While Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio were Quentin Tarantino’s first choices for Cliff Booth and Rick Dalton, he also considered several other pairings for the part in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. One of those pairings included a massive star whom Tarantino has yet to work with. That individual in question is none other than Tom Cruise, better known as “Mr. See You At The Movies.” Nowadays, Cruise is most well-known for his dedicated work in the action genre (and saving studios), particularly with the wildly successful Mission: Impossible and Top Gun franchises. Still, his skill as an actor goes far beyond stuntwork as he is also a three-time Oscar nominee (four if you count his producing role on Top Gun: Maverick) who has starred in prestigious works like Born on the Fourth of July, Jerry Maguire, Magnolia, and, of course, Tropic Thunder.
According to Tarantino during an interview on the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast, consideration for Cruise in the part of Cliff Booth was serious enough to the point where Tarantino and Cruise had a conversation about the part. Tarantino’s response to the discussion was nothing but positive, calling Cruise a “great guy” and even proudly stating he’d like to work with him on another project in the future. The decision to cast Pitt instead of Cruise came down to getting the right pair of actors for the dual protagonists, which he elaborated on further by stating how it all came down to creating an aspect of realism.
“So the reality is I had maybe eight different pairings of actors that could go together in a realistic way in this kind of situation. Now the ones that I got were definitely my number 1 [choices], but I could never just be confident about that, I had to have a few different backups and a few different exploratory ways to go.”
Quentin Tarantino and Brad Pitt Are Teaming Up Again for ‘The Movie Critic’
With two massive successes under their belt already, Quentin Tarantino and Brad Pitt are aiming to perform a hat trick with Tarantino’s 10th (and supposedly final) feature film, The Movie Critic. Apart from the title implying that the film will focus on a movie critic, not much is known about the highly anticipated potential send-off for Tarantino’s filmmaking career. However, we do know that Brad Pitt will be coming along for the ride, presumably in a lead role of sorts. With the casting process for the film now getting underway, who knows — maybe we’ll see Tom Cruise finally collaborate with Quentin Tarantino for the first and last time.
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is available to stream on Hulu in the U.S.
