Tarantino Cut DiCaprio's Favorite Scene Out of OUATIH

With the release of the Once Upon a Time in Hollywood novel, Quentin Tarantino is doing the rounds on podcasts and TV shows, reigniting debates around the movie and sharing all the details that are in the book but didn't make the theatrical cut. 

Apparently one of those scenes was Tarantino and Leonardo DiCaprio's favorite to shoot. In an interview with CinemaBlend’s Podcast, ReelBlend, Tarantino talks about why he had to lose the scene.

'Once Upon a Time in Hollywood'Credit: Sony Pictures Releasing

The scene in question was a phone conversation between DiCaprio‘s Rick Dalton and Julia Butters‘ Trudi Fraser. For those of you who don't remember, Trudi was the child he met on the set of Lancer who told him he was a great actor. 

During the cut phone call, Rick Dalton weeps on the phone to Trudi, and they have some closure. But upon reviewing it, Tarantino thought the whisper into Rick's ear was a better button for the movie. He also felt that the phone call took away from the third act of the film, where we want to see if Rick has come to terms with his art and his future. 

He said, "That was my favorite scene in the script. So the idea that that wouldn't be in the movie was unfathomable. That was my favorite scene in the script. I think it was probably Leo's favorite scene that he shot. We were in tears. It was the only time… I've gotten misty-eyed every once in a while when I was shooting this scene versus that scene. But that thing, I mean, Julia (Butters) was in tears every time we finished every take. We were just really proud of that sequence."

Tarantino expanded on why it's not in the movie, saying, "The reason it's not in the film is—it's a two-fold one. It seems like an ending to the movie. Which actually was okay in the script, because in the script I looked at everything that happens in February as part of a three-act structure. And then the stuff that happens on the night of the murder as an epilogue. But that was the wrong way to think about it. Once we started putting the movie together, the stuff that happens in August isn't an epilogue. It's the third act. We've got to look at it that way. And so, they pulled off the scene. The scene is terrific. It's not about them. But when we really worked on assembly… we realized after the Spahn Ranch, that ends the February section. There's no coming back from that. That is the ending of that. And now we can't just end it with the Spahn Ranch. So the idea is, after Spahn Ranch, we have to wrap up February as soon as we possibly can. And then once we do, then we go into August."

Scenes are cut from movies all the time, but with Tarantino, we always feel like we might miss out on gold. Lucky for us, they exist in the novelization, so if you get curious, go out and buy the book! 

Let us know what you think in the comments.