QUENTIN TARANTINO
The writer-director, 56, of the ’60s-set Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood (out now) talks about assembling his megawatt cast – Leo! Brad! Margot! – working with the late Luke Perry and why his last film ever could be … a Star Trek movie?
In Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood, Leonardo DiCaprio plays a fictional fading actor named Rick Dalton and Brad Pitt is his stunt double, Cliff Booth. Given that you’d worked with both actors before, did you write the roles with them in mind?
Well, that would have been kind of silly! [Laughs] I really did not know if I was going to get, like, the greatest casting coup of the century. No, I had a whole list of: “Well, if that doesn’t work, then maybe these two guys could work, maybe those two guys could work.” [The problem was] everyone wanted to play Cliff. [Laughs] Leo wanted to play Cliff, but he knew he was better for Rick.
Why did he think he was better for Rick? He’s just better. I could see him as the star of a TV show. And also, most stunt guys that are teamed up with actors are usually 10 years older. The film’s cast of characters also includes real people, like the late actress Sharon Tate, who is played by Margot Robbie. How did you come to cast her?
One of the luckiest things that happened to me in the course of making this movie was to make it right now and have Margot out there. I mean, she was just such perfect casting that I didn’t have a second choice. Right towards the end of finishing up the script, out of the blue, I got a letter, and it was from Margot. She said she’s a big fan of my films and she would love an opportunity to be in one of my movies. I took that as a good sign.
We lost Luke Perry since he shot his role in the film. What do you remember about working with him?
It was really fun. He’s one of the stars of the TV show that Leo’s character is guesting as a bad guy on. I had a couple of different roles I could have put Luke in. Luke was like, “I want to be on the Western show!” Because he’s just a really great rider and he loves doing Westerns. When we did one of his big scenes, Luke slides the horse to the front of the saloon and all the other riders fall in alongside him. I was like, “Luke, do you want us to help you out? Do you want me to put a mark on the ground?” He was like, “Quentin? You could take a dime and throw it in the dirt and I will land on that dime. The take you’ll use is when everyone else gets it right.” This is your ninth movie, and you’ve said that you intend to retire from filmmaking after your 10th. But you’re also developing a Star Trek film to direct. Would that count as a Quentin Tarantino movie? You know, I think it has to count. A year ago, I was thinking [adopts a pompous auteur voice], “Well, naturally my last one would have to be one I wrote.” Now I’m like, “No, no, if I want to do Star Trek that much, I need to want to do it that much.” We’ll see.