brown. Everyone else thought I was going to buy one after Pulp Fiction. I waited because I didn\u2019t want to get stuck being an employee of my house\u2014and then I didn\u2019t have to worry about it.\u201d<\/p>\n Roth took the advice to heart. After Hostel, which cost $3.8 million and made $80 million, \u201call I could hear was Quentin\u2019s words in my head,\u201d he said. He kept renting and didn\u2019t buy a house until he was 35, in 2007. \u201cIf I was stuck as an employee of my house, I would have had to take some directing job that I wouldn\u2019t want to do, and then I would have missed the opportunity of a lifetime.\u201d<\/p>\n