FILM · 2019 · CHINA
Once Upon a Time in... Hollywood
- Directed by
- Quentin Tarantino
- Runtime
- 162 min
- Studio
- Heyday Films, Columbia Pictures, Bona Film Group
259 archived facts 7 topics 1 source Last reviewed Sep 2026
Los Angeles, 1969. TV star Rick Dalton, a struggling actor specializing in westerns, and stuntman Cliff Booth, his best friend, try to survive in a constantly changing movie industry. Dalton is the neighbor of the young and promising actress and model Sharon Tate, who has just married the prestigious Polish director Roman Polanski…
Summary: TMDB
15 Facts From Behind the Scenes of Once Upon a Time in... Hollywood
- #001
Contains a major spoiler — show
A flashback shows Rick Dalton being trained to use a flamethrower and recoiling from the heat it produces. This was Leonardo DiCaprio's genuine reaction to the flamethrower. Tarantino found it funny and kept it in the film.
- #029
Bruce Lee's line about Cliff being handsome for a stunt double was suggested by Burt Reynolds during a table read. Tarantino said, "If it wasn't for Burt, that line would never have been in the movie. Brad doesn't like characters pointing out how good-looking he is. But because Burt suggested it, how could he say no to including it?"
- #031
Kurt Russell and Zoë Bell appearing as a married stunt coordinator couple in The Green Hornet (1966) is a double in-joke referencing Tarantino's films. Russell had previously played "Stuntman Mike" in Death Proof (2007), in which real-life stunt performer Bell played herself. Zoë Bell served as Uma Thurman's stunt double on Kill Bill and Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003), whose soundtrack featured The Green Hornet's theme.
- #047
Award-winning cinematographer Robert Richardson said that one of the most satisfying experiences of the shoot for him was filming Al Pacino for the first time. He had seen all of Pacino's films, but having the chance to shoot him in the same setting as Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio was a milestone in his career.
- #061
There are strong indications that Cliff Booth is based on Hal Needham. The world's highest-paid stuntman, Needham broke 56 bones, broke his back twice, punctured a lung and broke several teeth. His career included work as a stuntman, stunt coordinator, second unit director and ultimately director on 4,500 television episodes and 310 feature films. One of the most notable films he directed was Smokey and the Bandit (1977), starring Burt Reynolds, the original lead of the F.B.I. series (1965) that Rick Dalton is said to have appeared in.
- #065
In the scene at Spahn Ranch, the name Randi Starr appears as a sign on the main street buildings. Starr was a real ranch hand and a stunt performer who worked at the ranch. She died during the Tate–LaBianca trial.
- #075
Quentin Tarantino based the Dalton / Booth relationship on that of a real-life pair. In an interview, Tarantino said the idea came to him while watching an actor interact with his stunt double, though he did not reveal who they were. Kurt Russell's name has been suggested as the inspiration for Dalton, but the strongest argument points to Burt Reynolds and his longtime stunt double Hal Needham. Before making a big impact with Smokey and the Bandit (1977), Reynolds had spent many years appearing on TV shows, mostly playing villains, and his career was going nowhere. Tarantino based his film on his own experiences growing up in Los Angeles in the sixties and seventies. Reynolds did not escape obscurity until Tarantino was 14. Interestingly, Dalton plays the villain in a standout episode of The F. B. I. (1965) — a role actually played by Burt Reynolds.
- #077
Quentin Tarantino and Brad Pitt based Cliff Booth on Tom Laughlin's portrayal of Billy Jack, first introduced in The Born Losers (1967), and Cliff's "double denim" outfit is a copy of Billy Jack's clothing in that film. The novelization revealed that Cliff did stunt work on The Born Losers and that the denim outfit was given to him after filming was completed.
- #089
Brad Pitt's role was first said to be a detective investigating the murders, and it was later confirmed that he would be the stunt double Cliff Booth.
- #098
When Cliff is alleged to have killed his wife, he was wearing a life-size replica of a GI Joe Frogman costume (vintage 1966).
- #123
Margaret Qualley let her underarm hair grow during the filming of the character 'Pussycat' in order to play a hippie follower of the Manson family.
- #137
Saturday, February 8, 1969, stands out for a lunch with Schwarz. The next day, Sunday, the pilot for Lancer (1968) was shot at Columbia Pictures. It was common for pilots to shoot on weekends so as not to interfere with active series that had regular weekday shooting schedules. The film spans roughly 48 hours in total: 36 hours in February and 12 hours in August.
- #199
Randy Miller (Kurt Russell) refuses to work with a stuntman because of a history of domestic violence. During the shooting of Executive Decision (1996), Russell refused to work with Steven Seagal after allegations surfaced that he had abused his wife. As a result Seagal was fired and his character was abruptly killed off and removed from the rest of the script.
- #220
In an interview with Empire, Quentin Tarantino said that while writing Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, the core dynamic between an actor and his stunt double was inspired by the British film Mindhorn (2016). That film also involved a washed-up actor and his relationship with his stunt double. Tarantino explained that the scene where Cliff fixes the TV antenna is a direct homage to the scene in Mindhorn where Clive (Simon Farnaby) does topless gardening.
- #243
On the Reel Blend podcast, QT said that Rebecca improvised the name Natalie and immediately named her own character.
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