Quentin Tarantino's favourite Once Upon a Time … In Hollywood scene was cut

Quentin Tarantino’s favourite scene from ‘Once Upon a Time … In Hollywood’ was cut.

The director revealed that one of his favourite parts of the movie – where Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Trudi Fraser (Julia Butters) have an emotional phone call – was pulled from the final cut of the movie.

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.”

Whilst Tarantino loved the scene, he admits it didn’t quite fit in.

Speaking to CinemaBlend’s ReelBlend podcast, he said: “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 realised 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.”