Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is Quentin Tarantinos salute to what he loves most: movies. On Los Angeles backlots and inside lavish homes where the rich and famous dwell, egos may rule, but everyone shares an unyielding desire to create something magical. Do it well enough, and theyll be mythologized in the American consciousness forever or at least until somebody else comes along and waves a shinier wand. More than any of Tarantinos previous work, the film has a sweet core. Behind the wealth and scandals that haunt Tinseltown are real people, from the uptight headliners and their fearless stunt doubles to the era-defining directors and their obsessive hangers-on, each just as complicated as the rest of us.

Making Once Upon a Time in Hollywood also required a lot of real people, toiling for months to put together Tarantinos sterling romp about fading star Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his exceedingly loyal stuntman and gofer Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt). Set amid the changing tides of 1969, the film explores the moment at which Ricks fame built on gun-toting Westerns that are now pass is being eclipsed by the decades countercultural wave. Ricks neighbor Roman Polanski (Rafal Zawierucha) is a figurehead for a new type of movie magic that favors psychological nuance and stylistic complexity. That puts Rick in close quarters with Polanskis wife, the burgeoning actress Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie), who that year was slaughtered by members of Charles Mansons cult.

Clocking in at almost three hours, Once Upon a Time is a feast for pop-culture lovers and revisionist-history diehards alike. Because this is a Tarantino flick were talking about, its rife with tiny details and sight gags that give the story zeal. Especially compared to his last project, The Hateful Eight, which was talky and cynical, the film is a reflective, optimistic valentine that begs for repeat viewings.

It also begs for behind-the-scenes anecdotes. So I talked to a handful of people the stunt coordinator, the cinematographer, a few actors, the prop master and the production designer to find out what they could tell me about Tarantinos latest masterstroke. Here are seven tales, dispatched from once upon a not-so-distant time in Hollywood.

Tarantinos Secretive Script Reads

Tarantino has been burned too many times to take any risks in disseminating his screenplays. The scripts for his last three movies Inglourious Basterds, Django Unchained and The Hateful Eight all leaked online before production had finished. This time around, he shrouded everything in secrecy. Only one copy of the full script existed, and it was locked in a safe at Tarantinos office. Those who were allowed to read it had to go there or to his house to do so, and each signed a nondisclosure agreement. Most people working on the movie were only privy to certain portions of the script, and very few knew what the climactic ending entailed.

Barbara Ling, the production designer, read the novelesque text at Tarantinos Los Angeles home, where an assistant brought it to her in a private room. This script was the best script I ever even imagined you could read, she said. Lorenza Izzo, who plays the actress Rick Dalton marries after a six-month stint making low-grade Italian Westerns, had to go to the set and read the script in a trailer, after which she promptly gave it back. Kate Berlant, the comedian who plays a box-office clerk , was only exposed to her one scene and had little information about the overall plot.

For Robert Richardson, Tarantinos longtime cinematographer, the stakes were even higher. I went to his house to have dinner, Richardson explained. We had drinks beforehand. We were talking about the movie and how to possibly shoot it. Then I sat down in the kitchen, which is adjoining the little dining-room table that adjoins his living room. I was thinking he was going to leave. He didnt. He was walking about the living room the entire read. And Im talking three and a half hours. And Im writing notes down. I could see him in the corner, and hed just sort of look and see if theres a smile on my face and why I was making a note. He would calculate how deep I was into the script, how many pages. It was very difficult and hard to do. But I have such a close relationship with him. For me, I didnt mind. I didnt have anything to hide.

At that point, Richardson said, Tarantino was meeting with DiCaprio, Pitt and Tom Cruise to decide which combination of the two hed cast in the lead roles. As far as Richardson knew, Cruise could have played either of the parts that eventually went to DiCaprio and Pitt. But casting aside, there was one glaring holdup.

When I finally left, I said, Oh, the only thing Im missing is the ending, Richardson recalled. He gave us no ending.

Only DiCaprio, Pitt and Robbie knew the revisionist finale before the five-month production began. Two months ahead of shooting the culminating sequence, Richardson and others were finally given the films conclusion at Tarantinos office.

And that wasnt the only precaution taken to avoid leaks. There was a big rule on set of no cellphones, and I loved it, Izzo said. I cant tell you the amount of times youre on set and everyone starts looking at their phone. On the set, we had a point where you would check in your phones, like valet.

In the end, the project avoided any spoilers trickling out prior to the release. That mystique helped it to feel like an event, which perhaps contributed to a bigger-than-expected haul during its first weekend in theaters.

Maybe thats what was in the gleaming, hyper-covert Pulp Fiction briefcase all along: the Once Upon a Time in Hollywood screenplay.