From left:
Quentin
Tarantino,
actress Julia
Butters,
and producers
Shannon
McIntosh and
David Heyman
at the Jan. 12
Critics’ Choice
Awards,
where Once
Upon a Time in
Hollywood won
best picture.so many methods for content,
and so many of us still really
love the cinematic experience of
going to the theater and seeing
the movie with a collective group.
We’re lucky that filmmakers like
Quentin can still do that. So it
is a changing time. And then
obviously the world ... it does feel
appropriate for the time now, how
we all look at what’s happening
with our lives and take stock of
what’s important.
The film incorporates many archival
elements to re-create the world
of 1969 Los Angeles. How did you
assemble all of those elements for
the film?
When we were location scouting
around Los Angeles, we would
play the air checks [recordings of
radio programming] that we had
gotten from [Los Angeles sta-
tion] KHJ. It has such a presence
and is a character within the
movie. Quentin remembered the
different commercials and the
songs that were playing as he was
[riding around L.A. and] looking
around at all the buildings and
marquees. KHJ adds to the tap-
estry of what’s really special to
Quentin about his childhood, and
that makes it so personal.
There was a treasure chest
of [film, TV and radio clips] we
thought could never be found. We
transferred so many film formats
for this movie, from 8mm to
¾-inch, to different sound for-
mats. We were constantly calling
people [and asking], “Do you have
these machines? Can you actu-
ally help us transfer this?” All of
these different clips created the
tapestry of the movie, and peoplemoved heaven and earth so we
could get these things into it.There was some controversy about
the limited dialogue Margot Robbie
had to work with to play Sharon
Tate. What about her performance
do you think transcended the num-
ber of lines she got to say?
Thank goodness we could get
Margot Robbie with her schedule.
The movie is about Rick and Cliff;
Sharon is the next-door neigh-
bor to Rick, and Margot was thatperfect light and goal for Rick and
for what he wanted. She lights up
the screen in whatever she does —
and I think she lights up the screen
[in this film] in a way that we
haven’t seen before. Many people
have tried to do a Sharon Tate
movie, and some have [succeeded].
What was really special about
this is that [Sharon’s sister] Debra
Tate became our partner. When
she first heard about it, she wasn’t
too happy. We reached out and
embraced her — we wanted her to
know that [the film’s goal was to
portray] her life, not her gruesome
death. Margot’s performance, her
lightness and sweetness, is exactly
how we want to remember Sharon
Tate. And Debra could not be more
thankful for how we can now think
of Sharon. It’s easy to be a hater, to
say she should have had more dia-
logue, but that wasn’t really what
the movie was supposed to be.Is there anything new you learned
about Quentin Tarantino while mak-
ing this film?“Quentin is like a little kid on Christmas
every single day on set, so he matches
your enthusiasm.” MARGARET QUALLEYIt’s been wonderful watch-
ing Quentin on this journey,
because [while in production]
he got married, he’s now expect-
ing a child, he’s going through
these next steps in life. He’s
always been a loving person, but
now that he’s entering father-
hood, I think it’s all hitting
him. This is his once-upon-a-
time fairy tale, and it brings me
to tears every time I see it. You
wish this is how it could have
happened, and you’re also so
happy for Rick Dalton and Sharon
Tate and the hope Quentin has
given them at the end of the
movie. Maybe that’s new for
fans of Quentin Tarantino. He’s
really an emotional person like
the rest of us. I already knew
that part of him, but now maybe
the rest of the world knows
that, too.Interview edited for length
and clarity.