Quentin Tarantino reveals his favorite scene didn't make it into 'Once Upon a Time in Hollywood'

Once Upon a Time... In Hollywood was two hours and 40 minutes long, but there still wasn't enough room for Quentin Tarantino's favorite scene.

Tarantino, who directed and wrote the 2019 period drama, explained on CinemaBlend's ReelBlend podcast how a scene where Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio) has an emotional phone conversation with his Lancer kid co-star Trudi Fraser (Julia Butters) became his favorite and why he left it out anyway:

"The idea that that wouldn't be in the movie was unfathomable. That was my favorite scene in the script. I think that 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 was in tears every time we finished every take. We were just really proud of that sequence. [...]

"The reason it's not in the film is ... it seems like an ending to the movie, which actually was OK 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."

The two-time Oscar winner went on to note that, ultimately, the Spahn Ranch was the conclusion of the movie's February section—"there's no coming back from that"—and they had no choice but to flow the plot directly into August.

Producer David Heyman similarly gushed over the Dalton-Fraser exchange to IndieWire in July 2019: "Quentin is adept at throwing out a great scene. If [Butters] was in, she'd get an Oscar nomination for that performance. But it didn’t serve the film. It's all about the film rhythm, to get where it needs to be. He cut out fantastic scenes, and reshaped things that made sense of the film as a whole."

Tarantino wasn't satisfied with Once Upon a Time's two Oscar victories and 10 overall nominations. His novelization of the film published June 29, and the trailer for it teases the above-mentioned footage: