BRAD, LEO & MARGOT!

Writer-director Quentin Tarantino and a stellar cast shine a light on a gritty Hollywood era

Oh my! The cast of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood talks to Us.

In 1969, the nation was at a turning point, and Hollywood was no exception. The end of the decade — and the swiftly changing film industry — set the scene for director Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, which shines a light on Tinseltown in the time of the Manson Murders. The story follows fictional TV actor Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his longtime stunt double, Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt), as they navigate a town getting harder and harder to recognize. “I really think this movie is [Tarantino’s] love story to this industry, and he’s put, at the helm of it,

two characters who are outsiders,” says DiCaprio, 44. He and Pitt, who first worked together in the 2006 crime drama The Departed, love collaborating. “I had a great laugh with him,” Pitt, 55, notes. “It’s that thing of knowing you’ve got the best of the best on the opposite side of the table holding up the scene with you.”

REAL-LIFE REFLECTION

In addition to enjoying the company, Pitt and DiCaprio couldn’t help but relate to their characters. “I immediately connected with him,” the Revenant star says about Rick, who struggles with confidence and always worries about the next job.

“We’ve all felt like outsiders in this industry.”

DARK SHADOW The cast is A-list from top to bottom:

Al Pacino and Kurt Russell appear, as does Luke Perry (the film was his last before his untimely death in March). Margot

Robbie stars as one of the movie’s nonfictional characters, actress Sharon Tate, Rick’s next-door neighbor and a real-life victim of Charles Manson (his followers infamously stabbed the pregnant Tate to death). “I did a lot of research and watched and read everything I could,” says Robbie. “I saw her as a ray of light, and that was my role in this story: to honor her memory.” And though the Manson Murders are the film’s backdrop, not the focus, Pitt says they provide “a sobering, dark look at a side of human nature, and that pivotal moment was a real loss of innocence.”

“She’s the heartbeat of the story,” Robbie says about Sharon Tate, whom she played. Pacino, who worked with Pitt in Ocean’s Thirteen, portrays Rick’s manager in the drama. “[Brad] and I forged a great cinematic bond in a film about our industry together,” says DiCaprio.