In early 2018, Quentin Tarantino announced that veteran actor Leonardo DiCaprio would play a leading role in his upcoming movie Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. The movie is currently being filmed and is due to arrive in theatres in early August of 2019. It will be the first movie DiCaprio acts in since he won an Academy Award for The Revenant in 2015 and the second time he’s appeared on the cast list of a Tarantino movie. The last time he worked with Tarantino, he played wealthy slaveowner Calvin Candie in Spaghetti Western Django Unchained, which won him an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor.
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is set in the year 1969 in Hollywood, Los Angeles, with DiCaprio playing the role of a former Western television star named Rick Dalton (who happens to be the neighbour of Sharon Tate). While Tarantino asserts the movie plot is fictional, real-life events like the Manson murders will play into the story.
DiCaprio is shooting alongside a star-studded cast, including Academy Award winners Al Pacino and Brad Pitt and Academy Award nominees Tim Roth, Margot Robbie, Brenda Vaccaro, and Burt Reynolds. Brad Pitt will be co-starring as Rick Dalton’s longtime stunt double, Cliff Booth. It will be DiCaprio’s first time starring beside Pitt, as well as his first film with Pacino.
But filming Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is not all DiCaprio has gotten up to this summer. Apart from his continual participation in animal rights, ecological and humanitarian projects (all of which can be followed on his social media), DiCaprio has spent the summer jetting around Europe. He has been spotted snorkelling in Italy and Yachting in France.
It would also seem DiCaprio has been bitten by the volleyball bug. He was spotted playing at the Fourth of July party he co-hosted with fellow actor Sean Penn and, later in the month, with rising star Ansel Elgort. With his schedule jam-packed, DiCaprio got his holiday when he could. Now that shooting is in full swing, he’s going to have to find different ways to unwind. Maybe he will have to cope like the rest of us and de-stress messing around on his phone. As a gambling fan, he could always sneak a game or two in between takes. He can play with the brand with the lion (Leo suits the lion) when he’s not busy playing a washed-up star.
We’re getting side-tracked – back to the movie. DiCaprio is shooting alongside a star-studded cast, including Academy Award winners Al Pacino and Brad Pitt and Academy Award nominees Tim Roth, Margot Robbie, Brenda Vaccaro and Burt Reynolds. Brad Pitt will be co-starring as Rick Dalton’s longtime stunt double, Cliff Booth. It will be DiCaprio’s first time starring beside Pitt, as well as his first film with Pacino.
Fans got a first glance at DiCaprio and Pitt’s characters in a late-June Instagram post by DiCaprio. In it, the pair is decked out in ‘70s era outfits, including double denim for Pitt and bell-bottom slacks for DiCaprio.
DiCaprio has stated in interviews his excitement towards working alongside Brad Pitt. He also expressed high praise for the movie, saying, “As an LA native, having read the script, it’s one of the most amazing screenplays. We are going to do our best job to make it fantastic.” By all reports, filming has gone smoothly. However, negotiations weren’t always in DiCaprio’s favor. According to sources, DiCaprio almost walked away from the project in late January.