Three Kings

Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Quentin Tarantino all got their big breaks in the early nineties—meaning they’ve all been atop the movie business for a quarter century. As Tarantino prepares to unveil his highly anticipated ninth film—“Once Upon a Time . . . in Hollywood,” set in the seminal summer of 1969—Esquire brings the director and his headlining stars together for a first-time conversation about creativity and friendship, success and failure, age and keeping up in a Hollywood that once again finds itself in the midst of seismic change. Roll tape.

- Michael Hainey

“HEY. HEY. GOT A SECOND?”

“HEY. HEY. GOT A SECOND?”

Quentin Tarantino is in my face. He’s smiling, polite. But still, in my face. Nose-to-nose like.

“Listen,” he says, and he starts fast-twirling his index finger in a tight circle, like he’s winding dental floss around it. “I’ve come up with a few questions that could be really good for you to ask.”

His voice is hushed, conspiratorial, but since this is Tarantino, it’s also stage-whisper loud. And naturally, the words tumble out of his mouth with an urgency I would, in any other encounter, describe as Tarantinoesque. But in this case, that’s redundant.

We’re on the patio of a house in the Hollywood Hills. A minute earlier, I was alone under the eaves, looking at Tarantino, Brad Pitt, and Leonardo DiCaprio standing near the pool, all of Los Angeles unspooling into the horizon behind them. For a moment, I found myself staring at the three of them, thinking, Well, damn. Don’t exactly see this every day.

I’m waiting for them to finish being photographed so that we can talk about how they came together to make Tarantino’s new movie, Once Upon a Time . . . in Hollywood, and what they learned through that creative process. Today will be the first time all three of them have been in the same room since they wrapped production in November. For the past six months, Tarantino has been racing to finish cutting the film, to premiere it at Cannes. Still, he found time to phone me two days ago, to give me some backstory on the film’s development. Yet it seems since then, he’s also had time to think about what we could discuss.

“But here’s something important,” he says. “I don’t want it to seem like you are asking a question.”