Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood (2019)
- To accurately portray their role in Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood, Leonardo DiCaprio spent weeks conducting hands-on research and rehearsing directly with director Quentin Tarantino.
- Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood utilized mostly practical sets and locations to ground the story, a specific choice insisted upon by Quentin Tarantino.
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is a 2019 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. Set in Los Angeles in 1969, the film follows fading television actor Rick Dalton, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, and his stunt double and best friend Cliff Booth, played by Brad Pitt, as they navigate a changing entertainment industry. Their story intersects with the real-life presence of Sharon Tate, played by Margot Robbie, who lives next door to Rick and whose tragic murder by the Manson Family looms as historical backdrop throughout the film.
Tarantino described the film as his most personal work, a love letter to the Hollywood of his childhood and a meditation on aging, obsolescence, and the passage of time in the entertainment industry. Rather than a conventional plot-driven narrative, the film operates as an atmospheric, immersive recreation of 1969 Los Angeles — the cars, the restaurants, the movie marquees, the radio stations, and the specific quality of late-sixties California light are rendered with meticulous authenticity. Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt's chemistry was electric, with DiCaprio earning particular praise for a scene in which Rick breaks down crying in his trailer after blowing a line, and Pitt winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his laconic, coolly capable portrayal of Cliff.
The film's revisionist ending, in which Tarantino rewrites one of the most notorious crimes in American history, sparked intense debate about the ethics and meaning of using fiction to alter historical trauma. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood earned $374 million worldwide and received ten Academy Award nominations, winning two.
