[LaLaLand]

Some interesting stuff I found out reading a prediction post about this movie, character links and inclusion explanations:

But if you’re familiar at all with Hollywood in 1969, and with the era of Manson, there’s actually a lot of information you can glean from the casting announcements.

For starters, the inclusion of Bruce Lee and Steve McQueen. Both actors were clients of Jay Sebring, a world-renowned hair stylist who was a major fixture in 1960s Los Angeles. Sebring was known for bringing European hair techniques to America, and he established a name for himself when we popularized the feathering and layering of male hair, which was dubbed the “Sebring Look.” Other famous clients included Paul Newman, Marlon Brando, Kirk Douglas, and Warren Beatty, who based his character in Shampoo after Sebring. Sharon Tate dated Sebring prior to her relationship with Roman Polanski; despite their break-up, Tate and Sebring remained close, and she was a fixture in his posh salon. Writer Dominick Dunne once wrote that Tate “would often be sitting in a chair, just to be with Jay as he worked.”

That Lee and McQueen will appear in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is even more interesting than that. Sebring was an instrumental figure in Lee’s career. An amateur kung fu enthusiast, he saw the tape of an exhibition Lee did in 1964, which he showed to producer William Dozier, a client. This led to Lee getting cast as Kato in the TV series The Green Hornet. After The Green Hornet was canceled, Sebring helped Lee find work teaching kung fu to Hollywood stars, including Steve McQueen and Roman Polanski. When Tate and Sebring were murdered in Tate’s Benedict Canyon home on August 9, 1969, Lee was only a short distance away in his own neighboring abode. McQueen, on the other hand, was allegedly invited to dinner with Sebring and Tate on the night of the murders, but skipped when he ran into an attractive woman and spent the night with her instead. McQueen’s close call with death spooked him so bad that he went into a state of paranoia. His then-wife Neile Adams recalled that, after the murders, McQueen “became more paranoid and wouldn’t let me go anywhere without a gun.”

We can assume that Lee and McQueen’s inclusion means that Jay Sebring will be a major fixture in Tarantino’s film. That could mean that actors like Olyphant and Marsden – whose characters are not-yet announced – could be playing some of his high-profile clients. Olyphant, in particular, recalls a young Warren Beatty. It could also mean that the bulk of Tate’s story in the film is in tandem with Sebring; that’s why she was seen driving his car.