Writer/director Quentin Tarantino's new film ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD has been compared to his classic PULP FICTION in that it's a large ensemble piece set in Los Angeles (this time the story just happens to be set in 1969 instead of present day), and it's clear that the characters it follows around L.A. are going to be interacting with a whole hell of a lot of people. The announced cast was already huge, but now Tarantino has added 13 more actors into the mix – including some who will be playing notable real life figures.
We've always known that the film would deal with Charles Manson in some way, in fact when word first came out about the project it was referred to as Tarantino's "Manson movie". Tarantino downplayed the Manson connection, but the infamous cult leader is in the movie, and now we know who will be playing him: Australian actor Damon Herriman (pictured above), who may be best known for playing the character Dewey Crowe on 22 episodes of Justified, has been cast as Manson.
Meanwhile, Polish actor Rafal Zawierucha has been cast as Polish filmmaker Roman Polanski, whose wife Sharon Tate and three of her friends were murdered by members of the Manson Family. We have previously heard that Margot Robbie is playing Sharon Tate, with Emile Hirsch as Jay Sebring, a friend and Hollywood hairstylist who was murdered by her side. Another victim that night was Polish actor Voytek Frykowski, and it has been revealed that Frykowski is being played by Russian actor Costa Ronin.
Other new additions to the cast include Rumer Willis as British actress Joanna Pettet, Dreama Walker as actress/singer Connie Stevens, and Margaret Qualley, Victoria Pedretti, and Madisen Beaty as characters named Kitty Kat, Lulu, and Katie. Danny Strong, Sydney Sweeney, James Landry Hébert, Mikey Madison, and the legendary Clu Gulager will also be filling unspecified roles.
ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt 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 rest of the cast we know about: 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"; 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 Maya Hawke, Lena Dunham, Austin Butler, Lorenza Izzo, 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 playing iconic actors Steve McQueen and Bruce Lee. Both had their hair styled by Sebring, and Lee gave Tate martial arts training for the 1968 film THE WRECKING CREW. McQueen had been invited to join Tate and her friends on the night of the murders, and for a while Polanski suspected Lee might have been the killer.
Three of the four people killed by the Manson Family at Polanski and Tate's home are present in the cast list, and I'm guessing that one of the unspecified roles in the mix is the fourth victim, Frykowski's girlfriend / coffee heiress Abigail Folger. It seems pretty certain that we're going to be seeing the night of the murders in ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD in some way, but it remains to be seen how deeply Tarantino is going to delve into that.
Maybe we'll find out how far it will go sometime before the film reaches theatres on July 26, 2019.