Bruce Dern Sympathizes With Rick Dalton in ‘Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood': ‘I’ve Been There’

Minor spoilers for “Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood” below. There’s a moment midway through “Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood” where Rick Dalton, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, finally loses it. While describing the plot of a book he’s reading to his young co-star, he breaks into tears as he realizes that the book’s story of a past-his-prime gunslinger hews too close to his own life. All the missed opportunities, bad decisions, and regrets that have plagued him since the film’s start finally overwhelm him. Bruce Dern knows exactly how that feels. “That moment where he freezes and chokes up…I’ve been there,” Dern told TheWrap. “I was there much earlier in my career because I had such a hard time getting out of TV and into movies, and I was by no means a TV star.” Also Read: 'Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood' Fact Check: Did the Manson Family Give Horseback Riding Tours? Dern, a recent Quentin Tarantino regular who previously appeared in a bit role in “Django Unchained” and as one of the title characters in “The Hateful Eight,” appears in the director’s latest as George Spahn, the man whose movie ranch becomes the hideout for the Manson family....