Trivia / Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

• Ability over Appearance: Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt aren't all that similar-looking, even though it's said a few times how great a match Rick's stuntman Cliff is for him. Few people critiqued this though, with both performances being highly acclaimed.
• Acting for Two: In addition to his on-screen role as Randy Lloyd, Kurt Russell voices the off-screen narrator. This is carried over to the film's foreign dubs, where whoever voice Randy also voices the narrator.
• Acting in the Dark: The ending was deliberately omitted from copies of scripts in order to keep it secret from everyone, including the studio. The only people who really knew the ending right at the beginning of production apart from Quentin Tarantino were the lead actors themselves and a close friend of Roman Polański, to whom Tarantino showed the entire script. Robert Richardson said that he and other main crew members were only told of it two months prior to filming the climax. Others learned it much later into filming or during post-production; an example would be that Margaret Qualley only found out through Brad Pitt while filming at the Spahn Ranch set.
• Actor-Inspired Element:
  • Leonardo DiCaprio had a very difficult time playing Dalton's roles as Dalton would, rather than how he himself would, especially since Dalton is supposed to be an actor of hidden range, so he suggested Dalton forgetting his lines mid-scene to, ironically, help him stay in character as Dalton. The following scene in the trailer was also unscripted.
  • Although Burt Reynolds, who was originally cast as George Spahn, died before he could film any of his scenes, he still managed to contribute one element to the final film. Upon learning that Brad Pitt was going to play Cliff, Reynolds told Tarantino "You've gotta have someone say 'You're pretty for a stunt guy'" to Cliff. The line as suggested by Reynolds appears verbatim in the final film, said by Bruce Lee.
• Actor-Inspired Heroism: The original script had Cliff outright winning against Bruce Lee with a cheap shot, but Brad Pitt himself objected to it, knowing full well how bad it could look, even with Cliff being established as unreliable in his narration.
• Actor-Shared Background: Like Roman Polanski, Rafał Zawierucha is a native of Poland.
• Approval of God: Debra Tate was initially very apprehensive about the project, as she feared the murder of her sister Sharon would be salaciously exploited (she's been defending her sister's memory against exploitation for decades), but after talking with Quentin Tarantino and reading the script, she gave it her blessing. Debra also admitted that she wept when she saw Margot Robbie perform as Sharon, saying that Robbie nailed the role: "I actually got to see my sister again nearly 50 years later."
• Banned in China: A peculiar case. China rejected the film not because of anything related to its content being explicit, but because of the portrayal of Bruce Lee (as mentioned below), who remains a cinematic icon in China.
• Cameo Prop: The Maltese Falcon seen in the bookstore visited by Tate is the real Maltese Falcon, now owned by Leonardo DiCaprio.
• Cast the Runner-Up: Brad Pitt was reportedly in talks for an unspecified role in the film, which was rumored to be a detective investigating the murders, and was eventually turned down by Pitt. Negotiations stopped for a couple months as it was assumed Pitt wasn't interested. Quentin Tarantino then tried to consider Tom Cruise for what many assumed was the same role (this has not been confirmed) that Pitt declined, but matters never materialized with Cruise. Tarantino then went back to Pitt months later for another role, this time confirmed to be stuntman Cliff Booth, which Pitt signed on to do.
• Celebrity Voice Actor: In the Japanese dub, Bruce Lee and Roman Polański are voiced by the TV and movie actor Ryu Morimiya (see Actor Allusion for more details). Likewise, Tex is voiced by Yamato Kinjo, aka Nobuharu Udo/Kyoryu Blue in Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger.
• Channel Hop: The film, like Tarantino's previous three movies, was initially to be produced by The Weinstein Company. Following the company's near-collapse due to the sexual abuse allegations on Harvey Weinstein, Tarantino looked for a new production house. The project ended up at Sony Pictures.
• Creator's Favorite Episode: This is Tarantino's favorite of his movies.
• The Danza: Francesca Capucci is played by Lorenza Francesca Izzo.
• Dawson Casting:
  • Producer Marvin Schwartz was 41 in 1969. He's played by Al Pacino, who was 78 during the filming. Although the character makes a point of saying he is not Marvin Schwartz, he is Marvin Schwarz.
  • 50-year-olds Luke Perry and Timothy Olyphant as 32-year-olds Wayne Maunder and James Stacy, even older than Andrew Duggan was when he played the father of Stacy and Maunder's characters in Lancer.
  • Danielle Harris (age 42) plays a member of the Manson Family. Her character's age is never specified, but she is clearly no more than her mid-twenties. Harris is still convincing.
  • Margaret Qualley was 23 during production playing a girl who is heavily implied to be younger than 18.
  • Rick's birth year is 1933, meaning that he was around 36 on 1969. Leonardo DiCaprio was 44 during filming.
• Defictionalization: The MAD issue that Rick has of himself was designed by the actual artists at the magazine, who eventually released a full version advertised as a special "Tarantino Time Warp Issue".
• Deleted Role:
  • Regular Tarantino contributors Tim Roth and Michael Madsen, plus James Remar (who appeared in Django Unchained), all filmed scenes for the movie (Madsen and Remar as actors on Bounty Law, and Roth as Jay Sebring's butler), but most of their footage was cut for time — Madsen is onscreen for about twenty seconds, and Roth and Remar are edited out entirely, with the end credits even listing "Tim Roth (cut)".
  • James Marsden was announced to play Burt Reynolds, who in 1969 was a frequent guest star on TV Westerns, as an in-joke to the real Reynolds also being initially cast as George Spahn (before he died from a heart attack before shooting began), but ultimately Marsden doesn't appear. It's unclear whether he was cut because of Reynolds' death.
  • Danny Strong was going to play Dean Martin, in what seems very much like it would be deliberately played for absurd laughs. The real Martin is seen in clips from The Wrecking Crew.
• Diagnosis of God: Quentin Tarantino told Leonardo DiCaprio to play Rick Dalton as having bipolar disorder that he self-medicates with alcohol. This was inspired by actor Peter Duel.
• Died During Production: Burt Reynolds was initially cast as George Spahn, but succumbed to a heart attack before shooting began. Bruce Dern replaced him in the role.
• Directed by Cast Member: The Latin American Spanish dub was directed by Xóchitl Ugarte, who voiced the Fox Bruin Theater's ticket clerk.
• Doing It for the Art: Eager to work with Quentin Tarantino again and to keep within the budget, Leonardo DiCaprio took a 25% pay cut from his usual $20 million salary.
• Dueling Works: This movie is actually the third in 2019 to take inspiration from the Manson Family murders. A few months previously came The Haunting of Sharon Tate, a horror movie starring Hilary Duff that was panned upon release and quickly forgotten; and Charlie Says, a drama starring Matt Smith as Manson that received mixed reviews. There's also season 2 of Mindhunter which was released a few weeks later, in which the same actor that plays Manson in this film plays Manson.
• Dyeing for Your Art: Leonardo DiCaprio undertook a strict workout routine in order to convincingly play an action star, giving up pastas and desserts and doing hundreds of pushups per day. Ironically, Rick Dalton gains 15 pounds from his time in Italy by eating pastas and desserts, and it shows.
• Easter Egg: At Spahn Ranch, a television that the Manson Family are watching is playing a broadcast of Teenage Monster, a 1957 film that starred actor Chris Pine's grandmother Anne Gwynne. Tarantino is a fan of both actors.
• Extremely Lengthy Creation: Quentin Tarantino worked on the script for five years.
• Fake American:
  • Australians Margot Robbie and Damon Herriman as Sharon Tate and Charles Manson.
  • Also, British Damian Lewis as Steve McQueen.
• Fake Brit: American Rumer Willis as English Joanna Pettet.
• Fake Nationality:
  • Chilean Lorenza Izzo as the Italian Francesca Cappucci. Downplayed by the fact that Izzo is of Italian descent and can speak the language fairly fluently.
  • Korean-American Mike Moh as the Chinese-American Bruce Lee.
  • Russian-Australian Costa Ronin plays the Polish Wojciech "Voytek" Frykowski.
• Inspiration for the Work: Around 2009, Quentin Tarantino discovered the centerpiece for the film while filming a movie with an actor who had had the same stunt double for 20 years. Even though there was nothing but a small bit for the stuntman to do, Tarantino was asked to use him, and he agreed. The relationship fascinated Tarantino and inspired him to make a film about Hollywood.
• Meaningful Release Date: The film came out fifty years after the murders that were committed by the "family" of Charles Manson and took the life of Sharon Tate. It was actually set to come out on the anniversary day (August 9), but was moved up two weeks by Sony out of respect after Debra Tate (Sharon's sister) called the initial release date "tacky and exploitative".
• Mid-Development Genre Shift: Tarantino spent five years writing the story as a novel before realizing a film script would better suit the material. Ironically, he would nonetheless later release a novelization of this film, the first for any of his films.
• Posthumous Credit: Luke Perry died from a stroke in March 2019 before the release of the film, consequently making it the last work he contributed to.
• Production Posse: As usual, Tarantino brought some veterans of his filmography in — Brad Pitt from Inglourious Basterds, Leonardo DiCaprio from Django Unchained; Bruce Dern from Django Unchained and The Hateful Eight, Kurt Russell from Death Proof and The Hateful Eight, Zoe Bell from Death Proof and Django Unchained, and Michael Madsen from Reservoir Dogs, Kill Bill, and The Hateful Eight, and Perla Haney-Jardine from Kill Bill^note who played the Bride's daughter BB. He also gave a small role to Maya Hawke, daughter of posse member Uma Thurman. Two posse members, Tim Roth and James Remar, had their scenes cut but still show up in the credits. Tarantino goes as far as lampshading this in the credits, grouping most of his regulars under the heading "The Gang".
• Reality Subtext:
  • Flowerchild taking the car keys and abandoning the other Family members. Linda Kasabian, the person on whom Flower's based, was the only unwilling participant in the real-life Tate killings; she was unable to stop the others from going ahead with the plan, but she never went into the house or attacked anyone. When the case came to trial, Kasabian turned state's witness and told the jury everything she could recall about the Family and the murders.
  • The real Kasabian is the only one of the group, at this writing, to have seen the outside of a prison since 1969. The movie Kasabian is the only one of the group to live to see daybreak.
  • A heavy Actor Allusion with Leonardo DiCaprio as Rick Dalton. Firstly, Dalton is a TV actor trying to break into film, which DiCaprio was successful with, whereas Rick is not at this point. Secondly, he is cast to play a heavy in a Western, which is similar to his role as the Faux Affably Evil Calvin Candie in Django Unchained. Lastly, Dalton suggesting that he throw his young co-star in Lancer is an allusion to DiCaprio cutting his hand in Django and incorporating it into the scene when he smeared his blood on Kerry Washington's face.
  • A little Reality Subtext for Tarantino himself in Lancer director Sam Wanamaker, who enthusiastically hires a veteran actor who's been typecast and believes that they can be more than how they are perceived. This reflects his relationship to John Travolta, Kurt Russell and Pam Grier.
  • A Casting Gag in Maya Hawke's character Flowerchild being uncomfortable with killing, considering her mother played the Bride.
• Real-Life Relative: In the Latin American Spanish dub:
  • José Luis Orozco voices Randy, while his son Luis Fernando plays Jay Sebring.
  • Víctor Ugarte voices Roman Polanski, and his sister Xóchitl Ugarte was the ADR director and the Fox Bruin Theater's ticket clerk.
• Release Date Change: The film was initially set for release on August 9, 2019, the 50th anniversary of the murder of Sharon Tate, before being moved by Sony out of respect for the victims and Sharon Tate's family.
• Role Reprise:
  • An odd case with Damon Herriman, who reprises his role as Charles Manson from Mindhunter — he apparently auditioned for each role separately, and just happened to have been cast in both by coincidence. He plays the younger Charlie here; in Mindhunter, he plays Manson after decades in prison. He credits it to matching Manson's diminutive height.
  • This actually the second time Madisen Beaty had played Patricia Krenwinkel, after Aquarius.
• Self-Adaptation: Quentin Tarantino's first novel was the novelisation of this film.
• Starring a Star as a Star:
  • Margot Robbie as Sharon Tate.
  • Damian Lewis as Steve McQueen.
• Swan Song: The film is Luke Perry's final film appearance before he suffered a fatal stroke in March 2019.
• Throw It In!:
  • A flashback shows Rick Dalton training to use a flamethrower and recoiling from the heat it generates. This was Leonardo DiCaprio's genuine reaction to the flamethrower. Quentin Tarantino thought it was funny, and left it in the movie.
  • Rick Dalton's freakout in his trailer was unscripted. The whole tirade was improvised by DiCaprio.
  • Brad Pitt ad-libbed the line, "You're Rick fucking Dalton! Don't you forget that." Pitt based that line on an actor who told him much the same thing when he was a budding actor in the early nineties.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Quentin Tarantino was so determined to avoid the typical cliches of a sixties period piece that he even considered shooting the film in black and white.
  • Tom Cruise was considered to star as Cliff Booth but had to back out due to scheduling conflicts with Top Gun: Maverick. The same scheduling conflicts resulted in Austin Butler dropping out of the auditioning process for that film so he could play Tex Watson.
  • Samuel L. Jackson was in talks for a role, where he would play the villain in an episode of Lancer.
  • Rumours have circulated that Jennifer Lawrence was being considered for the role of Manson Family member Susan Atkins. Tarantino revealed that Lawrence was initially offered the role of Squeaky Fromme.
  • Jennifer Lawrence suggested that Tarantino consider Marc Maron for Marvin Schwarz. Maron was amused to learn this from Tarantino on his podcast and considered it akin to Dalton's story of being on the list to replace McQueen in The Great Escape.
  • Macaulay Culkin was considered for an unspecified role, but was passed over after he bombed his audition, by his own admission.
    Culkin: It was a disaster. I wouldn't have hired me. I'm terrible at auditioning anyway, and this was my first audition in like eight years.
  • Tarantino considered including Jim Brown as a character, with Jamie Foxx playing him. Cliff would beat him in a fistfight while making 100 Rifles. He does appear in the novelisation.
  • Charlie Day was asked to audition for Charles Manson. He turned it down, saying that while he would love to work with Tarantino, he didn't think he was the right choice for this particular role.
  • Julia Butters was cast as Trudi Fraser as a result of Tarantino channel-surfing and happening across an episode of American Housewife. One wonders whom he might have picked if he had landed on another channel.
• Word of God:
  • When asked what happened to Rick Dalton following the events of the film, Quentin Tarantino revealed that news quickly spread about him using his flamethrower to thwart the hippies and he became an In-Universe Memetic Badass. As a result, studios began offering him roles and The 14 Fists of McCluskey saw frequent airings on television.
  • In Tarantino's podcast he later revealed that the Manson family amounted to nothing but a mild footnote in history as only the attempted murders of Rick Dalton ever happened, they are simply remembered as "some hippies". Implying that the cult died out.
• Working Title: #9, as this is Quentin Tarantino's ninth film.

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