Quentin Tarantino himself figured he’d let DiCaprio use his creative freedom, but edit it out once it was shot.

Throughout his career, Leonardo DiCaprio has created so many memorable moments on the big-screen. However, the moment we’re looking at today is extra special given that it was improvised by the actor himself.

What makes things that much more impressive is the fact that he was able to pull it off alongside Quentin Tarantino, who usually doesn’t make many adjustments to his vision. Tarantino himself figured he’d let DiCaprio use his creative freedom, but edit it out once it was shot.

However, Tarantino quickly learned that would not be the case after seeing Leo’s performance. We’ll take a look back at the scene in question, and how Tarantino felt about Leo’s bold move in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

Leonardo DiCaprio Was Already Thinking About The Possibilities With His Rick Dalton Character After Reading The Script For The First Time

He gets the best scripts in Hollywood so for Leonardo DiCaprio, he can be extra picky when it comes to certain scripts. However, speaking alongside Deadline, Leo revealed he was instantly hooked to the Rick Dalton character after his first read. DiCaprio admits he was already thinking about his approach to the role, and what the character was all about.

He revealed, “I told him it was great and that I loved what he did. And I was already on track of thinking, OK, what are we going to do with Rick Dalton? Because in the original draft, there were some things that I needed to understand about who he was. He was this template for the industry at the time, and so much of his character had to exist within the context of watching television, or watching movies, or watching him act.”

It seems that at the start, Leo was very hands-on with the character, and that continued throughout the shoot as DiCaprio used his improv skills for several scenes alongside Brad Pitt.

Leo reveals, “Brad and I did a lot of improvising in the movie, but our relationship clicked right off the bat. I made the choice to be this character that had a massive alcohol problem and is going through his own realization that he’s completely mortal and that all of this could disappear.”

As it turns out, DiCaprio made another huge change and one Tarantino had no choice but to agree with.

Quentin Tarantino Admitted Leonardo DiCaprio Was Right To Include Rick Dalton’s Meltdown
The goal for Leonardo DiCaprio was to mess up his lines during the Lancer scene, which in turn, would completely mess up Tarantino’s vision for the scene. Quentin himself admitted that he struggled with Leo’s idea at first, and was likely going to remove it during the editing process.

Leo said, ‘I think I need to fuck it up and forget the lines,” Tarantino said. “I just wanted to do my Lancer scene, a way to do this Western through the back door. He said, ‘I know I’m kind of f****** up your scene, but I think that would be good for the character.’ I saw it as him ruining my fun, basically, but I say, ‘Fine. I’ll write a version, and we’ll do the Lancer scene straight, and with the f*** **, knowing that in the editing room I was going to do what I wanted to.”

After watching Leo’s version, Tarantino quickly understood it was only right to use Leo’s version.

“As soon as we did that second version, the take that is in the movie, I was like, ‘OK, OK, we’re obviously doing this now.’ He was right. It was terrific and it gave the whole thing an arc that worked wonderfully.”

DiCaprio was completely right with his vision, and it made for a memorable scene. Fans were also praising the actor in the comments section in the video above. Yup, he’s pretty good…

Leonardo DiCaprio Improvised The Entire Scene While Quentin Tarantino Pieced It Together

Finally, DiCaprio got his version into the final cut, while Tarantino was able to present it perfectly in the editing room. DiCaprio spoke about his delight for the scene and the way it shaped out.

He tells Collider, “It’s this real turning point for Rick. Here he is, face to face with the new hot swinging dick in Hollywood television who’s got his own show that Rick used to have. And Rick can’t get his lines out. He can’t do it.”

He continues, “What’s so amazing about Quentin is, you bring up one idea like that, and then this whole other Pandora’s Box of possibilities opens up. He makes it a Western, within a Western. He says, we have to have Rick re-preparing himself, and then walking down that Western set to do a shootout with his adversary, but the shootout is within the context of a scene…”

Looking back at DiCaprio’s role in the film, it’ll always be regarded among his most underrated work ever.