Quentin Tarantino reveals inspirations behind Leo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt's characters in Once Upon A Time In Hollywood

A few weeks ahead of the US premiere of Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon A Time In Hollywood , the writer-director opened up about the film on Pure Cinema Podcast, reports Entertainment Weekly. Talking to the show’s hosts Elric Kane and Brian Saur, Tarantino revealed details of his film’s protagonists. Leonardo DiCaprio plays an actor named Rick Dalton in the film and Tarantino takes listeners on a brief journey on what inspired the character. Rick, says the director, appeared as Jake on a then-popular NBC show titled Bounty Law_,_ which released the same time as Steve McQueen’s Wanted Dead or Alive. The two shows had similar concepts. Describing the two actors’ on-screen appearances as “a slim, c*cksure bounty hunter”, Tarantino said the two were pitted against each other on television owing to their neck-to-neck popularity. Rick, much like McQueen, began pursuing films during their television hiatus. While McQueen gained widespread popularity in cinema, Jake showed mediocre growth. “So, when [McQueen] goes back to his series, to finish his last season… he’s a f***ing movie star. Rick is still Jake… He doesn’t pull off the TV-to-movies transition,” explained the filmmaker.

For Brad Pitt, who plays Rick’s stunt double Cliff Booth, Tarantino revealed that both Pitt and Quentin thought of Tom Laughlin as a possible inspiration. Laughlin was the star of 1971’s action thriller Billy Jack. Tarantino described how Pitt came over to his place and the two watched the Billy Jack DVD. Both Tarantino and Pitt had coincidentally thought of Laughlin as the character’s inspiration. The Quentin Tarantino episode of Pure Cinema Podcast is set to air on 26 July.