Zach Braff did not expect to win an award for the first full-length movie he directed, not even after the beloved soundtrack to his 2004 movie Garden State was nominated for a Grammy.
"I was up against Quentin Tarantino," Braff said of the Kill Bill: Volume 2 director, in a new oral history of his movie's soundtrack from The Ringer. "I certainly didn't think there would ever be a chance where I would beat Quentin Tarantino at anything. My father wanted to come, and I was like, 'Dad, there's no way I'm gonna win a Grammy. Tarantino is winning the Grammy, and you're wasting your trip from Jersey out here."
But he did win. Braff had produced the collection of indie rock songs, which included both "Caring Is Creepy" and "New Slang" from the Shins, Frou Frou's "Let Go," and "Such Great Heights" from Iron & Wine. The music struck a chord with listeners who didn't even necessarily like the movie starring Braff, Natalie Portman, and Peter Sarsgaard.
"I couldn’t believe it," Braff said. "Tarantino jokingly said, 'You stole my f---ing Grammy, man,' and then gave me a big smile and a hug. He was super sweet and supportive. I was the kind of film-school kid that would have put a Reservoir Dogs poster on my wall."
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Tarantino, who had directed the crime film Reservoir Dogs in 1992, set the second volume of his Kill Bill movie to an eclectic list of songs that ranged from country to rock and beyond.
Braff said he's heard a story that the then–Virgin Megastore in New York City's Union Square was even weary of how much people loved the movie's tunes when it was released.
"People would go to the movie theater on 13th Street, and they would just walk around the corner to 14th Street," he said, "and the Virgin Megastore got so tired of it, they put a cardboard sign in the soundtrack section saying, 'We do not have the Garden State soundtrack. Please don't ask."
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The Scrubs alum said he's been just as surprised at the soundtrack's staying power.
"I never in a thousand years would have thought this would be what happened to this movie," Braff said, "but whether it's the soundtrack or the film itself, it's rare that a day goes by that someone doesn't ask me about it. It was a seminal movie for a lot of people at a time in their life when they really needed to see it."
