For Quentin Tarantino's supposedly penultimate film, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, the auteur is seemingly trying to put together one of the most absurdly stacked casts ever assembled. The cast already featured the usual suspects of frequent Tarantino collaborators, as well as exciting talent that will be working with the director for the first time. At the head of the cast are Leonardo DiCaprio as former Western TV star Rick Dalton and Brad Pitt as his stunt double Cliff Booth. Now, joining Quentin Tarantino's 1969 Hollywood and Manson family murders pastiche are a lot of new names in some intriguing roles. Among them is Billions actor and Golden Globe winner Damian Lewis.
According to Deadline, Damian Lewis will play Hollywood icon Steve McQueen in the film. The Great Escape and Bullitt actor enjoyed the heights of his fame and popularity in the '60s and '70s. The ultra-cool, super smooth Steve McQueen was a friend of actress Sharon Tate, and according to legend, he was supposed to attend the actress' dinner on the fateful night when the Manson family killed her, only to escape that fate by going off with a mistress. Including Steve McQueen in the film shows that all of the major figures adjacent to the Manson murders will be accounted for in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. To that end, several other newcomers to the cast will join Damian Lewis.
Also bolstering this cast are Emile Hirsch and Dakota Fanning. Emile Hirsch will play Jay Sebring, the Hollywood hairstylist who was one of the Manson family victims at Sharon Tate's house. On the other side of things is Dakota Fanning. The actress who is appearing in this weekend's Ocean's 8 will portray Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, the Manson family member who in 1975 attempted to assassinate President Gerald Ford.
Veteran actor Nicholas Hammond, who was Friedrich in The Sound of Music and played Peter Parker in the 1977-1979 series The Amazing Spider-Man, joins Once Upon a Time in Hollywood as director Sam Wanamaker. An actor and TV director in the '60s and '70s, you can imagine he may be part of Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt's characters' stories. Luke Perry, who currently stars on the gleefully absurd TV series Riverdale, will be playing a character named Scotty Lancer, which could be the character from the 1968-1970 TV Western Lancer, played by Wayne Maunder.
Last but certainly not least are Clifton Collins Jr. and Keith Jefferson. Clifton Collins Jr., who is currently playing the host Lawrence on Westworld, will play someone called Ernesto the Mexican Vacquero, who sounds like a very Tarantino-ish character. Keith Jefferson, who had small parts in Tarantino's Django Unchained and The Hateful Eight, will rejoin the director for a third time as Land Pirate Keith.
Just reading who all of these actors are playing you can see how this movie will have a very Pulp Fiction-eque feel with a lot of intersecting stories and adjacent characters to weave a compelling Hollywood tale. These actors join an already ridiculous cast that includes Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Timothy Olyphant and Burt Reynolds in the film. So I'm assuming the poster for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood will just be a super long list of all the talent involved.
Once Upon A Time in Hollywood hits theaters on August 9, 2019. For everything coming to theaters this year, check out our release schedule.
