How do you tackle a cult as infamous as the Manson Family in film?
Director Quentin Tarantino grappled with that very question when making his ninth film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, which is a cinematic odyssey through 1969 Los Angeles.
While the film mostly focuses on struggling television star Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his trusted stuntman Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt), OUATIH also examines the everyday life of real-life star Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie) and features Charles Manson (Damon Herriman) and his sinister followers.
Now Tarantino has revealed to Empire just how unnerving it was to potentially tackle the unsettling group.
Tarantino revealed: "I was just getting ready to do a deep dive, and all of a sudden I was just like, 'Let me stop before I get started on this – do I really want to let the Manson family into my head, into my psyche? Do I really want to think about where they were all coming from?'
"And the answer was no I don't, and so I put it away. But then the material I wrote was good enough that I kept going back to it in between each thing. The thing that really led me along the way was that ending shot."
The director also revealed why he chose to approach the role of Sharon Tate in such a particular way and also how he dispensed with a
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is in UK cinemas now.
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