Director Quentin Tarantino’s A-listers starrer movie Once Upon a Time in Hollywood was released in 2019. The movie comprised two of the biggest stars in the industry, including Brad Pitt and Leonardo Di Caprio. The film is set in the background of the 60s era of Hollywood and can be considered a classic tribute to the era. Tarantino opened up in a podcast about the chances of including the Top Gun: Maverick star, Tom Cruise in the movie.

Once upon a time in Hollywood

The movie grossed $372 million worldwide, and the pairing of the two stars was received well by their fans.

Also read-“Shut the f—k up and let him do his job”: Quentin Tarantino Learned The Hard Way After Trying to Make Brad Pitt Strip Down for His Movie

Quentin Tarantino was mind blown by Tom Cruise’s performance in Top Gun Maverick

Speaking on CinemaBlend’s ReelBlend podcast, Quentin Tarantino said,

“Normally I don’t talk about new movies that much because I’m only forced to say only good things, but in this case I f***ing love Top Gun, the Maverick movie. I thought it was fantastic. I saw it at the theaters. It was, as our good mutual friend Brett Easton Ellis says, that and [Steven] Spielberg’s West Side Story both provided a true cinematic spectacle, the kind that I’d almost thought that I wasn’t going to see anymore. It was fantastic.”

Tom Cruise in Top Gun: Maverick. Source: Paramount Pictures

As per reports, the director was highly impressed by the actor and considered roping him in for the project Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

Also read- “They’re two apex predators, competing for parts”: Tom Cruise Nearly Replaced Brad Pitt in ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’ Only to Be Dropped Because of Leonardo DiCaprio For One Wild Reason

Quentin Tarantino on casting Tom Cruise in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

The key factor of the movie Once Upon a Time in Hollywood was the excellent pairing of the two A-listers of Hollywood, Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt. However, the film could have turned out quite differently if the cast was a bit different. As per the director, if Brad Pitt would not have been available, he would have offered his role to top star Tom Cruise. However, that would have meant that DiCaprio would not have been part of the movie. Tarantino shared that, it was essential to get the right pairing of his leading men.

Speaking with the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Quentin Tarantino confirmed that he had talked to Cruise about joining his film,

“He’s a great guy, and we really hit it off. [A collaboration] could happen on something else.”

Quentin Tarantino

On being asked the reason for not casting Tom Cruise in the film,

“So the reality is I had maybe eight different pairings of actors that could go together in a realistic way in this kind of situation. Now the ones that I got were definitely my number 1 [choices], but I could never just be confident about that, I had to have a few different backups and a few different exploratory ways to go.”

While DiCaprio and Pitt do not look alike, still they’re a much closer match than DiCaprio and Tom Cruise, so the former pair was selected. Tarantino did not reveal which actor he wanted to cast alongside Tom Cruise.

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is streaming on Amazon Prime.

Also read- “I am just lucky they like my work”: Quentin Tarantino Was Not Sure He Could Convince Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt For ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’