Brad Pitt Burt Reynolds Hal Needham Leonardo DiCaprio Once Upon a Time in Hollywood Quentin Tarantino
QUENTIN TARANTINO’S INSPIRATION: BURT REYNOLDS!
Here’s something we didn’t know about Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood: the friendship between Leonardo DiCaprio’s actor character and Brad Pitt’s stuntman character was based on the lifelong friendship of Burt Reynolds and his stuntman Hal Needham. Burt and Hal had matching egos and machismo (not to mention gold chains and chest hair) and they were inseparable friends. Hal even lived in Burt’s guesthouse free for twelve years until he got married again. Hal died in 2013, and Quentin wanted Burt to appear in his movie, but Burt died last year.