Quentin Tarantino’s obsession with feet on film is well-documented. From Samuel L. Jackson discussing whether a foot massage means shit in Pulp Fiction, to Uma Thurman’s recovery from a coma in Kill Bill (“First things first: wiggle your big toe”), and even more scenes in Jackie Brown and Death Proof, feet have become one of the director’s definitive trademarks.

Naturally, speculation about Tarantino’s IRL preference for feet is equally widespread, with viewers unable to separate the art from the artist (or the fetish from the filmmaker). In a recent interview with GQ, he addresses this speculation head on, claiming: “I don’t take it seriously.”

“There’s a lot of feet in a lot of good directors’ movies,” he says. “That’s just good direction.”

Expanding on the canon of foot-worshipping filmmakers (and acknowledging his own place in it), he goes on: “Before me, the person foot fetishism was defined by was Luis Buñuel, another film director. And Hitchcock was accused of it, and Sofia Coppola has been accused of it.”

Arguably, though, the accusations of Tarantino’s foot fetishism have reached new heights. Brad Pitt himself made a joking reference at the 2020 SAG Awards, while picking up an award for his supporting role in Once Upon A Time In Hollywood (which features particularly extensive shots of Margot Robbie and Margaret Qualley’s feet).

“I want to thank my co-stars: Leo, Margot Robbie, Margot Robbie’s feet, Margaret Qualley’s feet, Dakota Fanning’s feet,” the actor said in his speech, joking: “Seriously, Quentin has separated more women from their shoes than the TSA.”

Once Upon A Time In Hollywood lives on as a well-received novelisation by Tarantino himself – and potentially a stage play – but we’re still waiting for news of the filmmaker’s tenth, and reportedly final, feature film.

Earlier this year, he even suggested that he should quit while he’s ahead, saying: “Maybe I should not make another movie because I could be really happy with dropping the mic. The frustrating part is (that with) a lot of the really terrific directors, their third-to-last movie would have been an amazing one to end on.”