Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon A Time In Hollywood is set in Los Angeles, but was it filmed there or somewhere else? Following the steps of his 2009 film Inglourious Basterds, which told an alternate version of World War II, Tarantino brought his ninth film titled Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, an alternate version of real-life events from 1960s Hollywood.
Once Upon A Time In Hollywood follows actor Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his best friend and stuntman Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt), who had been working together for years and had gone through a lot of trouble together as well. As Hollywood’s golden age reaches its end, so do Rick and Cliff’s careers, and so they do their best to stay active and relevant in the entertainment industry. Along with their stories, Once Upon A Time In Hollywood follows that of Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie), who was given a very different ending than that of her real-life counterpart.
Once Upon A Time In Hollywood takes place in Los Angeles, and unlike many movies that are filmed in completely different places to the ones they’re set in, Tarantino stayed true to his story and shot the movie in Los Angeles. However, as the film is set in the late 1960s and Tarantino is not a fan of CGI, the production crew had to recreate some settings and disguise the modern designs of some real-life locations. Most of the places shown in the film are real-life places, which fans can easily visit, though they obviously won’t look exactly as they do in the film. Here’s every real-life location from Once Upon A Time In Hollywood.
Musso & Frank Grill
Musso & Frank Grill is Hollywood’s oldest restaurant, so it’s not surprising that it was included in the film. The restaurant is witness to an important scene right at the beginning of the film, where Rick Dalton meets agent Marvin Schwarzs (Al Pacino), who offers him an opportunity to revive his career by making Spaghetti Westerns in Rome. According to production designer Barbara Ling, the interiors are almost the same since the restaurant’s opening in 1919, which made it easier for them to shoot there.
Cameron Nature Preserve at Puerco Canyon
Rick appeared in various TV shows throughout his career, and among those shown in the film is his guest role in The F.B.I. According to American Cinematographer, that scene was filmed at Puerco Canyon, in Malibu, and that footage was later inserted into an actual episode of the show. This place was chosen as they needed to match the location, truck, weather, and other details with the actual TV show, and the parkland offered the look they were looking for.
Paramount Drive-In Theaters
Rick lived comfortably in a house at Cielo Drive, while Cliff Booth lived in a trailer next to a drive-in theater. The theater in question was the Van Nuys Drive-In, which no longer exists, so that scene was shot at the Paramount Drive-In Theaters, where some movie magic had to be added, with the shot transitioning to a miniature set with toy cars as the camera rises up.
Playboy Mansion
The legendary Playboy Mansion makes an appearance in Once Upon A Time In Hollywood in a party scene where viewers get a closer look at Sharon Tate, her story, and how people perceived her. The scene was filmed at the actual mansion, which was sold to a private owner following Hugh Hefner’s death. As the mansion was in the middle of a renovation, the production crew had to go through long negotiations so they were allowed to shot there, and they eventually reached a deal.
Fox Bruin Theatre and Fox Village Theatre
When Sharon Tate is running some errands, she parks her car at the Fox Village Theatre (now Regency Village Theater) parking lot to later walk over to the Fox Bruin Theater (now Regency Bruin Theater) and watch herself in the 1969 film The Wrecking Crew. Both theaters have been designated Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monuments.
Western Street (Universal Studios Hollywood)
Rick Dalton got a role in the pilot episode of yet another western TV show called Lancer. Those scenes were filmed at Universal Studios Hollywood’s Western Street. Tarantino previously used the Melody Ranch Western town for Django Unchained, which is why viewers have pointed out the similarities between the town Schultz and Django arrive at and the sets of Lancer and Bounty Law.
Corriganville Park
Although Spahn Ranch was a real place, it has changed so much that it’s far from what it used to be. Instead, the scenes set in Spahn Ranch were filmed at Corriganville Park in Simi Valley, which was once known as Corriganville Movie Ranch. According to Rick Schuler, Location Manager for Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, the lay of the land allowed them to build the necessary tension for the scene by placing the house of George Spahn (Bruce Dern) on a hill at the end of a road, so it all turned out well even if it wasn’t the real Spahn Ranch.
LAX
The Los Angeles International Airport makes two brief appearances in the first and third acts of the movie: first, when Sharon Tate and Roman Polanski (Rafał Zawierucha) land in LA, and later when Rick returns from Italy with his wife, Francesca Capucci (Lorenza Izzo), and Cliff. The mosaics shown in these scenes can be found in Terminals 3, 4, and 6, and they also made an appearance in Tarantino’s Jackie Brown.
Casa Vega
On that fateful night in August 1969, Rick and Cliff decide to go for some drinks to celebrate all those years of working together. The place is Casa Vega, founded in 1956 and which continues to be a favorite among celebrities. The restaurant named a drink in Tarantino’s honor, and those who want to go through an authentic Once Upon A Time In Hollywood experience can ask for table C6.
Other Locations
Many other settings are shown briefly and quickly, which makes them easy to miss. Most of these are shown in the background, especially when the characters are driving around the city. Among those are the Cinerama Theatre, the Aquarius Theatre, the Pussycat Theatre (now Swissx Lounge), The Supply Sergeant, Peaches Records & Tapes, the Vine Theatre (now Dolby Screening Room), and the Vogue Theatre (now Cabo Cantina). All these had to go through some changes to make them look as they did in the 1960s, even if they are just places on the background of a scene.
Another real place shown quickly is the El Coyote Mexican Cafe, where Sharon Tate and friends had dinner on that August 1969 night. Last but not least is the Cicada restaurant, perhaps best known as the “Pretty Woman restaurant”. Cicada’s art deco style made it the perfect setting for Rick Dalton to be confronted by paparazzi. Fans of Once Upon A Time In Hollywood are lucky enough to find all the locations seen in the film in the same city, though they should keep in mind that many of those places look way more modern now than in the film.