It’s now been seven years (yes, seven) since Quentin Tarantino‘s last film, “Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood.” QT fans will remember its build-up well: a Cannes Film Festival world premiere, a late July theatrical release, and two classic roles for leading men Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt, with Pitt’s Cliff Booth instantaneously gaining cult status.
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But according to Pitt’s “Hollywood” co-star Bruce Dern, it wasn’t the easiest shoot, with Tarantino and Pitt not always seeing eye to eye. In fact, Variety reports (via People) that Dern recalled a particular anecdote while at Cannes to promote the new documentary premiering there about his career, “Dernsie.” And it’s fitting to bring up “Dernsie” before jumping into the story, as the title of the doc is a pet colloquialism for the ad-libs and improvisations Dern is famous for sprinkling throughout his many performances.
According to Dern, doing just that on the set of “Hollywood” is what got Pitt into trouble with Tarantino in the first place. While shooting the interior bedroom sequence at Spahn Movie Ranch, Dern deviated from the script in his performance, prompting Pitt to call cut and infuriating Tarantino in the process. In Tarantino’s eyes, Pitt stopping the shoot on Dern’s ad-lib was an unforgivable sin.
““When Brad Pitt wakes me up in “Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood,” I’m in the bed and I get up and I’m a little groggy and stuff and I just say, ‘I’m not really sure what’s going on,’” Dern said. “I’m looking at him. [Pitt] cut the camera. He cut the camera. The look on Quentin’s face — I mean, he was insanely grave — and he said, ‘Brad, what did you just do?’”
“[Pitt] said, ‘Well, I cut the camera.’ [Tarantino] said, ‘Never again in your life will you ever cut a camera or you’ll be dead in this business. That’s my domain. Don’t stop behavior,’” Dern remembered. “So then we went on and did the scene, and all Brad did was say to him, ‘Well, that wasn’t in the script what he said.’”
Of course, Tarantino and Pitt are good friends, so it’s not as if their tiff while shooting “Hollywood” had serious consequences. But at the same time, Dern’s story provides more evidence of how seriously Tarantino takes his role as director. Pitt briefly treading into Tarantino’s executive territory was obviously a no-no, and one wonders if QT’s ire then was as “grave” as Dern describes, or slightly tongue-in-cheek. Maybe the truth is lost in time, but the amusing anecdote is all that remains.
In any case, Pitt returns to the big screen as Tarantino’s charismatic stuntman in David Fincher‘s “The Adventures Of Cliff Booth,” in theaters this Fall. Dean, who turns 90 next month, is still working, too: an upcoming film, “Northbound,” is in post-production now. And as for Tarantino, well, his tenth film is still coming, but not until after he wraps his work on his West End play in London, set to debut next year.
