6 Actors Who Got Their Big Break in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (Including 2 Oscar Nominees!)

Mikey Madison

Madison was only 19 years old when she was cast as Susan “Sadie” Atkins in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

“I have always been a huge Tarantino fan,” she told GQ in February 2025. “I had the opportunity to audition for him in person … I was very nervous. I was like, you know what, I’m just going to take this moment. I’m going to pretend like I have the role.”

“I ended up getting the role,” she continued. “It felt like winning the lottery.”

Madison explained that while she hadn’t played a character as “bats— crazy” and “unpredictable” prior to Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, she felt something “change” in her.

Her performance in the Tarantino film got her noticed by Baker, who knew upon seeing the movie that he wanted her to play the titular character in his 2024 film Anora.

“He even told me that he had even gone to see Once Upon a Time in Hollywood again just to see the ending scene, which made me feel very happy,” Madison told GQ.

In addition to Anora — a performance that led her to win the Oscar for Best Actress — Madison also went on to star in 2022’s Scream.

Sydney Sweeney

2019 was a big year for Sweeney. In addition to her appearance as Manson family member Snake in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, she was also rising to fame for her breakout role as Cassie in HBO’s Euphoria. (The actress had previously portrayed Eden Spencer in The Handmaid’s Tale.)

In June 2019, one month before Once Upon a Time in Hollywood was released, Sweeney opened up to BUILD about how she “learned so much” from her costars.

“You know when you have that bucket list of everyone you hope that you can one day work with, and then you just cross them all off on the same exact day for a couple months,” she said. “It’s like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is crazy.’ It was just this surreal experience.”

The Emmy-nominated actress has continued gaining acclaim in Hollywood since, and went on to star in HBO’s The White Lotus, 2023’s Anyone but You and 2024’s Madame Web. She is now reprising her role as Cassie in season 3 of Euphoria.

Margaret Qualley

Qualley wasn’t new to Hollywood when she played Pussycat in Tarantino’s film, but the young actress certainly had her first big moment in the spotlight then.

During a February 2020 conversation with W Magazine, Qualley revealed that she was initially turned down for a different part and “went on with [her] life.”

Then, her dad — who lived in Panama — manifested her casting.

“He was trying to encourage me to come visit him in Panama and he said that I should book a plane ticket, and then I’ll get a Quentin Tarantino movie,” she recalled. “He was saying it with the logic that if I made plans, that life would get in the way and I would have work.”

Qualley got the call for a chemistry read with Pitt during her third day in Panama. “Now he feels like he has magical powers,” she said.

In July 2019, the actress shared with Entertainment Weekly that she knew being in the Tarantino film was a “once-in-a-lifetime experience.”

“Quentin said, ‘This is going to be the most fun you’ve ever had making a movie,’ ” Qualley recalled to the outlet. “And he was right.”

The actress continued to prove her star quality in Hollywood, going on to star in 2023’s Poor Things and 2024’s The Substance, which earned her a Golden Globe nomination.

Austin Butler

Though Butler got his start as a child star on Nickelodeon’s iCarly and Zoey 101, as well as Disney Channel’s Hannah Montana, he rose to even greater fame after portraying Manson family member Charles “Tex” Watson in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

At the time of casting, Butler had to choose between accepting the role or going to the screen test for Top Gun: Maverick, he shared during a January 2024 conversation for the Happy Sad Confused podcast. But because he had been waiting to work with Tarantino “for so long,” he ultimately went with Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

Following his role as Charles, Butler went on to star as the legendary titular character in 2022’s Elvis, a role that led to his Oscar nomination for Best Actor.

More recently, Butler portrayed Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen in 2024’s Dune: Part Two.

Maya Hawke

Hawke was just getting started when she played Manson Family member Flower Child in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

In 2019, the young actress told The Hollywood Reporter that she filmed her audition tape in her bedroom with her dad, Ethan Hawke.

“We sent in the tape to Quentin, and I got a callback,” she said. “He actually organized a really amazing callback process that was unlike anything I’ve ever been through … except for maybe auditioning for drama school.”

Since then, Hawke has starred as Robin Buckley in Stranger Things, and had roles in 2022’s Do Revenge and 2023’s Maestro. She additionally voiced Anxiety in 2024’s Inside Out 2.

Victoria Pedretti

After a few television roles, Pedretti had her film breakout as Manson family member Leslie Van Houten, a.k.a. Lulu, in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Though it was a small part, it was the beginning of her rise to fame.

Following her Tarantino break, she booked a leading role opposite Penn Badgley in Netflix’s You, in which she portrays Love Quinn. In February 2024, she made her Broadway debut as Petra in An Enemy of the People, alongside Jeremy Strong.