Al Pacino Rehearsed a 21-Page Scene for ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’ With Leonardo DiCaprio, Then Tarantino Cut It to Two Minutes: ‘I’m Not Faulting Him’

Al Pacino writes in his new memoir “Sonny Boy” that a 21-page scene he filmed with Leonardo DiCaprio for Quentin Tarantino‘s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” got hacked down in the editing room to just two minutes of screen time. Not that Pacino blames Tarantino or finds him at fault. The Oscar-winning actor is grateful to the director, as “Hollywood” is one of a few late-career projects that made Pacino “way more famous now than I ever was.”

“Famous in a different way, not so much because of the work I’m doing, but through my associations with various people and my appearing in certain things, and from living in Hollywood,” Pacino writes. “I got lucky. I was in three films in a row that in different ways made a real impact, starting with ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.’ I didn’t get paid the big bucks for it, but I was working with Quentin Tarantino, Leo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, and Margot Robbie, and I did like the part. That’s why I did it, but I said to my lawyer, ‘How do I do this without being paid?’”