For Pitt, DiCaprio, ‘Once Upon a Time’ movies were communal
LOS ANGELES – You don’t get much more Hollywood than this premiere.
On Monday night, Hollywood Boulevard was blocked off to make way for Panavision film cameras, an old-timey ticket booth and a man yelling from an acoustic megaphone.
It was the premiere of Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” (in theaters Friday), and the red carpet at TCL Chinese Theatre was made to look like a 1960s soundstage. Outside the premiere, though, the year clearly was 2019. Fans lined the street with cellphones out, aimed at A-listers.
Many got their desired photos as Margot Robbie greeted dozens of onlookers, Brad Pitt signed several autographs and Leonardo DiCaprio snagged phones from outstretched hands to expertly take selfies.
But despite embracing modern social media tools, DiCaprio talked on the carpet – in front of vintage-looking film posters bearing his likeness (he plays Western actor Rick Dalton) – about how he worries that technology is hurting cinema.
“We’re entering this age of streaming where things are so immediate and all of the sudden you have eight episodes of a new brilliant show that you can watch almost every other day,” he told reporters. “So when you’re talking about a movie that’s shot on film, that is physically transformed into 1969 with no CGI, this is kind of a real throwback to an era of filmmaking that we’re not going to see anymore. In a way, it is a bit of a dinosaur.
“I just hope that we’re going to have this communal, theatrical experience of going to see a great piece of art all together and enjoy it.”
Pitt, who plays stuntman Cliff Booth in “Once Upon a Time,” reminisced on the carpet about this early acting days, all while standing in front of a sign for a faux “Stage 10.”
“I just couldn’t believe someone let me in,” he said about arriving at his first movie lot. “I love movies all my life, and suddenly to be in an epicenter where they were being made ... that was cool.”
Tarantino reminded Pitt and the rest of the cast on the set that filmmaking is a privilege, especially when the director asked the stars to do an additional take.
“(Tarantino would) say, ‘All right, we got it. But we’re going to do one more. You know why?’ Everybody screams, ‘Because we love making movies!’ ” recalled Austin Butler, who plays mysterious character Tex. “You’re there with Brad and Leo and everybody is screaming it.”
It’s something Pitt and DiCaprio plan to keep yelling for a good while, despite Tarantino insisting that he plans to retire after his 10th film (“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” is his ninth).
“I enjoy doing other things. I think that one day I’ll wake up and organically (my acting career will) be done,” Pitt said.
“Maybe I won’t wake up and that’s why it’ll be done.”
As for DiCaprio, “I suppose at some point (I’ll retire from acting), but I’ve always looked at this as the greatest gift that anyone’s ever given me.
“I feel like I won the Lotto. So I’m going to keep going as long as they’ll have me.”