Quentin Tarantino Nearly Paid Homage To A Bruce Willis Cult Classic In OUATIH

Danielle Harris recalls how Quentin Tarantino nearly paid homage to a Bruce Willis cult classic in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

With the movie already full of cultural nods and recreations, Danielle Harris reveals Once Upon a Time in Hollywood nearly featured a reference to the Bruce Willis cult classic, The Last Boy Scout. The 2019 dramedy served as the ninth movie from Quentin Tarantino in the director’s chair, centered on a former movie star and his stunt double/friend coming to terms with the end of Hollywood’s Golden Age. Part of the plot saw Brad Pitt’s Cliff Booth head to Spahn Ranch, the infamous headquarters of Charles Manson and his wives in the ’60s.

During a recent interview with Screen Rant for Dark Obsession, Danielle Harris recalled how she was nearly one such wife in Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. She revealed that not only was she lined up for a role before giving birth on the day of her filming, but that Tarantino had planned to use her appearance to reference the Bruce Willis-led cult classic The Last Boy Scout by featuring a line cut from the 1991 action comedy. Check out what Harris shared below:

Obviously, that script is one of the scripts I wish that I would have kept, because I don’t know where it is. But I know the original script was way more intense than the stuff that was actually shown. I have a little story, and then I’ll let you go, but when I did Once Upon a Time in Hollywood with Quentin, there’s a scene — I was very, very pregnant, and he wrote the character for me, and was figuring out what I could say or what I would do while I was there. So, he’s like, “I’m going to name you Angel,” and he gave me the scene with Brad. So, I get to set, and he says, “There’s the scene where all of you, the Manson family, is telling Brad’s character to get out here, and leave, and get off for our lot.” And he said, “I want you to say, ‘Take a bath in my a–!'”

Because, what people don’t realize and don’t know — but, of course, Quentin Tarantino knew — was that was a line that I said in the original script of Last Boy Scout to [the bad guy] when I say, “Eat s–t, you f—-ng redneck!” I also had told that character that kidnapped me to take a bath in my a–, but it never made it on screen, and Quentin always loved that line and was like, “You didn’t get to say it in Last Boy Scout, you’re gonna say it in my movie.” I was like, “Oh my god, I get to tell Brad Pitt to take a bath in my a–, this is the best day ever. I will never forget this!” And then, I ended up having my baby the day that I was supposed to shoot the scene, so I didn’t get to do the scene. So I’m hoping that maybe Quentin will bring that back at some point for another movie, but I love that he knew that that was in Shane’s script, and that Shane wrote that kind of stuff. That movie is just a classic, it still holds up, and it’s one of my favorite characters, if not favorite, next to Jamie Lloyd, for sure.

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Why Shane Black & Tarantino Should Collaborate On A Project

Across their various projects, Tarantino and writer Shane Black, who penned the script for The Last Boy Scout, have shared a number of similarities. Both clearly have an enjoyment for letting their dialogue be the source of their movies’ humor and intrigue rather than sight gags or grandiose set pieces. The two also have a knack for satirical and meta approaches to their respective stories, particularly that of Black’s Hollywood-set Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

Given Tarantino is expected to retire from movie directing after his tenth title, The Movie Critic, and is known for helming his own scripts, it seems unlikely that he would direct something penned by Black, but a collaboration between the two would be a fascinating affair. Before becoming one of the most acclaimed filmmakers in Hollywood, Tarantino had penned scripts ultimately helmed by others to varying degrees of collaborative success, including Robert Rodriguez’s From Dusk ‘Till Dawn, and True Romance, directed by The Last Boy Scout‘s Tony Scott.

With Black still very much in the director’s chair, it would be interesting if he could find a way to team with Tarantino proper on something in the future. The latter has also explored a variety of genres Black has yet to tap into, including such Westerns as Django Unchained or his modern samurai epic Kill Bill. Even if they take a similar approach to Hollywood neo-noir settings, like Once Upon a Time in Hollywood or Black’s last original directorial effort, The Nice Guys, their similar sensibilities and writing styles could make for something special.