DiCaprio at the top of his game
Four-time Oscar nominee (What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?, The Aviator, Blood
Diamond and The Wolf Of Wall Street) and winner for The Revenant, Leonardo DiCaprio topbills Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood. Set in 1969, Tarantino recreates in
Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood the time and place of his formative years, when everything — the US, the city of Los Angeles, the Hollywood star system, even the movies themselves — was at an inflection point, and no one knew where the pieces would land. All this is not entirely dissimilar from the changes buffeting Hollywood today.
At the center is Rick Dalton, played by DiCaprio. Rick had been the star of
Bounty Law, a hit TV series in the ‘50s and early ‘60s, but his prophesied transition to motion picture stardom never materialized. Now, as Hollywood moves towards a hippie aesthetic, Rick worries that his time has passed — and wonders if there’s still a chance for him. “Rick Dalton is a by-product of the ‘50s — the 1950s pompadour hero — but now there’s a new era and this train has passed him by,” says DiCaprio. “Working with Quentin, we saw Rick Dalton’s story as a journey of an immense lack of confidence — his inability to be thankful for the position that he’s in and what he’s already gotten. He’s constantly yearning for something more.”
DiCaprio talks further about the film and working with Tarantino and Brad Pitt in the following interview. Who do you play in Once Upon A Time…in Hollywood?
“I play Rick Dalton. I’m a product of the ’50s cowboy television craze, and I’ve reached my expiration date, so to speak. My stuntman Cliff and I are trying to get our foot in the door. We’re watching not only the changing of the culture but we’re these old TV cowboy guys that are now relics of the past. The world is changing, and we’re not fitting in. Not only is Quentin a great cinephile and lover of this art form, but he’s a great historian of this industry, and he’s taken the perspective of two guys that are voyeurs on the outside of Hollywood looking in. That’s a really unique approach to take on this time period, which I think he reveres as not only one of the most pivotal parts of American history, but also a time that made way for some of the greatest achievements in cinematic history.” What appealed to you about the character?
“When I first read the script, besides the idea of Rick being an actor that’s experiencing a shelf life, I realized that it’s about a person that’s dealing with their own mortality, in a lot of ways, and coming to terms with that.” Were you surprised that you’ve never worked with Brad before?
“Yeah. I mean, we were on the same (’80s to ’90s) TV show, Growing Pains. We’d never really worked together, though. It’s interesting because as we — Quentin and Brad and I — started talking, we realized that we all came around in this industry in the same era and time, in that early to mid-’90s timeframe. So we have that prior reference.” How did you find working with him?
“It was fantastic. He’s an amazing actor, so professional, and so easy to work with. Not only from the intersecting story together, so there was this great comfort we had, not only from working together, but we knew so much of our characters’ backstories given to us by Quentin that it made way for great moments of improvisation. There was just this natural thing that came out in us. Not a lot needed to be said. We understood the bond between our characters. We understood it implicitly. We literally had folders of what our history was together: How long we’ve been in the industry, how Cliff had had my back through the hard times.”
Have you ever bonded with a stunt double on any of the movies you’ve worked on?
“To me, Brad’s character, Cliff, is not just a stunt double. He’s more of an all-purpose Swiss army knife to my character — he’s a shoulder to cry on, he’s a psychiatrist, he’s a bodyguard, he’s an assistant, he’s everything. Rick pays him and gets 12 other jobs into the bargain. Rick keeps him working, but he’s there for him. I’ve had guys like that. You’re off in fricking Africa for eight months and you’ve got that person that’s going to be there, just to be silent and watch TV with you when you don’t want to be alone.”
You and Brad have an easy chemistry onscreen. Is that something that you had to work at, or did it come naturally?
“Well, that’s a lot to do with Quentin. Quentin brings to you almost like a novel of your history as a character, so Brad stepped on set having read almost like a biography on our characters’ past work, our relationships, what we’ve been through together. And Brad’s not only an amazing talent, but he’s such a professional on set that we just kind of fell into these
roles. We kind of instinctively knew who these men were and what that relationship would be in Hollywood.”
You’ve worked with Quentin before. If you could single out one thing that you learned from him, what would it be?
“One thing? That’s hard. For me, he has the consistency that I’ve found in people that make good art in this industry. In particular, those directors are the ones that have an acute understanding and appreciation of film history, and Quentin not only understands the history of the classic cinema but the history of B-movies and pulp films that I’d never heard of, films that are a lost art form and that he has copies of. He knows about music that I’ve never heard of, television that I’ve never heard of, and the complete filmographies of actors that have sort of disappeared, historically. This film is an homage to all those that have maybe been forgotten, a tribute to those people during that time period who were struggling to be successful but did give their contributions nonetheless.”
The movie talks a lot about frustrated expectations. Is that something you still find yourself dealing with?
“When you’re an actor you play different characters — it doesn’t necessarily need to be your own life, your own experience. I mean, that’s a part of what we do as artists. Having said that, I felt completely connected with this character. I felt like I knew who this man was. I have a lot of friends that are actors, people that I grew up with, ever since I was 13. I know the struggles. And not only the struggles but the immense waves of insecurity that one might have, feeling like everything’s sort of falling apart. I don’t know why, but I immediately connected and understood what this person is personally going through.”
Do you ever worry that the clock is ticking on your own career? “Look, it’s always going to be a rollercoaster ride. There’s going to be ebbs and flows in one’s careers. It’s going to be better or worse but, look, I always saw this as a long-distance race, and I think Brad and I come from sort of the same generation, in that we got our break at the same time — I think we both know and appreciate it. We were given this one opportunity and we have to try to make the best of it, and work with the best people we possibly can.” But you’ve been successful so far. What’s your secret?
“I’ve tried to make the best choices we possibly can. I think both Brad and I have tried to challenge ourselves. Look, I think movies are the greatest modern art form. I feel honored and privileged to be a part of it and, like I said before, I think Brad and I both came into this industry around the same time, and we know how difficult it is to get that one shot. Both of us have tried our very best to make use of that opportunity and work on films that challenge us and are also great pieces of art. That’s the best we can do.”
What would you like audiences to take away from the film?
“I hope that we keep talking about the past conversations, about the transitions in Hollywood history — from the musical to the auteur director era, to the talkies from silent films, and now we’re in this very interesting transition today. We’ve made a film that, I think, harkens back to maybe a forgotten style of making movies, a style that is sort of dissipating right now. But there’s a new tech coming into play, there’s a new player in town. I think in a lot of ways the old studio system is becoming a fossil and there’s new players in town. And we’re seeing a different format in the way movies or entertainment is done with these long series, and at the same time there’s a lot of amazing documentaries.”
(Opening in cinemas on Aug. 28, Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood is distributed by Columbia Pictures, local office of Sony Pictures Releasing International.)