Key Points
Timothy Olyphant says he playfully trolls David Fincher on the set of their Once Upon a Time in Hollywood sequel.
Olyphant noted Fincher’s tendency to ask for multiple takes.
Despite Olyphant appearing in the sequel to Quentin Tarantino’s 2019 film only “very briefly,” he said there were times he was “pushing 20” takes on a single scene.
Long days on film sets can get so dreary. Timothy Olyphant’s quick fix? Some playful ribbing.
The Deadwood and Justified star is set to reprise his role as the real-life actor James Stacy in The Adventures of Cliff Booth, a sequel to Quentin Tarantino’s 2019 hit, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Adventures will switch its focus from Leonardo DiCaprio’s fêted screen star Rick Dalton to Brad Pitt’s overlooked stunt man Cliff Booth, with Pitt reprising his role alongside Olyphant.
DiCaprio, however, is out, and so is Tarantino, who’s handed of the reins to David Fincher, the Oscar-nominated auteur behind films like The Social Network and Gone Girl. Fresh off the experience, Olyphant stopped by the Smartless podcast on Monday, where he regaled hosts Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, and Will Arnett with the playful way he teased the notoriously scrupulous Fincher during long shoots.
Brad Pitt in ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’Credit: Andrew Cooper/Sony
Bateman asked if Fincher gave Olyphant a good deal of “performance notes” during production. Olyphant just laughed, recalling, “My favorite thing to do was this: After we’d finished a take, before he said anything, I’d say, ‘Can I get one more? If I could just get one more.’”
Olyphant explained, “He’s famous for many takes.” Though Olyphant said he only appears “very briefly” in the sequel, one scene he did shoot took “two days, day and a half. I’d never done anything like it. I felt like I was pledging a fraternity. Felt a little bit like, ‘Oh, let’s go again. Let’s do it! F— yeah! I want to be part of this, let’s go.’”
The Smartless crew were full of questions for Olyphant.
“Was it mostly technical and framing?” Arnett asked.
“A composition thing?” Bateman added.
Olyphant considered. “Honestly, it’s oftentimes, multiple — it’s everything.” The 58-year-old actor mimicked Fincher microdirecting him: “It’s, ‘Okay on that moment, maybe this. Then when you lift your hand up, show me where it is. Okay, now move it just an inch left. Okay, now down just a half an inch. Lift it right there’… It can get super, super technical visually, but it can also get very, very specific about [performance].”
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Fincher’s exacting approach to the frame has been discussed by several of his stars in the past. In a 2023 conversation with his Zodiac costar Mark Ruffalo, Robert Downey Jr. recalled, “Mark is doing a scene in a phone booth — about take 218.”
Ruffalo laughed, calling the film “a wild ride,” but Downey Jr. explained that after working with Christopher Nolan on Oppenheimer, “I called Fincher recently, because in retrospect, everything changes. Fifteen years later, you have such a different perspective on stuff… I developed a new respect for Fincher. But I remember, that might have been the first time we really had our feet put to the fire with an exacting director. A real director, who does things a certain way.”
You can listen to Olyphant’s full interview on the Smartless podcast above.
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