Once Upon a Time in Hollywood Cast (2019)

The Once Upon a Time in Hollywood cast is a remarkable convergence of Hollywood royalty, character actors, and emerging talent. Leonardo DiCaprio delivers a comedically rich and emotionally vulnerable portrayal of Rick Dalton — a man clinging to relevance with mixture of vanity, self-awareness, and genuine pathos. Brad Pitt plays Cliff Booth with a laconic cool that earned him an Oscar win. Margot Robbie's Sharon Tate is a portrait of pure joy and presence, seen moving through the world with an almost totemic life-force. The supporting ensemble is extraordinarily deep: Al Pacino as a Hollywood agent, Timothy Olyphant as a working television actor, Dakota Fanning as a chilling Squeaky Fromme, Margaret Qualley as the magnetic hitchhiker Pussycat, Bruce Dern as the ageing George Spahn, and Kurt Russell as an unflappable stunt coordinator. Emile Hirsch plays Sharon Tate's real-life friend Jay Sebring with measured dignity.

Supporting & Recurring Cast

About the Once Upon a Time in Hollywood Cast

The casting of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood was itself a cultural event. The pairing of Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt as best friends who exist in a hierarchy — Rick as the nominal star, Cliff as his aide — produced one of the most warmly received on-screen partnerships in recent memory. DiCaprio underwent extensive preparation to portray the very specific anxiety of an actor who knows his time is passing but cannot stop performing; the scenes within a Western television shoot allow him to play Rick acting within the film, creating a layered comedic texture. Pitt's Cliff Booth, by contrast, is a character of conspicuous stillness — a man who has made peace with his station and is, in many ways, the most competent person in any room he inhabits. Pitt won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, his first competitive acting Academy Award.

Margot Robbie's portrayal of Sharon Tate was the subject of some critical debate about whether the character had sufficient interiority, but Robbie and Tarantino have both described the approach as intentional: the film refuses to define Sharon Tate by her death, instead presenting her as a life force and a celebration of unclouded joy. The depth of the supporting ensemble — including Al Pacino in a relatively rare comedy role, and Dakota Fanning delivering a genuinely menacing Squeaky Fromme — reflects Tarantino's consistent ability to attract major talent to even small parts. Julia Butters, as the child actress Trudi Fraser who schools Rick on his craft, delivers one of the film's most unexpected and touching scenes.

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