Hello and welcome to this entertainment weekly round table for Quentin Tarantino's ninth movie once upon a time in Hollywood
My name is Clark Collis, I'm a senior writer at Entertainment Weekly magazine and it is my huge
huge pleasure to be joined by writer director Quentin Tarantino and
Three of its cast Margot Robbie Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt folks. Thanks so much for coming. I really appreciate it
so as you may have
Tailed by my accent. I'm not from Los Angeles
But I moved here a year ago, and I've had some ups and downs, but I just love this movie so much
It is such a like it's really profoundly affected me and the way that I see Los Angeles and I was kind of driving around
Yesterday with Neil Diamond cranked up wishing I had a convertible
I started getting a bit choked up just thinking about
what happens in the film and it really I mean it said in 96 and I will get into your you know characters in a
Moment but Quentin, were you always intending for this to be like a basically a Valentine to Los Angeles?
Yes, it was I mean I I I grew up in Los Angeles and I loved it I loved it the way that
the only people who truly loved it are the people who who loved it the right way or the people who grew up here and
Know you can love it in your own way
But
The thing is especially says like when it came to 1969 I was like between 6 & 7 years old and
And so the film became a big memory piece and
You know a big part of my memory of Los Angeles at that time is being in the car
with my stepfather being in the car with my mom and
driving around and listening to the radio playing all the time and how we listen to the radio back then which is different than the
Way we listen to the radio now where you just you you you you kept it on one station
You didn't move around looking for songs
and then when the the commercials played you played the radio really loud and when the commercials played you didn't turn the radio down you
Just talked over. It's over the already loud radio
and and I you know, I remember the bus stops advertising the you know, uh,
the rerun shows that are on the local television stations and the movie posters and the mio
diet right RC Cola
Billboards all that kind of stuff. That's what I remember. In fact, there's even um,
my stepfather drove a Karmann Ghia
like cliffs character dries and even that hole shot where you see cliff driving by those signs and like well
That's pretty much my view me up at my stepfather in the Karmann Ghia as he drove around Los
Angeles's me looking up with him like that an angle very similar to what we had with Wrath
so it's like yeah, so it's a yes, so
In the same with a Jackie Brown, I think has the kind of me trying to capture the South Bay of the 80s
That's what I was trying to do with this and some of the characters and the a lot of the characters in the film are
fictional although perhaps inspired by real people
But the film also features some real characters and Marga you play Sharon Tate is very much a real person
what does your
Sharon like I
think
Definitely what I felt when reading the script was that
Quentin and we spoke about it
She was a bit of a heartbeat throughout the story and I wanted to therefore inject her with as much
life as
as possible and and also to
Try and show the best parts of myself because by all accounts for anything I've ever read about it
people say how wonderful she was and generous and
Also, I think at that time she was it was an incredibly exciting time in her life
she's
newly married and her careers really taking off in
Hollywood is is an exciting place where there's so much opportunity and experiences to be had and you know
therefore I wanted to feel hopeful I wanted her to feel excited and
Yeah, it was really beautiful to be able to have those more
Quiet moments to ourselves where she's just kind of loving life in Hollywood
And there's that wonderful in that wonderful see where she essentially goes to see a film that she's in
But there's a very sweet moment which she bowls up to the the cinema and is like, hey, I'm in this movie
Can I can I come and see it?
Has anyone have any of you ever done that it?
Life sort of turned up at a cinema and being like I'm in this film or I directed this film
III did that once at the Brewin no less I
Wonder where you got it from this
Date and I went to see true romance and then I thought well, you know, I wrote this thing
Maybe they'll let me in for free. All right
Not because you're on a date
Yeah, not because nothing is that was stressing the money just being actually I'm in the movie right there. She's not stressing the 75-cent
She's almost just proud to be in the movie. Do I get a little consideration?
That's funny and so I bring up
To the manager and he starts my girlfriend starts negotiating it
He's like well, how do I know? He's in the mood?
Well, I know he wrote that someone she he can show you his driver's license
His name is right there and then but Reservoir Dogs had already come out
So then a couple of people like come up to me and start asking for my autograph
And so I decided my autograph and then the manager of the theater goes well, who are those people he goes? Those are his fans?
But he saw me with my fans and
Leah tell us about about your character and once upon a time in Hollywood
Well was it was?
Interesting to play this sort of guy that is in a way
reached this expiration date culturally and
The 60s have come along and as Quentin eloquently, you know puts in the movie
He's a he's a he's an actor that has spent his career combing
Is there hair and and creating a pompadour his whole life is that's what he knows and he's not making this sort of
transition into this new era of Hollywood and
He's also feeling sorry for himself
He's a working actor, but he he kind of missed out on that op that television to film
Transition that actors like Steve McQueen did where they were able to make that jump and have these sort of amazing careers
He's he's stuck in this rut
And you know, it's what's what's so interesting is you know
Quinton puts all of this in the sort of two-day time span and then he gave this amazing backstory to all of us
but so much of these characters and what they're going through emotionally in this transition that Rick Dalton is going through
Accepting his sort of faith
But also realizing that if he gives a little more and tries a little harder and stops
Feeling so damn. Sorry for himself there
there are some possibilities out there but
Was so great was was to be able to have all that knowledge
And all that wealth of our back stories in this to day life timespan, you know
and how did you prepare to play an active fill of self-doubt is that it was a reach I think that
There's not an actor out there that would not
Twelve headed hydro come out. I wasn't thinking on you particularly right and Brad you play
You play a stunt man. He was essentially in a different era. We would essentially be the Batman really two layers character
not the not the cartoon character, but the you know the
Assistant is is the guy that fixes things for the Gopher. Yes
I didn't want to say what was you tell us a little bit about about your character?
Just that, you know
They they come from this era when when an actor and a stuntman were had a greater partnership and had more
Say on what was going to be in the film. You know, what the
what would take place in the scene and
And at this point, we're on the tail end I say we because I'm on his coattails
Might I have a job if Rick Dalton has a job and if Rick Dolan doesn't have a job
I probably don't but I've been he's he's he's kindly hired me to you know work odd jobs. And so I am
I'm doing I'm doing whatever he needs and you have one of the film's most there's like almost like a five minute sequence
Where you feed a dog, essentially which doesn't sound that exciting. Yeah, that's the best
pet feeding sequence
since
The Long Goodbye, basically when he's getting the carry brown cat force
But what I'd like to read that there was that fun to do that, you know
This is just you and a dog in the trail. I cannot take any credit for that
it's very, you know a
Ken Quentin's constructed this two days in a life for what becomes two and a half days, I guess ultimately
But two days in the life of these characters at different Stratos
of their of their careers and and in life in Hollywood and
Where was I heading with that?
Things I like about that scene is
So you see he turns on the TV Mannix is playing and the opening of Mannix plays as he does everything
I like the fact that the Mannix theme song
Starts feeling like the cliff theme
Show I mean my that was my dad's favorite shows
It was always in there
What are they?
Pushing over him to say. Yes Oh Maddox is this show and we lived a few streets over from the neighborhood drive-in and
Would hop over at our friends house to watch the wants to drive into the backyard
So and Marga, how did you get cast in the film? You wrote Quentin the letter, is that right? Would that works made?
Yeah, you should try it
Please carry on it actually was fairly easy as easy as that
it worked out I yeah, I
Definitely didn't expect to it to work out
So well, I just wanted to let him know how much I love these movies and how it kind of
Yeah, that shaped my childhood really in a big reason. What about that part?
Your old Margo I'm this old director, but that's but that's interesting Boyd is not
Shaped my twenties, okay
And and we met up and
Had lunch and chatted and he was like, do you know who Sharon Tate is and I was like, actually I do
Yeah, and we spoke and then I got to read the script and I think it was a similar process
We all y'all go to sit and catch in Quentin's kitchen nook and read the sky was even allowed in the kitchen
I got sent to the back porch. Oh, really? I got food. Never really you got food. I got to
You go she got food
So the guys were relegated to out of the house what I left and I came back she's gonna sprawled out on the couch
Took me a long time and by the way, not not to hijack your story or to hijack
You surely you would get that. He had one script man. I went back a couple times
I don't got one back
But you know you get there the first time the scripts, you know, it's a little dog-eared here
There might be a little staying here by the time we came back the second time, you know, there's like coffee
This is alive this is breathing document know you could you still have that one, you know, she's right
Yeah, yeah. Sorry. I you were heading somewhere
Perfect and Leo you have this I would spoil what it is
We have this amazing scene with with with Luke Perry who plays a TV actor like as your characters
You know is essentially and sadly we lost him since the since the film was completed
Could you talk a little bit about it about working with him?
I was just immediately struck by his his kindness and you know talking about being a native of Los Angeles
being around this industry my entire life and really having it, you know in a lot of ways shaped Who I am I
There was this immediate
Excitement and seeing Luke Perry, you know unset it was incredible
I I remember being you know in my teens and he was the
manifestation of the new dean on television then everyone was crazy about him and I act I felt this overwhelming feeling of kind of being
Starstruck, but then he and I got to sit down and talk about Los Angeles the 90s his life
where he where his career gone were my career gone where his life had gone were my and I could I was just so
How do I say this the kindness of his character?
Just really I don't know it really. Uh, it really affected me when I heard that news. It was it was really heartbreaking
Incredibly generous human being
And Brad, do you have I think believe this is sort of there's a bit of this in the trailer
But you have a fight scene at one point with is it Mike Mo who?
Plays Bruce Lee
What was what was that like
There's pretty good fun
I love Mike most story because he was he was an actor who things were working out for him
So he'd moved away
To brace his family to provide for his family opened up a dojo and then heard about this
Did he contact you is that huh? He didn't contact me I think contact eye contact Vicky yet
casting and
Ends up getting the part he moves away and gets the part and comes back and does this and he he's brilliant
Well, he tells it great. He tells a great story. So, okay
He's he said actually and this show in humans and everything
But basically he runs a dojo out of Wisconsin. And yeah and
So he got the part and so he's gonna go back to Wisconsin boat
But he got the part soon enough that he could stay for a couple of days so he could be at the the script reading
hmm
So we just invite him to the script reading. So I want you to go and play Bruce
Were you at the script reading and he's already got the part. He knows that so he shows up there
He doesn't really know who's in the movie. Is that right?
Yeah
so he shows up there and then Brad walks through the door and
Then Leo walks through the door then Margo walks through the door and Al Pacino walks through the door and Brad
Burt Reynolds walks through the door and the Barry walks through the door and Tim Allen is I
And he's like flipping the f out. He's just uh, keep it cool
Just keep it cool. Don't let everybody know that you are freaking out the citizen
That's a Hollywood story. Yeah, and there is I went to the Playboy Mansion I guess a few years before
To interview, yeah
But I was watching this there's a secret there's a dance sequences that one's more than a dance sequence
but the sequence was there was a party at the the
mansion and I was sitting there thinking what that looks they've got a hell of a good job of
recreating the mansion and then I realized that it was like
Sitting next to a purist my friend, obviously the half days are over. What was it like shooting that?
I'd been to the Playboy Mansion. I
Know where the grotto was and parelle
And all the animals are there too
That was just the actors
What about the theater room didn't have a theater room yeah
Yeah his theatre room was
You know when she comes walking in dancing by the two stairs hits theater room was just back there
I think they just all set on couches in the head of training on the wall
no, it was a
It was just fun. It was fun
iconic it suggested a Hollywood of a different time and
And you know and then 69 you could go to the Playboy Mansion and
Mama Cass could be sitting there next to Sharon Tate sitting there next to Tony Curtis and
Mati Murphy or something like, you know it he kind of covered the whole thing. In fact, apparently I found that like, um
When Hef would do is movie nights. I knew a
Female friend of mine who showed up at a couple of them's because well they were really great, but they weren't hip
That was what was neat about I mean was winning when he meeting is well, it's all these like cool old actors
So it's like, you know
79 year old Robert Kulp
The you know is always like all these like really cool actors from the 60s that we're friends of Hefner's then who still go to
The Playboy Mansion to see the new movies with Hef and they've all gotten older but it's all
Cool, Leo. You have a musical moment in the film as well
What was what when you were your character appears on the Brill Show while a balloon? Yes when you do a bit of singing
Yes, he's got some moves
well, um, thank God I wasn't hired for my voice for this movie because
We had a couple different songs that we tried one was one whose green door and the other one was
Don't fence me in which and we ended up using green door, but you know, it was great
It was a lot of fun and and Rick Dalton isn't sort of hired either for his
Acting talent for most jobs and most certainly not his singing voice and this is a good display of that
a
Lot of those guys back then actually on TV shows came out with record albums like hugh o'brian
Did and vince Edwards did and all those guys did so Rick didn't do that
He knows that he's not a good enough singer to do it out
But he's good enough to host hullabaloo and stumble through two songs if he had she would have gotten paid
He may have done out. We're doing a Christmas album
But
you do have one of the
Sort of what are the hinges of the movie is the relationship between your two characters and you do in the movie?
you know seem to have a very
Easygoing relationship me I'm did you know each other particularly? Well beforehand. Did you just fall into it or
Certainly over the decades we cross paths
And there was just a shorthand of a real shorthand with us coming I don't we both we all pop kind at the same time
Been through the you know, it's the same
The same timeframe certainly probably all stayed in the same Suites. It always freaks me out, by the way
Do you know what I mean? It's a little weird. It's a little weird when you think about it, but
We'll get back to you doll of the Year at the Tokyo
You know, we all stay in the same
Anyway, we'll get back
But it's alright, it's time the same places. They're just much cheaper
Yeah, but I mean the same room, you know, the same beds same toilet. It's probably same robes
I'm gonna get all
Anyway
Just a just a real shorthand and respect and and and good laughs on
Set and and and I think we both know having really close friends that you know to get through
this thing
In one piece meaning I guess I'm talking about
Celebrity and you need really close friends and to have that that and we've all had those relationships. Yeah
Okay, you know you go to locations for eight months at a time and the guy that's your security or your standard
They become your best friends and the person the family day and that that's that's what I loved about this sort of
this this screenplay is this this partnership of these guys that are on the outskirts of the industry and
trying to sort of pave their way and find their footing still and and survive their working-class actors in a
transitional time in Los Angeles and in America
But they rely on one another they have one another and it may be a you know professional relationship
But it becomes like family and that is something I think certainly with these characters. I kind of knew who they were
Having grown up in LA having friends like this having you know
You know that kind of dynamic. It just it wasn't something that we needed
it wasn't some foreign land that we needed to you know, investigate or
Envelop ourselves into I was very familiar. Well folks right a time. Thank you so much for chatting with me today
The film is Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. It is out July 26th
Fantastic, I thank you so much. Quentin Tarantino Margot Robbie Leonardo DiCaprio. Mr. Brad Pitt
Jasprit, shoot. Thanks a lot. Yes
Thank you
Yeah
