Hawke, Dunham, Butler, and Izzo join Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

Earlier this year, Uma Thurman revealed that she had accused director Quentin Tarantino of trying to kill her when a driving scene went wrong during the shooting of the KILL BILL films fifteen years ago, an incident that damaged their close relationship. The pair hasn't work together since… But apparently they have patched things up to some degree, as Tarantino has just cast Thurman's daughter Maya Hawke (pictured above) in his new film ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD.

Hawke joins the already large cast in an unspecified role, alongside fellow new additions Lena Dunham, Austin Butler, and Lorenza Izzo (who happens to be married to Tarantino's friend Eli Roth and starred in Roth's films THE GREEN INFERNO and KNOCK KNOCK).

ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD is set in 1969 and deals in some way with the murder of actress Sharon Tate and her friends by members of Charles Manson's "Manson Family". Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt star in the story of 

Rick Dalton (DiCaprio), former star of a Western TV series, and his longtime stunt double Cliff Booth (Pitt). Both are struggling to make it in a Hollywood they don’t recognize anymore. But Rick has a very famous next-door neighbor… Sharon Tate.

The cast also includes Margot Robbie as Sharon Tate; Burt Reynolds as George Spahn, the man who owned the ranch the Manson Family lived on; Luke Perry as Wayne Maunder, co-star of a Western series called Lancer; Clifton Collins Jr. as Ernesto the Mexican Vaquero; Keith Jefferson as Land Pirate Keith; 1970s TV Spider-Man Nicholas Hammond as real life actor/director Sam Wanamaker; Dakota Fanning as Squeaky Fromme, "the Manson disciple who later tried to assassinate President Gerald Ford"; Emile Hirsch as Jay Sebring, a "Hollywood hairstylist who was one of four victims in the Tate murders on Cielo Drive"; Al Pacino as Rick's agent Marvin Schwarz; Scoot McNairy as Business Bob Gilbert, a cowboy on a Western TV show; Michael Madsen as the sheriff on a Western TV show; Spencer Garrett as Allen Kincade, "an interviewer of Hollywood's A-list"; Eddie Perez as Land Pirate Eddie; Maurice Compte as Land Pirate Mao; and James Remar, Martin Kove, Brenda Vaccaro, Nichole Galicia, Zoe Bell, Kurt Russell, Tim Roth, Timothy Olyphant, James Marsden, Marco Rodríguez, Ramón Franco, Raul Cardona, and Julia Butters in unspecified roles.

Damian Lewis and Mike Moh are also in there as the iconic stars Steve McQueen and Bruce Lee. I had previously wondered how McQueen and Lee would fit into the story, but it was recently brought to my attention that both actors were in the orbit of the Tate murders. Both were clients of Sebring, and apparently McQueen had even been invited to join Sebring, Tate, and their friends on the night of their murders. Lee had given Tate martial arts training for her role in the 1968 film THE WRECKING CREW, and for a time after the murders Tate's husband Roman Polanski suspected Lee might have been the killer, since he was a trusted friend who could have taken on several people on his own. 

I am very interested in seeing how Tarantino will be dealing with this strange, tragic moment in Hollywood history.

ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD is set to reach theatres on July 26, 2019.