Brad Pitt’s laid-back performance in Once Upon a time in… Hollywood didn’t seem like a performance to write home about.
Yet, for some inexplicable reason, people were drawn towards it. It was a performance we constantly revived, because there was something special about it.
Hollywood’s definition of good acting has become blurred. There are new guidelines on what a good performance should look like.
Audiences are quick to protest — “He’s just playing ‘the cool guy’, what’s so special about that?” without much thought into how hard acting the “cool dude” really is.
Brad Pitt is never given any heartfelt monologue to showcase his range, he isn’t shoved a scene where he can cry, yell and scream to his hearts content.
Rather Brad plays Cliff Booth. A chill bloke lounging around Hollywood, it seems deceptively easy, but isn’t. Beneath the seemingly cool exterior there lies an interconnected slew of machinery that make up his performance.
The little things were perfected, Pitt steadily controlled his mannerisms, refined a casual laid-back speech pattern and flowed his role with endless bouts of charisma.
When Cliff Booth enters the screen, it’s effect is magical. The film shifts, and becomes incredibly relaxed. Brad’s complete control over his role is hypnotic.
In a scene alongside Leonardo DiCaprio and Al Pacino, it is the supporting character we shift our attention towards. When Cliff Booth enters the screen, the effect is immediate. The film becomes incredibly relaxed. Brad’s complete control is hypnotic.
A magical aura is casted over each Cliff Booth scene - a combination of a complex system of acting, paired with the talent of a fully realised Actor. A perfect performance.
He commands each scene towards his own tempo.
Cliff Booth represented all Once Upon a Time in… Hollywood was all about — a carefree journey through peoples lives, and in more ways than one, he carried the entire film.
This ‘cool guy’ complex Pitt perfects is no lesser than Joe Pesci and Al Pacino’s loud, boisterous performances in The Irishman whom he beat at the Oscars.
Pitt didn’t need a deep thematic performance to master his role, it was simply the work of an experienced actor doing what he does best.
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