Quentin Tarantino defended his decision to limit Margot Robbie's time on screen in his new film set in Hollywood during the Manson murders. While Robbie plays Sharon Tate, the actress killed by Manson's acolytes, Tarantino noted that the film, titled Once Upon a Time In Hollywood, is not focused on her story in an interview with Indiewire.
Tarantino said that the main reason Robbie got significantly less screen time than Leonardo DiCaprio's Rick Dalton or Brad Pitt's Cliff Booth is that Sharon Tate is not the focus of the movie.
“It’s not her story, it’s Rick’s story. It’s not even Cliff’s,” he said. “And [Tate] is an angelic presence throughout the movie, she’s an angelic ghost on earth, to some degree, she’s not in the movie, she’s in our hearts.”
It's a a bit better than his explanation to a New York Times journalist who questioned him about the discrepancy at Cannes. When she pointed out that Robbie had less time on screen, Tarantino shut down.
"I reject your hypothesis," he said, before falling silent.
Robbie stepped in to say that she thinks her character got an appropriate amount of time in the finished film.
"I think the moments that I got on-screen gave an opportunity to honor Sharon," she said. "I did feel like I got a lot of time to explore the character even without dialogue."
That wasn't enough to stem the tide of Twitter disapproval. They called Tarantino out for his response and also wondered why the other actors didn't speak up in the situation.
