It’s rare to see a child in Quentin Tarantino’s infamously bloody movies — but that doesn’t stop Julia Butters, 10, from stealing the show inOnce Upon a Time in Hollywood. In the tale of a washed-up actor and his stunt double in 1969 Hollywood, starringLeonardo DiCaprio,Brad Pittand Margot Robbie, Butters plays child star Trudi Fraser, a scene partner to DiCaprio’s character Rick Dalton.
On set, Butters’ Fraser tells Dalton, “That was the best acting I’ve ever seen in my whole life,” which inspires the actor to believe in his talent more. She claims she wasn’t even acting herself: “He’s such a great actor, so I wasn’t really reciting a line,”Butters toldVariety. “It was mostly coming from me.”
Here’s everything to know about the film’s preteen breakout.
Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic
She’s the daughter of Disney animator Darrin Butters.
“I don’t want her to be famous, I want her to be successful,” Darrin Butterstold theKearney Hubin 2014. “If she loves what she’s doing and can make a living doing what she does, like I do, then she’ll never have to work a day in her life. It will always be play. If that’s possible for her, then that’s success.”
Her first speaking role was on an episode ofCriminal Minds.
She had a recurring role onTransparentfor eight episodes.
She currently stars in ABC sitcomAmerican Housewife— which led Tarantino to discover her.
She wasn’t aware of the film’s star power before getting the role.
When Butters’ mom took her to the table read for the movie, “She told me that everyone here is famous,”Butters said toVanity Fair.
She also toldVanity Fairshe hadn’t seen DiCaprio inTitanicuntil after filming had wrapped. As for Pitt, she toldVarietyshe knew him only as a “handsome guy.”
Butters with Leonardo DiCaprio.Kevin Winter/Getty
During her audition, she let slip that she wasn’t familiar with Tarantino (“He definitely does not make movies for kids”). “He said, ‘Well, when I was writing it,’ and I said, ‘Oh, you wrote it? Well done,'”she recounted toEsquire.
DiCaprio thinks she’s the next Meryl Streep.
When he made the comparison in an interview, some thought he meant Butters wasplayinga young Streep in the movie — who, as Butters noted toVanity Fair, was actually 20 in 1969.
Butters knows it’s both a high compliment and a heavy weight to be compared to the Oscar-winning film icon. “I’m so happy that he did [that]—and so mad that he did at the same time,” she said of DiCaprio’s comment.
She’s a big Steven Spielberg fan.
And he visited set one day, which worried her. “I was like, What if he’s not even a nice person?!” she toldVanity Fair.
But she had nothing to fear. “I got to meet him, and that was amazing,” she said toEsquire, adding that she wants to work with the director one day.
She was almost in more ofOnce Upon a Time.
Andrew Cooper/Sony Pictures
Tarantino and his crew had to cut scenes to fit the film into its three-hour runtime, including one key moment with Butters.
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“If she was in, she’d get an Oscar nomination for that performance. But it didn’t serve the film,”producer David Heyman toldIndieWire. “It’s all about the film rhythm, to get where it needs to be. He cut out fantastic scenes, and reshaped things that made sense of the film as a whole.”
Her mom relented and let her watch (part of) the movie.
She attended the Los Angeles premiere with the rest of the cast and her mother, who took her out during the film’s notoriously violent peak. Butters toldVanity Fairshe didn’t mind: “I was kinda like, Cool—I’m in a movie!”
source: people.com
