Quentin Tarantino’s latest movie, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, has a stacked cast, but among the more important players is Margot Robbie, who is portraying Sharon Tate. This August marks the 50th anniversary of Tate’s tragic death, and while Once Upon a Time in Hollywood will incorporate her murder at the hands of the Manson Family in some form or fashion, Robbie wants people to know that the movie will celebrate the actress’ time on Earth, saying:
Sharon embodies the best parts of the ‘60s. This is a celebration of her life. And you get a lot of hang time with her in this film.
We’ve known for a while that Sharon Tate would be a major character in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, as back when this movie was announced in July 2017, over half a year before its title was revealed, it was said to revolve around the Manson Family murders. It was then reportedly shortly after Margot Robbie was in talks for the Tate role.
We’ve since learned that Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is balancing its time peering into the lives of both real-life and fictional people, and in the latter category, Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt also prominently appear as struggling actor Rick Dalton and his stuntman Cliff Booth, respectively. Nevertheless, it sounds like we don’t need to worry about Sharon Tate not getting that much screen time.
That said, it is worth noting that Once Upon a Time in Hollywood premiered at the Cannes Film Festival last month (if you were at that screening, don’t spoil what happens!), and afterward, a reporter questioned Quentin Tarantino about why Margot Robbie didn’t get that many lines. The director got snippy, responded that he rejected their “hypothesis” and didn’t elaborate. So we’ll have to wait and see just how many times Robbie's Sharon Tate actually speaks.
During her interview with Empire, Margot Robbie also mentioned that while filming Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, she wore a pair of earrings and a ring that originally belonged to Sharon Tate which were lent to her by Tate’s sister, Debra. Robbie continued:
I guess it sounds like I’m being a bit spiritual or whatever, but it really did help me ground the character in something real. I wanted to honor her memory and bring the best parts of Sharon forward. And I found it really quite moving to have a piece of her with me.
2019 is another big year for Margot Robbie, as along with Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, she also starred in Dreamland and Fair and Balanced, the former of which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in April and the latter of which is coming out on December 20. She’s also reprising Harley Quinn next year in Birds of Prey.
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood opens to the masses on July 26, so keep checking back with CinemaBlend for continuing coverage. In the meantime, you can learn what other movies are hitting theaters later this year in our 2019 release schedule.
