hello I'm Leonardo DiCaprio and I'm
quiting tarantino we're here to do notes
on a thing we're going to break down the
character as best we can of everything
that me and Leo talked about to get us
to form who this character was and his
and I do want to establish that he's the
one with the photographic memory like
him remember some names it's why I'm
here it's why I'm you I just want you to
know I'm the one who cast you thank you
Sam
I appreciate it it's a good part it's
the day in the life of a man sort of
going not only through an emotional
breakdown but at rent and a transition
in his career and a realization that
time is sort of passed and by that
culture has passed him by but creating a
character that is literally on set
working on a job that for the first time
he's being such allenge yeah yeah now
Rick about your hair Oh what about my
ear I want to go with a different
hairstyle
well what something more Capisce you
look like a hippie
Rick Dalton represented a certain type
of actor that came out in the late 50s
and the early 60s few spots on some
television shows few smaller parts and
like military ensemble in the background
of submarine movies and stuff people
that are comparative to him would be
people like Ed Burns George Maharis who
was on the show route 66 tie Hardin who
was on Bronco and then eventually he
landed on NBC on a TV show called bounty
law on the same year over on CBS Steve
McQueen landed on a very similar show
about about 800 called wanted dead or
alive and for a period of time they were
a kind of similar in Fame and and
popularity then both of them proved to
be popular enough that during their
hiatus they started doing some a film
like a feature film eventually during
that hiatus time McQueen did
and Magnificent Seven and that was that
he was a movie star but Rick was still
kind of JK he'll the guy from bounty law
but when bounty law was finished I think
bounty law came on in the 59-58 season
and ended in the 63-64 season what made
a contract with Universal and did about
four feature films however none of them
were really quite worked out some of
them were okay but he never pulled off
the TV - movie star transition and so
now it's 1969 and things haven't worked
out for him so now he's guesting on
other people's shows like The Green
Hornet or land of the Giants or Lancer
or Ronnie who I stars at bad guy of the
week on this show versus that show and
he's thinking about going to Italy to
start a spaghetti western career they
were a certain type of leading man that
was promoted back then handsome rugged
guys spent their whole careers running
pocket combs through their pompadours
but by 1969 they never saw this
happening the culture had changed yeah
and now the new leading man is not
he-man kind of macho guy is the pomade
in their hair is skinny androgynous
shaggy hair type guys so now it's
Michael Sarrazin
now it's Christopher Jones now it's like
the hippie sons of famous people like a
young Michael Douglas even Arlo Guthrie
starring in movies you know now if
Rick's gonna get a part of one of their
movies he's probably gonna be the cop
who's busting them right and everything
he's been taught about being likable and
being a leading man and uh like people
have to like you if they're gonna want
to get you into their home's Rick
doesn't understand any of this stuff as
far as new Hollywood is concerned if he
was offered deliverance he turned it
down what no one was to see that to see
that he's wrong but he doesn't know that
it's the Hollywood he'd been taught it's
official old buddy has been it was
interesting with Quentin to be able to
work on this sort of emotional breakdown
that that Rick is having this
realization that time has passed him by
I think in a similar way that McQueen
wasn't coming from this place where like
say Paul Newman was Rick's doesn't come
from the the method of course not
concept IB he probably thinks all that
in fact he does think all that
ridiculous
but what's interesting about when you
see him do this Lancer Show
where he's playing this bad guy with a
director who actually believes in him
and he's not just the standard-issue
heavy the whole thing that the director
wants to do is change Rick's look mm-hm
and rick has never changed his look his
entire career very much like a 50s
leading man alright the way he wore is
there then is the way he's gonna wear is
there forever this director wants to
change your look in one of the ways he
does it is he puts a long haired wig on
you and he puts a mustache on you and he
kind of wants you to play the leader of
these rustlers as if he's the leader of
a Hells Angels gang or something but
what's interesting is you have only seen
yourself one kind of way and we have
only seen you one kind of way and even
the audience of this world has only seen
Rick one kind of way but when you see
you in that wig you don't have to be a
relic of 1959 right you could be a
modern actor you could dress you could
be in a new Hollywood movie you could be
in a movie directed by Bob Fosse or
Scorsese you don't eat lunch I've got a
scene after lunch yes
eating lunch before I do a scene makes
me sluggish I believe it's the job of an
actor and I say actor not actress
because the word actress is nonsensical
and you and I had a lot of discussions
about whether you know these sort of
pivotal scenes with the young lady in
the movie who's kind of this young Meryl
Streep who's telling Rick hey things
aren't that bad you know step up to the
plate you know you're a working actor
and I take my job seriously by the way
this other actress he's talking about is
9 right it's the actors job to avoid
impediments to their performance it's
the actors job to strive for 100%
effectiveness naturally we never succeed
but it's the pursuit that's meaningful
who are you you can call me Mara Bella
she kind of inspires him and pushes
pushes him to really take his job
seriously we had a lot of discussions
about whether you know whether to play
through this sort of Cowardly Lion yeah
yeah drapery that rick has of this giant
wig in this mustache and him feeling
miserable about himself in his life and
we weren't sure whether to do we know
this predominant this huge chunk of race
character in this makeup but it really
turned out to be amazing because you see
visually on this face that he's making a
huge pivotal transition in his life
through that makeup and we had a lot of
different talks about how do you portray
this character of Rick Dalton the the
humanity of him while he's on set line I
mean right away we watch a tremendous
amount of westerns not only westerns but
a lot of be westerns that I wouldn't
even be able to have access to which of
course Quinton is able to screen in his
screening room and has you know an
archive of the show that's the closest
to bounty law would be one in dead or
alive so I watched about 13 or 14
episodes one to dinner alive which I had
no problem doing to pick six or seven
mm-hmm that I could handpick for Leo for
him to watch and I thought he would
enjoy and like hand over the magic sorry
don't make me do you mister and it was
also kind of interesting because Leah
wasn't the biggest fan of Steve McQueen
which is rare for a young male actor
because mostly young male actors like
worship at the altar of Steve McQueen
and it worked he actually liked the
episodes and he actually likes liked
McQueen in the episodes he liked him is
Josh so it's kind of my job to show him
enough so he'd have a really good
knowledge a lot of these TV shows and a
lot of these very talented actors that
you know were maybe gonna make the
transition to film in this new era but
kind of got stuck in that and that Roman
Ralph Meeker was an actor that we looked
at a lot because I think we both had
this amazing affinity
towards him because obviously Quinton is
in a cinephile but he's a lover of these
actors that maybe an entire generation
hasn't heard of and he really puts them
talent-wise as far as how they affect
him as an audience member up with the
best of the best Oh rough meagre he's
one of my literally my favorite actors
of all time of all time sure you will
make a deal for like it did for
Christina you held her under custody in
a hospital and you let her get away you
let her get killed and then you start to
say wow this guy this guy was immensely
talented and maybe time and history had
so well I guess he is one of my favorite
actors and so the idea that lea wasn't
that familiar with him but then the next
day all he wanted to do was talk to me
about Ralph Meeker I couldn't be more
happy that you were so excited about him
well I have more of that where that came
from
I gave me more because to me why he was
so pivotal I think it was because we
were in discussion with what kind of
actor Rick is that he had been trained
in the world of television that he'd
been trained not like formally trained
but there's a real talent that lies
within him that needs to be brought out
that needs to be pushed you know and
Ralph Meeker kind of where are some of
the other actors I felt you know yeah
didn't have the talent level that I feel
or the potential that Rick Dalton did
have Ralph Meeker did and not all those
things that he gives us I mean not not
only do you get a plethora of films and
television to watch you get a massive
backstory and history of of who the
character is and who the man is and the
relationship that he has has had with
cliff in the past which was important
for both Brad and myself because there
was this immediate understanding between
Brad and myself of what we'd been
through it gave us this ability to sort
of just fit and naturally into our
characters shoes and improvise knowing
this history that Quentin had created
you know if every actor could be blessed
with that type of backstory going into a
movie it's it's it's every actors dream
really to my right is bounty law series
lead and Jake Cahill himself
Rick Dalton and to my left is Rick stunt
double cliff booth I could talk about
all the different movies that Rick did
and all of his
that he did before then and this and
that and this career versus that career
I could chapter in verse at some point
though you're not doing a film book
about Rick Dalton you're playing a
character that it has to actually be
alive and carry through in scenes in a
very nice way leo would say okay all
that's well and good about all this my
new show
I need something to act what am i doing
in this scene stop talking about what
he's done in the past and tell me Who am
I and what was really interesting was we
kind of found that together and the way
we found it rather than me just coming
up with a bunch of stuff I still went to
the past I would talk about this actor
say George Maharis or that actor I tell
something about their life but in
talking about it all of a sudden I would
say something that Leo would kick in to
you and when he would kick in to that oh
hey that's an active thing that is
something that's a character that's not
just information that's a character and
we were able to come up with a few bits
like that that now actually we had a
character that we didn't have before and
the biggest example of that is I told
Leo about this show from like the early
70s that I was a big fan of and actually
Brad was a big fan of when we were both
kids alias Smith and Jones and I told
him about the actor P duel who was on
the show there right Sheriff it is
annoying exactly according to plan but
we couldn't take penny out that door you
see we promised to take her with us and
somewhere in the second season he
committed suicide
I remember that really well back then
because I was a big fan of the show and
I think we probably the first time I
ever understood the concept of suicide
oh my god he died well how did he die
well he committed suicide what's that
seven eight what's that he killed
himself he killed himself why did he
kill himself I don't know I guess he was
depressed
what does he got to be depressed him
happen he's Hannibal A's it's the
coolest guy on television I did a little
bit of research and found out a little
bit that he had a bit of a drinking
problem it sounds like the guy was
undiagnosed bipolar and he had mood
swings and the reason that he was
drinking was to self-medicate himself
Leo got Sam Sam uh got me covered up and
all this uh this junk
how's the audience gonna notice me I
hope they don't
hmm now he we already had Rick a drinker
but the whole thing of undiagnosed
bipolar and not knowing how that works
and the weird pendulum swings of emotion
that you would have especially if you
don't have a medical understanding of
why you feel that way that became a
really interesting thing that we thought
that Rick could deal through and that
gave Leo a good solid ground in which to
work and to build a character and to
have a subtext going on inside of scenes
that doesn't have to revolve around the
story of the same or doesn't need to be
told overtly to an audience we can just
show in the day of a life of over it
Dalton yeah yeah that the movie yeah we
never say the words that he's bipolar
it's just look I think he said it the
best it possibly could be said I could
add on to that but that was the part of
the discovery for me with you of how to
how to bring that sort of emotional
rollercoaster to Rick in that short
period of time and I think we you know
well the emotional weight the ground you
to the floor yeah that was the best
acting I've ever seen in my whole life
thank you