Brad Pitt is someone who has been around the block in the movie biz. He’s starred in a variety of movies in a variety of genres in Hollywood, and he’s been nominated for Academy Awards for roles on four separate occasions. Yet, even he knows how special a movie like Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon A Time In Hollywood is and how rare it is for a script like it to come along.
Ahead of the Oscars 2020 ceremony, Brad Pitt has spoken out about filming Once Upon In Hollywood and knowing the project is much more special than some of the other stuff he’s worked on in the past. According to Pitt,
We’re all just passing through, doing the best we can in these movies. But this one, I would say it’s one of the few times where the experience is as special and unique as the final film. Like our life is as important as the final product. For me, that’s, ‘We’re livin.’
Speaking to the Los Angeles Times along with Quentin Tarantino and Leonard DiCaprio, the three men reflected on the making of Once Upon A Time in Hollywood and how the film strove so hard to get Los Angeles in the 1960s right. We’ve written on this previously, as Quentin Tarantino and his crew spent a long time building practical sets and working some movie magic to make sure a lot of the period details were correct. This includes driving scenes with Cliff behind the wheel and more.
To Brad Pitt and to Leo DiCaprio, all of this work is what makes the movie a standout. DiCaprio also tried to explain what makes Once Upon A Time In Hollywood so striking given its Los Angeles location.
There’s such a disposability to this town. We create this permanence in these movies and they get burned into celluloid and that’s what we live with. Everything else just evaporates and disappears. Los Angeles is constantly evolving and changing. That’s why movies like this are so engaging.
It’s not a shock to hear either actor talk about loving a role framed within the acting biz. In fact, a lot of movies that ultimately go on to nab Academy Award nominations have something to do with showbiz. Look no further than last year’s Green Book, a movie based on the story of a real-life performer, or the year before’s La La Land, which is intriguingly also a love letter to Los Angeles.
Quentin Tarantino movies have landed Academy Awards nominations and wins in the past. They’ve even starred Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio in the past, as the former appeared in Inglorious Basterds and the latter had a role in Django Unchained. But what’s perhaps more exciting is Pitt and DiCaprio’s seemingly mutual enthusiasm for working together and working together on Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
The movie’s twisted take on real-life Hollywood events in the Swinging Sixties, as well as an on-screen partnership between two Hollywood a-listers has landed the movie a lot of notice. Both Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio are nominated for their roles in the movie at this year’s Oscars event. The film is also up for Best Picture, and Quentin Tarantino has been nominated for Best Original Screenplay, plus additional creative end awards.
Both Pitt and the screenplay for OUATIH have already landed Golden Globe Awards, but Quentin Tarantino could actually make history on Oscar night by nabbing three wins in the screenplay category. If he does this, he’ll be tied with Woody Allen as the only other writer to nab the coveted award three times.
The 2020 Oscars air on Sunday, February 9 at 8 p.m. ET, only on ABC.
