Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood — Characters & Cast

To stay somebody — to be seen as an actor rather than a has-been, and to keep the life and house that fame bought him.

Begins as a TV Western lead in freefall, sliding into guest-villain work and drink; humiliated and terrified of irrelevance, he weeps at the thought of becoming useless to the only art form he has ever loved, then finds unexpected grace in doing the work well — and, by the end, a wholly unearned second chance.

Loyalty to Rick, and a stoic's indifference to everything else; he wants nothing the industry can give or withhold.

Rick's longtime stunt double and driver, unemployable and unbothered, he drifts through the film as an observer — sparring with Bruce Lee, picking up a hitchhiker, wandering into Spahn Ranch — until circumstance finally hands him the one task he was always built for. Brad Pitt won the first acting Oscar of his career for the role, Best Supporting Actor at the 92nd Academy Awards.

To live joyfully inside the career and city she has just conquered.

Rather than a victim-in-waiting, she is presented as an ascendant young star in motion — dancing, driving, shopping, delighting in her own work on a cinema screen. Tarantino told Robbie early on that Sharon Tate is the heartbeat of the story, and Robbie approached her as a ray of light; the film's arc for her is one of restoration rather than doom.