See Full Interview With ‘Once Upon A Time In Hollywood’ Cast On TODAY | TODAY

really good to see you all I'm gonna start with you did you know who Sharon Tate was before the script came your way I did actually yes no I did but I only went when I ever whenever I heard her name I really only thought about her death I didn't ever look into or I was never really exposed to the parts of their life when she was alive and that was kind of a beautiful part about taking on this role was spending so much time with that aspect and and really appreciating her life as opposed to just knowing about her day right because that's what kind of everybody knows about and I wondered if you thought well Oh Quentin Tarantino wants me to play Sharon Tate and I'm sure I'm not sure if I'm interested in the final scene yeah no and I at the same time I think we probably any other filmmaker I'd have that hesitation but with Quentin he doesn't really approach things in the way that we ever expect I knew it was I knew it wasn't gonna be what I whatever it was I knew it was gonna be unexpected in some ways and I think yeah people will be surprised but it is so hard not to ruin the movie talking about it but we are tiptoeing around something I knew he was I'll let you know he was never gonna do it in the way I expected so I was excited to read didn't tell me how he approached the character and of course spent a lot of time discussing the character and her purpose for the story and knowing that also he kind of gone through this already with Deborah Tate who is Sharon's sister and also such an advocate for keeping the memory of Sharon alive in such a beautiful way knowing that they had spent time together and you know she'd given her blessing of some of her jewelry I did yeah I did which was again an amazing opportunity that if it wasn't for Deborah wouldn't have been possible it was kind of them sometimes very sad to be that closely connected with real life Sharon yeah it kind of hit you at moments and suddenly the the tragedy of all of it all would kind of hit you and you would be tremendously sad and other times she just made me feel so happy because I know that she was happy and wonderful and the way people speak about her yeah for the most part if she was an absolute joy but yes there were moments where it's very sad can you give me the elevator pitch because this movie is about so many different things but you know one thing that's kind of interesting to me is I knew I wanted to make a movie at some point in my life about about Hollywood yeah behind the scenes that night so interesting genre movies I think and I'd worked on these characters both the characters of Rick and cliff and Sharon for a long time of kind of who they were and then was creating them and figuring out their careers and then with Sharon was like learning and studying about who Sharon was and diving into her filmed work and interviews and then after I kind of figured out who these guys were I had to kind of decide okay now what story do I want to tell with them and I realized that and at different points I've had more melodramatic ideas you know a real like a even more like a Elmore Leonard II kind of story they would involve all these characters what's probably pretty good frankly but after I'm fine figured out that I figured out who these guys were I think I don't think I need a story I think they're interesting enough characters let me just do a day in the life just follow the three of them over the course of a couple of days now I'm gonna go to the day of the murder and then that's our Dramatic Art and we're always heading towards there and there's them and everybody who's watching the movie knows they and knows that that's where it's heading and so I can use I can try to truly use history to help give me a dramatic ticking clock to some degree or another that never want to tip you never want that clock to go off right you know what the elevator door just opened but keep going I'm done with my elevator pitch case but because to me the idea was once I got these characters to it was to just hang out with him and live their life rather than put them through these melodramatic paces of a phony story right you play a cowboy actor from TV are you old enough to have watched reruns of that sort of stuff no I had not been exposed you know for example - Dead or Alive or the rifleman or a lot of these 50 60s TV shows that you know Quentin had grown up with so to me it was almost an exposure to not only that type of television but these type of beef films that I had never grown up with and an era in time that was you know a great transition not only culturally but in cinema where the guys with the pompadours were sort of fading out and the hippie revolution was was coming into play but you know like Quentin was saying his approach to this was so interesting because the these these two guys these Outsiders sort of looking in at a changing world there are these voyeurs they're almost like a you know Nick Carraway or something like this it's it's it's it's they're working-class guys trying to survive in a changing industry but so much of what Quentin does is always going to be so incredibly unique because he kind of works in a collage type of it's like he has so many things that he refers to whether it be in film or real life like you know he recently just told a story that I don't think we ever heard of how he came up with the concept of a stunt double and an actor being this sort of centerpiece of a Hollywood fairy tale and it was an interaction that he had on set but that mix with you know sort of I'm not gonna get into what happens at the end of this movie but the fairy tale aspect of his imagination of what Hollywood was at that time that it's almost forensic but also created and it's it's a very unique it's a very unique type of film but it's an absolute love story Los Angeles in this time period forensic is good because first of all our friend here is a purist you know nothing is gonna be done CG it's we're gonna do it we're gonna do it for real and they recreated Hollywood Boulevard this 1969 it was it was it was the detail was incredible not only is the radio some obscure radio station advertised on the bus stop that we probably won't see as we're as we're flying by in the store behind it is a little pamphlet of a comic book or or advertising something of that era and that is the depths of his detail and when we started that he came to us and basically with that kind of of a manual because I was a big character in the movie and how big character to the authenticity of the the disc jockey on the radio station and the music and it's like gosh there were streets were filled with cars I didn't know there were that many cars of that vintage still around for God's sakes well I mean I mean one of the really thrilling parts of the movie is both it's one of the thrilling parts of filmmaking is if you're doing a movie takes place in another time is meticulously recreating that time and and since I grew up in Los Angeles and I lived in Los Angeles County at that time to really recreate the city that I live in to this day but to the way it was when I was six or seven it's kind of is kind of amazing I there's a very exciting and - and to really do it do it with plaster and brick and not just oh we'll do that later but also you know to me I remember those radio stations and to me those radio stations on those radio commercials and those DJs they're almost like a period narrator take the green of course yeah most yeah did you have these guys in mind when you wrote it well yes but in a few others you can well here's the thing though isn't it for her and the answer is yes I did but I couldn't be arrogant enough to think I'm going to get there that's nice yeah I mean a lot of things would have to work out for that to happen who said yes first what who said yes first filled the Rick character first yeah yeah well Leo said yes first yes cliff depended on yeah yeah the thing is if you're doing a stunt double on his actor team the actors have to match up yeah you know so uh yeah yeah so I had to get yeah you guys had never been in a movie before no but we did start on the same television show growing 89 90 me 91 92 Oh were you maybe I was 90 then I don't mean we're talking decades ago bleh we were on the same telling ago but did you ever do a scene together no no no no no no these were actually frustratingly blase about stuff like this hey Brad was like on 21 Jump Street one said why did you do a scene with death I don't remember you don't remember how do you do a 21 Jump Street and possibly do a scene with Johnny it but you don't remember so my question for you guys is there any trepidation whatsoever when Oh him you these you guys are really famous and well-regarded but had never worked together before was there any trepidation hell no man you know that you don't have to carry you know the whole thing you got these are the great people to who are the best of the best and are going to you know help carry that load it's actually relief and so much was automatic for us just having experienced many of the same things this story itself that that Quinton has created it just was a an immediate comfort and I don't think I don't think I mean I'm not speaking for you but I don't I don't think either of us thought about it in that context it's what's best for the film I've admired the choices that he's taken to his career and you know you if you start to think in that realm big actor big actor what's the dynamic you're trying to create a piece of art here and you know that I think this Quentin saw in this matchup this sort of two sides of the same coin and Rick this struggling actor and the cliff his stunt double but they're also family was it's it creates an authentic piece of art and so I don't know I never had a yeah so you're talking about something up from an outside perception and and I mean just a couple idiots on the couch I had to change my shirt because I got toothpaste on on the way here do you know what I mean it's like we're doing we see it from the inside out I'm excited about the movie coming out but I'm really looking forward to the headshot posters of these guys together they're gonna be so the next five years cheapy black and white ones did you put it in your dorm room long I'm somewhat serious question I did an interview with Matt Damon years ago and there was a moment after he was hot hot hot hot hot when his phone literally stopped ringing was before born and he had this notion like well maybe this the train has stopped have either of you ever had that sense where either the train is stopped or maybe I want to get off that did it like even with the greatest of careers that I've admired there's herbs and flows it's a roller coaster ride and much like we're talking about in this movie rick is a sort of remnant of the past will he make the adjustment to the future will he be able to adapt is sort of a pivotal question in my character and I've always you know you look at the trajectory in the careers of some of the greatest actors that I've admired and they have been flow there's good times and there's bad times and hopefully you could just be in the race as a long-distance runner is the only hope not you know yeah precisely that and I think we're all aware there's a shelf life on this but you know and certainly feel the Leo's describing the ebbs and flows some are gonna work some aren't you still put everything into each one of them and I think when the older I get it's more important it you commit a lot to a film you months and months of your time it's long days and and truly important to me the you know the people I spend my time with the artists that I respect and so I don't know what wrong on this one but [Laughter] we're gonna yeah we talked about doing Jerry Lee Lewis Dean Martin stories together I have high hopes for are you all really only gonna make one more movie that's the plan for right now yeah really oh me too leave it at that when I'd cut it when I come back in my next what are you gonna say well I just think it's amazing I mean he said that from the beginning and he puts everything into that mode it is so well thought out and when he says a tenth film I mean I can't wait to see what that would be but really speaking about is that we have a we're part of with there's a relevance in what we're what we can bring to something and and Quentin who studied directors writers actors more than anyone I know understands that there is a I guess so it's back to his shelf life but but that things need to transition to so when he says that I he's he's dead serious and it's pretty it's pretty staggering claim but at the same time he's got plays in him he's got novels in and he's got teleplays in him he's got but the thing is also you know I'm getting to be in a couple years from a 30-year career that's not that many directors who have a 30-year career and are still working at the height of opportunity let's say that I that I have so that's a pretty good time to wrap it up alright 30 years is that's giving a lot to it another serious question in my next life who should I come back as you or you I think you're doing pretty well yeah I don't know about him I shine up well on the outside but Ben dicing my friend I hear what you're saying yeah yeah there's a moment in the film cuz you really play it feels like you play three guys there's your act your character and then the character who plays the cowboy guy and then there's a moment when he's in a scene where it feels like he reaches something he never reached before where everybody is everyone's jaws dropped to the floor and just say what was that what was it like for you to play that well I think it was in the discovery of with Quentin of who this man was because I've never really I mean I've done as we as we've said before a day in a couple days in the life of an Titanic which I tried to refer to before which now I remember him was a couple days but this idea of a couple days in the life and trying to also create a character but a character that's also unset doing something professionally who's where most of my scenes are pretending to be another character and struggling with trying to act it was a thing too very complex to wrap my head around in a lot of our conversations initially it was like okay but what's underneath all of that and I think that got us to this whole idea of extreme self-doubt and the possibility that my character you know might want to disappear from the face of the earth at any moment and so it developed this sort of whole side street for us to explore improvisationally with the character that wasn't within the original screenplay and I think was some of the most you know fun moments for both of us to explore when we get the scene where he's in his trailer the the jump cut he's singing everything that was all improvised and wasn't written in the script it was like we came up with it I'm actually in the script him screwing up his lines wasn't in the script that was Leo's idea and so then I because I think I need to have a problem here I don't think this should be triumphant I think there should be a problem then I come back from that problem and okay that's a neat idea and so I I wrote it that way I think okay but now we need to have a Travis Bickel moment I think your trailer has you do a meltdown and I will go on record as it is one of the best smell downs late it's fun to watch you guys have worked with this guy before was there ever a moment in any in the films that you've worked on or on this one where you you've said to Quinton you want me to do what you know what you're getting into [Laughter] no I mean you go on the ride we go on the ride I'm not even gonna go there though in the last fight yeah yeah yeah yeah even I even like knowing okay - Lena Quinton are we over the line not the line your line because there is a moment in so many of your movies where there is this sort of unbelievable violence going on and the audience is screaming and laughter or at least that's how I really wildly exhilarate well I do like yeah I just come from a place of this isn't real guys this is a movie we can do anything in here and as long as it's all just make-believe right then we can take it for what it is believe you know and it is just fantasy and you get to have these verboten moments that you can watch and be appalled and then as effed up as it is I actually tried to make it kind of funny and you should be surprised at your own reaction and even questioning your own reaction embarrassed by as far as I'm concerned that's a great time at the movies that have those kind of conflicted emotions as opposed to just having images glaze over you that's our great time at the movie I remember finishing the script of Basterds and put you down and going can you do that can you can you kill him I guess so it was a very cool film on a bunch of different levels I kept thinking Willy Loman almost as I was watching your character no seriously just attention must be paid in across these desk promises were made it was it was that weirdly enough I mean the the this character was something I was very familiar with hasn't been the course of my life but all these things that are within Rick I think are universal and very human and when you started your career you it was like you and about four other guys always going out for the same roles and he always saw them and and if you didn't get it he got it and you're always like bunching up at the same out outer offices waiting for the operating for the auditions and everything and you guys kind of know what was going on with each other and now you look back on it thirty years later yeah and then and and I think that's what is there's this whole sort of subtext with the man that could have been McQueen you know they both had TV shows in the 50s he made the television two movie transition but did Rick miss that boat and did he miss it forever and does that torture him or is he going to be more like cliff and realize life is pretty good I may not have it all but every day like out of prison is a most comical tragedies in the film there's real tragedies number one but comical tragedies is like one of the zeitgeist II movies that actually Rick would have been really good in is the John Cassavetes role in Rosemary's Baby that actually would have been a good role for him and it's about a struggling actor who wants success and so if if he had just moved if he had just moved to the neighborhood one year you guys are great to take so much time to hang out and talk about yeah it's really that was my pleasure yeah really really cool to see you all you

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Keywords: Pop Culture, The TODAY Show, TODAY Show, TODAY, Celebrity Interviews, TODAY Show Interview, TODAY show news, Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Quentin Tarantino, director Quentin Tarantino, Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, Once Upon a Time In Hollywood cast, Once Upon a Time In Hollywood cast interview, once upon a time in hollywood full interview, the latest on today, celebrity interview, leonardo dicaprio interview, brad pitt interview, margo robbie interview

Id: nPomHS-gZEk

Length: 22min 37sec (1357 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 15 2019