2019
Character: Cliff Booth
Release Date: 22 July, 2019
Directed By: Quentin Tarantino
Written By: Quentin Tarantino
Genre: Comedy/Drama
Tagline: The 9th film from Quentin Tarantino
MPAA Rating: Rated R
Produced by: Columbia Pictures, Bona Film Group, Heyday Films
Distributed by: Sony Pictures
Budget: $90.000.000 (estimated)
Filming Dates: 18 June, 2018 – 1 November, 2018
Cast:
…Brad Pitt…Cliff Booth
…Leonardo DiCaprio…Rick Dalton
…Margot Robbie…Sharon Tate
…Emile Hirsch…Jay Sebring
…Margaret Qualley…Pussycat
…Timothy Olyphant…James Stacy
…Julia Butters…Trudi Fraser
Filming Locations:
Corriganville, Ray Corrigan Ranch, Simi Valley, California, USA (as Spahn Ranch)
Cielo Drive & Bella Drive, Los Angeles, California, USA (The bottom of Rick’s street begins here.)
10969 Alta View Dr, Studio City, California, USA (Rick’s house)
14232 Newport Avenue, Tustin, California, USA (Taco Bell)
Paramount Drive-In Theatres – 7770 Rosecrans Ave, Paramount, California, USA (Van Nuys Drive-In Theatre)
Musso & Frank Grill – 6667 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA (as itself; interior and exterior)
Melody Ranch – 24715 Oak Creek Avenue, Newhall, California, USA (“Lancer” Western scenes)
Casa Vega, 13301 Ventura Blvd, Sherman Oaks, California, USA (Rick and Cliff have a boozy meal)
Vine Theater – 6321 Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA (Hollywood street scenes)
Cameron Nature Preserve – 3501 Puerco Canyon Rd Malibu, California, USA (“The F.B.I.” exterior scenes)
7312 Beverly Blvd, Los Angeles, California, USA (Sharon Tate dines with her friends at El Coyote)
Bruin Theatre, Westwood, Los Angeles, California, USA (Movie theatre where Sharon Tate watches “The Wrecking Crew”)
Toluca Lake, California, USA (street scenes)
5515 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, California, USA (studio) (as Columbia Studios Exterior)
Playboy Mansion – 10236 Charing Cross Road, Holmby Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA (Playboy Mansion party sequence)
Los Angeles International Airport – 1 World Way, Los Angeles, California, USA (Los Angeles airport – Terminal 6 tunnel)
The Cicada Restaurant and Club – 617 S Olive St, Los Angeles, California, USA (Italian Restaurant)
Earl Carroll Theatre – 6230 Sunset Boulevard, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA (Aquarius Theatre exterior)
Santa Clarita, California, USA
Frolic Room – 6245 Hollywood Blvd, Los Angeles, California, USA (site of Rick’s car accident)
Excelsior High School – 15711 Pioneer Boulevard, Norwalk, California, USA (studio) (Studio backlot scene with Cliff and Bruce Lee)
Western Street, Backlot, Universal Studios – 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, California, USA (“Lancer” Western scenes)
Forest Lawn Dr, Los Angeles, California, USA
(background as Cliff Booth, played by Brad Pitt, drives the yellow Cadillac)
Capitol Records – 1750 N. Vine Street, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA (background in a shot featuring the “Pandora’s Box” nightclub, which when it was in operation, was located about three miles away at the entrance of the Sunset Strip at Crescent Heights Blvd.)
Newhall, California, USA
Synopsis:
A faded television actor and his stunt double strive to achieve fame and success in the final years of Hollywood’s Golden Age in 1969 Los Angeles.
Trivia & Facts:
• When Cliff recognizes the Manson Family members from his visit to the Spahn Ranch, he can’t remember Tex Watson’s name. Tex responds saying, “I’m the devil, and I came to do the devil’s business.” The real-life Tex Watson said this exact phrase to the victims at Sharon Tate’s house before they were murdered.
• Bruce Lee’s line about Cliff being pretty for a stuntman was suggested by Burt Reynolds during a script reading. Tarantino said “had the line not been Burt’s, it never would’ve made it in the film. Brad doesn’t like characters pointing out how good looking he is. But because Burt suggested it, how could he say no to including it.”
• Brad Pitt ad-libbed the line, “You’re Rick fucking Dalton! Don’t you forget that.” Pitt based that line on an actor who told him the same thing when he was a budding actor in the early nineties.
• The cream Cadillac Brad Pitt drives belongs to Michael Madsen. It also appeared in “Reservoir Dogs (1992)” driven by Madsen. Also, Pitt and Madsen both appeared in “Thelma & Louise” as the title characters’ lovers.
• On Sunday night, Rick and Cliff sit down to watch “Rick’s episode” of The F.B.I. (1965). The audience is later told that the episode is The F.B.I.: All the Streets Are Silent (1965). That is a real episode of the television show, and the ensuing clip is the actual opening to that episode, with one important difference – Rick Dalton has been edited into the place of the guest star villain, “Michael Murtaugh.” In reality, the role of Murtaugh in the episode was played by Burt Reynolds, who was known for open-mouthed gum-chewing, which is a likely reason why Rick and Cliff refer to the gum chewing as “strong”.
• Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt got along so well during the production that they confirmed at the film’s Cannes premiere that they would love to team up again on another film.
• Cliff and Rick watch an episode of The F.B.I. (1965) in which an Army truck is hijacked. A producer went to a local source for film vehicles searching for a similar truck to recreate the scene and, to his surprise, he was taken to the actual truck used in the TV show. They cleaned it up, gave it a fresh coat of paint and used it in this movie.
• Quentin Tarantino described Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt as “the most exciting star dynamic duo since Robert Redford and Paul Newman.”
• Brad Pitt was reportedly in talks for an unspecified role in the film, which was rumored to be a detective investigating the murders, and was eventually turned down by Pitt. Negotiations stopped for a couple of months as it was assumed Pitt wasn’t interested. Quentin Tarantino then tried to consider Tom Cruise for a role as many assume it was the same role (it has not been confirmed) that Pitt declined, but matters never materialized with Cruise. Tarantino then went back to Pitt months later for a role, but this time the role was confirmed for being the stuntman character, Cliff Booth, which Pitt would sign on to do.
• Not counting the ‘archive footage’ interview on the set of Bounty Law at the beginning, Cliff Booth’s first and last lines in the ‘present’ 1969 portion of the film are the same – “I try.” In both instances, it is in response to someone telling him he is a good friend to Rick.
• Cliff Booth is suspected of killing his wife, while KHJ boss jock Humble Harve Miller, heard on the car radio in several scenes, actually did kill his wife in 1971.
• Brad Pitt’s (Cliff’s) jean jacket and jeans costume early in the film is a copy of Tom Laughlin in The Born Losers (1967) . The novelization of Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood explains that it is wardrobe used on screen in The Born Losers and was given to Cliff after a week of stunt work on that film.
• Brad Pitt has said before that he spent time with Bruce Lee’s son Brandon not too long before he died (source: quotes section on Brad Pitt’s IMDb page). In Fight Club he also did an impression of Bruce Lee’s fighting stance.
From the gallery
Quotes
Cliff Booth: Oh, I know you. I know all three of you! Yeah, Spahn Ranch! Spahn Ranch, yeah! Woo!
[turns to Katie]
Cliff Booth: I don’t know your name, but I remember that hair.
[turns to Sadie]
Cliff Booth: And you, I remember your white little face.
[turns to Tex]
Cliff Booth: And you were on a horsey! Yeah… you are?
Tex: I’m the Devil. And I’m here to do the Devil’s business.
Cliff Booth: …Nah, it was dumber than that. Something like Rex.
Sadie: God, shoot him, Tex!
Cliff Booth: Tex!
Bruce Lee: You’re the one with the big mouth, and I would really enjoy closing it, especially in front of all my friends. But my hands are registered as lethal weapons. That means, we get into a fight, I accidentally kill you? I go to jail.
Cliff Booth: Anybody accidentally kills anybody in a fight, they go to jail. It’s called manslaughter. I think all that lethal weapon horseshit is just an excuse so you dancers never have to get in a real fight.
Cliff Booth: Don’t cry in front of the Mexicans.
Cliff Booth: [high on acid] You are real, right?
Tex: I’m as real as a donut, motherfucker.
Cliff Booth: Hey! You’re Rick fucking Dalton. Don’t you forget it.
Cliff Booth: All right. What’s the matter, partner?
Rick Dalton: It’s official, old buddy. I’m a has-been.
[Rick and Cliff are being interviewed on location for “Bounty Law” by a NBC journalist]
Allen Kincade: Hello, everybody! This is Allen Kincade, on the set of the exciting hit NBC and Screen Gems television series “Bounty Law”.
[gesturing to Rick and Cliff sitting side by side]
Allen Kincade: Now if you think you’re seeing double, don’t adjust your television sets, because, well, in a way you are. To my right is “Bounty Law” series lead and Jake Cahill himself, Rick Dalton. And to my left is Rick’s stunt double, Cliff Booth. Welcome, gentlemen and thanks for taking the time to visit with us.
Rick Dalton: Well, it’s our pleasure, Al.
Allen Kincade: So Rick uh, explain to the audience exactly what it is a stunt double does.
Rick Dalton: Well… Actors are required to a lot of dangerous stuff. Well… Say Jake Cahill gets shot off a horse. Now can I fall off the horse? Yes, I can. Yes, I have.
[the three chuckle]
Rick Dalton: Let’s say I fall off wrong and I and I sprain my wrist or I- or I twist my ankle, now… that can put an undue burden on production ’cause now maybe I can’t work for a week. So, Cliff here is meant to help carry the load.
Allen Kincade: Is that, uh, how you describe your job, Cliff?
Cliff Booth: What, carrying his load?
[beat]
Cliff Booth: Yeah, that’s about right.
Allen Kincade: Join me next week on the set of The Dick Van Dyke Show where I’ll be talking to those comical cut-ups Morey Amsterdam and Rose Marie. Till then, this is Allen Kincaid signing off from Hollywood!
Rick Dalton: Hey! You’re a good friend, Cliff.
Cliff Booth: I try.
Cliff Booth: And away we go.
Bruce Lee: You know, you’re kinda pretty for a stuntman.
Cliff Booth: That’s what they tell me.
Pussycat: Want me to suck your cock while driving?
Cliff Booth: [thinks for a bit] How old are you?
Pussycat: What?
Cliff Booth: How old are you?
Pussycat: Wow, man. First time anybody asked that in a long time.
Cliff Booth: What’s the answer?
Pussycat: Okay, we gonna play kiddie games? Eighteen. Feel better?
Cliff Booth: You got some I.D., you know, like, a driver’s license or something?
Pussycat: [laughing] Are you joking?
Cliff Booth: No, I’m not. I need to see something official that verifies that you’re eighteen, which you don’t have because you’re not.
Pussycat: Talk about a bring-down bummer, dude. That’s you.
Cliff Booth: Yeah.
Pussycat: Obviously, I’m not too young to fuck you, but obviously, you are too old to fuck me.
Cliff Booth: What I’m too old to do is go to jail for poon tang. Prison tried to get me all my life, ain’t got me yet. Day it does, it won’t be because of you. No offense.
Gypsy: Welcome to our community.
Cliff Booth: Thanks for having me.
Gypsy: And thanks for giving our precious Pussy a ride home.
Cliff Booth: Think nothing of it.
Gypsy: We love Pussy.
Cliff Booth: Yes, we do.
Pussycat: This was a mistake; you should leave.
Cliff Booth: Way ahead of you.
Bruce Lee: Did I say something funny, stuntman?
Cliff Booth: Yeah, you kind of did.
[while watching an episode of the FBI]
Cliff Booth: All the streets are silent… except when Rick Dalton’s got a fucking shotgun, I’ll tell you that.
Randy: What’s up, babe?
Janet: What’s up, Randy, is that your loser arsehole, wife-killing buddy boy here was beating the shit out of Bruce!
Randy: What?
Cliff Booth: Hey, Randy.
Randy: Cliff! What the fuck, man!
Bruce Lee: Let me just say, nobody beat the shit out of Bruce. It was a friendly contest. He barely touched me.
Cliff Booth: If something were to happen to my boss’s car, well, I’d get in trouble. Lucky for you, he’s got a spare. Fix it!
Clem: [laughs] Fuck you!
Cliff Booth: [as The Family members advance on him as he beats Clem] Stay Where You Fucking Are… Or I’ll KNOCK HIS FUCKING TEETH OUT!
George Spahn: Who are you?
Cliff Booth: It’s Cliff Booth. I just stopped in to say hello and see how you’re doin’.
George Spahn: John Wilkes Booth?
Cliff Booth: Cliff Booth.
Cliff Booth: George, I just want to make sure you’re okay – and that all these hippies weren’t taking advantage of you.
George Spahn: Squeaky?
Cliff Booth: Yeah.
George Spahn: She – loves me. So, suck on that.
Gypsy: You can’t see him right now.
Cliff Booth: Why can’t I see him right now?
Pussycat: Cause he’s napping. This is his nap time.
Cliff Booth: I’m the devil and I’m here to do devil shit.
Cliff Booth: Yeah, I’m sorry about that.
External Links
…Official Facebook
…IMDB