Simply Abu Dhabi XXXV

7 5 S I M P LY A B U DH A B I I n what might be the most anticipated pairing in cinema since De Niro and Pacino in “Heat”, powerhouse actors Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt headline Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood”. This marks the first time the two actors, considered to be among the greatest of their generation, have worked together – although both have collaborated with Tarantino before (Pitt was in “Inglorious Basterds”, while Di Caprio was in “Django Unchained”). “Once Upon a Time…”, which debuted at the Cannes Film Festival to much acclaim, is set in 1969 in Los Angeles, as the fictional Rick Dalton (DiCaprio), an actor known for a ‘50s and ‘60s TV western series, “Bounty Law”, is struggling to make the transition to the big screen and feels left out. His friend Cliff Booth (Pitt), is his loyal stuntman, who also moonlights as Dalton’s chauffeur, factotum and therapist. Then there’s the story of Sharon Tate, the up-and-coming actress wife of the director Roman Polanski, a real-life glamour couple in the 1960s, who in the film happen to be Rick’s next-door neighbours on Cielo Drive, in Beverly Hills. Their story is tragically linked to the infamous Helter-Skelter cult: Charles Manson and “family”, a counter-culture commune gone unspeakably awry. The three stories are on a collision course in the film from one of Hollywood’s most original directors. We met up with Brad Pitt and Leonardo Di Caprio at the Four Seasons Hotel to talk about the film, their careers and friendship, and everything in between. Q: The central relationship in the film is between an actor and his stunt double. Have either of you had a similar closeness with one of your stunt doubles in the same way? BRAD PITT (BP): It doesn’t work the same these days. At that time, actors and their stuntmen spent their entire careers together and were really responsible for coming up with the scenes. In “Bullitt”, Steve McQueen and Bud Ekins came up with that amazing car chase, which has become epic now. Bud Ekins actually drove both cars, he drove the chase car and the one being chased. Nowadays, it’s not quite the same; we rely a lot on our stunt coordinators to come up with ideas and they have their own team of stunt people they rely on, because things have become more litigious now. LEONARDO DI CAPRIO (LDC): But we definitely noticed the dynamic – the professional relationship that becomes like a family member, psychiatrist, everything, when you are on set. When you are off in Africa for eight months, you have that one dude that’s there with you, your protector – they fill all those categories. So we kind of knew what this relationship was. I mean, being in LA, being actors, we knew that dynamic. And Quentin also gave us a huge wealth of our background and history, the professional and personal lives of the characters. So, the second we were in the car that first day, we intrinsically and instinctually knew who these two men were to each other. In a weird way, these were like those friends who you can be silent around for hours at a time, that you’ve said everything that there is to say to them – they’ve been with each other for that long. Q: Were you actually friends before this film? BP: In our community, we tend to go away for a year at a time to film and do promotions. So we would maybe cross paths during the year at awards season or some benefit or something. And we knew working together would depend on being able to line up the right story and the right director, and this one was serendipitous that way. Q: What is the moment you treasure the most from your time working with Tarantino? LDC: Every time I do a movie, I go into this world of discovery, of a time period or frame of mind or a profession or a character that I wouldn’t normally be exposed to. And what I loved more than anything, was that – not only was this a love letter to Hollywood and this time period, all that was interesting – but what I really treasure is this sort of forensic appreciation that he has for artists that never really stood the test of time historically. So, to go and see these subgenres that Quentin is an expert in, like old television and movies, and to see the sincere love of those uncelebrated pieces of work or actors, is amazing. Being able to go through eight actors of that time period that never made the television-to-movie transition, but that Quentin reveres and are some of his favourite actors of all time, was special. There was a guy named Ralph Meeker, and seeing his whole filmography, was so cool, because I thought: “you are right, this guy is incredibly talented, I wouldn’t know about him, my generation wouldn’t”. But for those actors to be celebrated like that, and to find the unique vision that is Tarantino to take you down that road of discovery, was fascinating – it’s amazing. Q: Do you feel lucky that you were able to develop your career in the 90s and not in the 60s? BP: Man, there was great stuff coming out of the late 60s, with Warren Beatty showing up with “Bonnie and Clyde” and Dennis Hopper with “Easy Rider”, and Mike Nichols with “The Graduate”. So that certainly, and into the 70s with Scorsese, Coppola, “Dog Day Afternoon” – that would be the pinnacle of American movie making for me. Gene Hackman, the list goes on. So it’s funny, through all the decades, they are still the films I certainly go back to and it seems like we as actors always refer to these things, like “The French Connection”; they felt more groundbreaking at the time and represented really gutsy filmmaking. Q: Leonardo, in the movie you play an actor, playing an actor, playing an actor. How challenging was that?Was it the first time you played an actor? LDC: Yes, but what was most challenging about it was how to convey within a two- day time frame the emotional transition and turning point that Rick is having at that moment, while he is on set doing a mediocre cowboy show in a character that he hates playing, with this sort of cowardly lion makeup on. This is where Quentin and I started talking about the scene where the character messes up his lines and freaks out, and that was always fun about the process. Quentin had to remind me that I had done a movie that was condensed in a few days, which was Titanic – I didn’t realise that. (laughter) It’s interesting to convey the whole scope of a character within that time frame, especially while he (the actor I play) is working. So, it led to all those moments. But that’s the fun of what we get to do, figuring those things out! Q: Did you get inspiration from anybody in particular for the “Bounty Law” character? LDC: Steve McQueen, Ty Harden, and we watched “The Rifleman” and all those 1950s shows. I think William Shatner is the actor that Quentin remembers as being this idealised image in his youth and seeing him play the heavy on all these television shows. BP: And he would get beat up by the new stars. He would always get beat up, smacked down. Q: The self-doubt your character, Rick, experiences – does that continue through a career, even when you are doing well? Do actors always have an element of self-doubt, and wondering what the next role will be? BP: I think all humans do. I think it’s a constant battle: you gain wisdom as you get older, and the self-doubt gets less and less hopefully, but I think it’s a universal thing, that battle within the mind, beating yourself up, finding a place of peace, being obnoxiously self-righteous – it’s something that an individual has to be aware of inside. So, sure to some degree, but hopefully as you get older, the focus is on acceptance and internal peace. LDC: In this film, you could say, Sharon [Tate] represents hope, I represent doubt and Cliff acceptance. Q: Did this movie make you think about your career as well? You are two of the biggest movie stars in the world, but do you ever find yourself thinking “what did I do to be here?” LDC: Just the realisation of something that I have known for a long time, which is how it’s not just about being talented or anything like that, it’s also about being in the right place at the right time and having this immense appreciation. With this film, we are all very appreciative and we know how lucky we are to be here. Not only being at the right place at the right time, but maintaining that appreciation in the sense that – we know that this is fleeting, we know that wrong choices can take you in a different way. But we all have a real appreciation, and that’s why it was great working with this guy, and his professionalism. We came from the same sort of era and beginnings, and we have that same feeling of – “man, are we lucky, let’s not squander this opportunity”.