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September 22, 1994, Page 00017Buy Reprints The New York Times Archives

Lawrence Bender has, without question, the smallest office of any big-time producer in Hollywood. It's a windowless and cramped space, with a rental desk and couple of movie posters tacked onto a wall. And Mr. Bender doesn't limit his frugality to the workplace. When the 36-year-old producer flies to New York, his hometown, to make a film, he sleeps on sofas in his friends' apartments.

"Someone said to me: 'Don't they put you up in a hotel? Why are you sleeping on people's couches?' " he said. "And I say: 'You don't understand. "They" is "me." ' Instead of spending $10,000 on a hotel, I could get another crew person. I can't get away from the fact that I want to put everything in the movie."

Mr. Bender's latest project is "Pulp Fiction," directed and written by his friend Quentin Tarantino. A violent and often comic drama inspired by the lurid crime fiction of the 1930's and 40's, it was the winner of this year's Palme d'Or at the Cannes International Film Festival. With an ensemble cast that includes John Travolta, Bruce Willis, Uma Thurman, Harvey Keitel, Christopher Walken and Samuel L. Jackson, it will open the New York Film Festival on Friday, and arrive at theaters on Oct. 14.

"Pulp Fiction" is one of three films produced this year by Mr. Bender. The others are "Fresh," an urban drama that opened last month to generally positive reviews, and "Killing Zoe," about a Paris bank heist. His first movie was the 1992 cult hit "Reservoir Dogs," also written and directed by Mr. Tarantino. The film cost $1.5 million, and has grossed $20 million worldwide. It also established Mr. Tarantino as an director of significance.

Now, as part of a new wave of film makers whose idiosyncratic tastes and sensibilities have seized the attention of the Hollywood establishment, Mr. Bender, a onetime ballet dancer and a sometime actor, and Mr. Tarantino, have been sought out by many studios.

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Except for a loose arrangement with Miramax, a division of the Walt Disney Company, however, the two have steered clear of any involvement with a studio that would erode their independence.

Characteristically, Mr. Bender's next two films carry an individual stamp. One of them, "White Man's Burden," starring John Travolta and directed by Desmond Nakano, depicts a racially charged world in which blacks are a powerful majority while whites are a poor, unemployed, powerless minority. The other, "Four Rooms," involves a bellman in a Los Angeles hotel who moves from room to room and copes with four totally disparate couples. "Each couple is crazier than the next," said Mr. Bender. The film has four different directors, one of whom is Mr. Tarantino.

Mr. Bender, a casual and friendly man who speaks with an unmistakable New York accent, has an obvious talent for raising money and financing movies. But he plays it down in favor of his esthetic side.

"I hate to say I'm a creative type because it sounds so funky," he said. "But because of my background I look at movies differently than other producers. I look for things with movement and character and color."

Still, there are other personal satisfactions. "What I like about producing," he said, "is the feeling you have when you get the money and make the deal. Making the deal is like the thrill of victory. It's empowering."

How he turned into a deal maker, after years in New York as a struggling actor and dancer, amazes him. "I had, like, six call-backs for 'Cats,' " he said with a laugh. "Didn't make it."

He was born in the Bronx and brought up in New Jersey, the child of parents who were teachers and later became psychotherapists. He earned a degree in civil engineering at the University of Maine, but his heart was in dancing. He won a scholarship to the Louis Falco dance troupe and supported himself by working as a flamenco dancer. A series of injuries ended his dance career and he turned to acting.

"I was a triple threat," he said. "I was a dancer, singer and actor. But I was threatening nobody."

He moved to Los Angeles in the early 1980's to pursue his acting career, worked for three years in various film production jobs and decided the only way he would ever act was to produce a movie and put himself in it.

After meeting several friends, among them the director Scott Spiegel (who later was co-author of "The Rookie") and Boaz Yakin (who directed "Fresh"), Mr. Bender began eking out a living producing horror films that went straight to video. (One of them is the video cult favorite "The Intruder.")

In 1990 he met Mr. Tarantino, who had been struggling for years to have one of his scripts produced. Mr. Tarantino gave Mr. Bender a screenplay about a bank robbery gone awry. It was called "Reservoir Dogs."

"He had written it in three and a half weeks, and it was amazing," said Mr. Bender. "The dialogue was incredible. I told him I could raise money for this. He didn't know I'd never raised money for anything."

A Texas businessman vowed to help out. But then Mr. Bender had a stroke of luck: "My acting teacher, Lilly Parker, read the script and asked me if there was one actor in the world I'd want in this movie. I told her Harvey Keitel. And she knew him."

Within a week Mr. Keitel had phoned Mr. Bender to tell him he wanted to appear in "Reservoir Dogs." Mr. Bender said: "I had two very different feelings. One was that this was the most exciting thing in my life. I was going to make a real movie, something special. At the same time, I knew that once Harvey was in, it was going to be a bigger movie than I thought and it would somehow be impossible for me to be in it as an actor. It was complete elation and sadness. I was going to have to put off this part of myself."

The bulk of the cost of "Reservoir Dogs" was paid by Live Entertainment, a video company that a friend of Mr. Bender's, the director Monte Hellman, persuaded to back the film.

Although several top actors sought roles in "Pulp Fiction," Mr. Bender and Mr. Tarantino insisted on casting Mr. Travolta, whose career had not flourished in recent years.

"People said, 'John Travolta, you're kidding, you can get any actor in the world,' " he recalled. "We said John was the bottom line. People didn't understand why we didn't want to use a superstar. But John was the guy Quentin wanted."

Ultimately, though, in casting Mr. Travolta as well as Bruce Willis, Harvey Keitel and and Uma Thurman in "Pulp Fiction," Mr. Bender received the full cooperation of the top talent agencies in Hollywood -- Creative Artists Agency, International Creative Management and William Morris -- who are generally adverse to placing high-priced performers in risky, inexpensive movies. The film cost $8.5 million.

"Harvey Keitel said that as long as you're being fair, then actors will work for any amount of money," Mr. Bender said. "Everyone was treated the same. There was no star with one big trailer. There was no star, except the movie." Most of the actors received relatively small salaries along with a percentage of the profits.

Mr. Bender has lived for several years in an apartment in Hancock Park, a stolid Los Angeles community, with Joelle Bentolila, a French writer. He said that he was still not sure how his career would evolve, and remained uncertain whether he would remain a producer or try to return to acting, or even seek another career outside movies. But leaving the movie business seems, at this point, improbable.

"Many times people write scripts because they want to write a screenplay, not because there's anything they need to say," he said. "And I want to make movies with people who need to say something, whether it's a political statement or a pure cinematic statement. I want to make movies that come from some inner being. And those are hard to find."

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