In a lengthy appearance on CinemaBlend’s ReelBlend podcast, Quentin Tarantino revealed that his favorite scene in Once Upon A Time In Hollywood didn’t make the final cut.
Tarantino explained that the cut scene was an emotional conversation between Leonardo DiCaprio’s character Rick Dalton and Julia Butters’ Trudi Fraser.
“That was my favorite scene in the script,” Tarantino explained. “So the idea that that wouldn’t be in the movie was unfathomable… 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.”
When asked why the scene didn’t make the final cut, Tarantino said that there was too much finality to it. “It seems like an ending to the movie,” he explained. Perhaps the scene could be included in the supposed 20-hour cut of the film that Margot Robbie once alluded to.
“There’s a 20-hour cut of Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood that would…there’s so much more that you didn’t get to see, that we shot that was amazing, and for a million reasons obviously, can’t make the cut,” Robbie told Variety.
Tarantino went on to explain that leaving scenes on the cutting room floor is nothing new. “That happens a lot in movies. You drop scenes that are really terrific,” he said. “But a timeline imposes itself on the cut. And if it falls outside of that timeline, then no matter how good it is, it’s got to go.”
