Esmarelda Villalobos (Angela Jones)

Character Analysis

The lovely cab driver may not have a whole ton of screen time, but she plays a big part in our first real meeting with Butch, helping to shed some light on his character. Esmarelda is oddly fascinated by death—a little creepy as Butch is quick to point out. Esmarelda says she has "much interest" in death and that Butch is the first person she's met who's actually killed somebody. This is the first Butch hears that the boxer that he just knocked out has died.

Maybe we're expecting Butch to talk about how awful it feels, knowing he ended someone's life, but he doesn't. In fact he doesn't show much emotion at all nor does he try to feign any. Esmarelda isn't appalled, she's just more intrigued. The whole scene is very noirish in both its lighting and dialogue. The two never face each other as Esmeralda is driving, which maintains a level of mystique for both characters.

Esmarelda gets that Butch has fled the scene of the fight for some reason. He asks her what she would say if someone would ask her about who her fare was. She replies,

ESMARELDA: The truth. Three well-dressed, slightly toasted, Mexicans.

Esmarelda's very much a 1940s film-noir-type, sexy, tough, and cynical—the kind of woman we'd guess Butch is into until we meet Fabienne.