By Listening to Quentin Tarantino giddily explain Once Upon A Time In... Hollywood to people, it's hard not to come to the conclusion that he loves his leading man Rick Dalton more than any character he's ever written. He's absolutely mad for the bloke.
Now, he and Leo DiCaprio have given us the full story of where he came from and how they decided to take him on his narrative path. Speaking to Vanity Fair for a breakdown of Rick and the Hollywood he came from, DiCaprio explained that Rick is "[going] through an emotional breakdown and a transition in his career and a realisation that time has passed him by and culture has passed him by".
Then Tarantino jumped in: "Rick Dalton represented a certain kind of actor that came out in the late fifties and early sixties - a few spots on some television shows, few smaller parts in military ensembles, background of some marine movies and stuff. People that are comparative to him would be people like Edd Byrnes, George Maharis who was on a show called Route 66, Ty Hardin who was on Bronco.
"And then eventually he landed on NBC on a TV show called Bounty Law, in the same year over on CBS Steve McQueen landed on a very similar show about a bounty hunter called Wanted Dead or Alive. For a period of time they were similar in fame and popularity."
"McQueen did The Magnificent Seven, and that was it - he was a movie star. But Rick was still Jake Cahill, the guy from Bounty Law."
Dalton epitomises the sort of actor who got promoted up the ladder at the time, Tarantino says: "handsome, rugged guys [who] spent their whole careers running pocket combs through their pompadours".
In 1969, though, he's been overtaken by a younger, more countercultural figures. "The new leading man is not he-man kind of macho guys that put pomade in their hair, it's skinny androgynous shaggy-haired type guys," Tarantino says. "So now it's Michael Sarrazin, now it's Christopher Jones, now it's like the hippie sons of famous people like young Michael Douglas. Now if Rick's doing to get a part in one of their movies he's probably going to be the cop who's busting them."
The critical point in Rick's development comes when he's forced to attempt to join the new scene. He's initially resistant, Tarantino says: "Rick doesn't understand any of this stuff as far as New Hollywood's concerned - if he was offered Deliverance he'd turn it down... he doesn't come from the Method concept - he thinks all that's ridiculous."
But, DiCaprio says, the massive wig and moustache he's given to change his appearance on a show is key to understanding his personal reinvention: "We had a lot of discussions about whether to play through this sort of Cowardly Lion drapery that Rick has of this wig and this moustache and him feeling miserable about himself and his life... but it really turned out to be amazing because you see on his face that he's making a pivotal transition in his life through that makeup."
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