Steve McQueen, Clint Eastwood, and Burt Reynolds represent different ways of owning the screen. Looking at them through Tarantino makes it possible to talk about presence, career, and cinephile memory without turning three different actors into a single model of masculinity.
Steve McQueen: the aspiration to be a star
McQueen occupies a visible place in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood: he appears both as a real figure in the industry and as a reference for Rick Dalton's ambitions. The film makes it possible to observe the distance between having a recognizable career and reaching a star status that seems to turn any appearance into an event.
In his interview with Kim Morgan published by New Beverly in September 2019, Tarantino explained that Rick brought together references to several television and film performers. That explanation prevents us from identifying him as an exact portrait of McQueen. The character also expresses the frustration of someone who sees other careers move ahead and does not fully understand why his own has stalled.
McQueen's presence in films like Bullitt makes it possible to study a kind of charisma based on restraint. The viewer's attention can focus on how he looks, waits, or carries out a task. A short response gains weight because the actor does not seem to need to fill every silence. The character keeps part of himself outside explanation.
That effect does not amount to a lack of acting. Managing stillness requires the body to keep transmitting attention. The economy of gestures can suggest experience and self-control, but also distance. As a critical reading, it helps explain why McQueen's figure can function as an aspiration for other actors within a story about Hollywood.
Clint Eastwood and the authority of a recognizable figure
In the interview published by El País Semanal on May 27, 2007, Tarantino included the Eastwood of A Fistful of Dollars among the cinematic heroes he respected. The reference is tied to a character and a film, which is more precise than attributing to him a blanket approval of every decision in the actor's career.
Leone's gunman works with a restrained voice, a calculating gaze, and a particular relationship to space. He can seem motionless while he evaluates what is happening. Waiting does not mean passivity: it prepares an action the viewer anticipates without knowing exactly when it will arrive. That promise of competence is part of the star's appeal.
In Eastwood's seventies films, that authority can shift into different settings and become more problematic. Dirty Harry, for example, turns the protagonist's effectiveness into an issue that also raises questions about power and limits. Describing that tension does not require presenting his methods as a political position Tarantino has adopted.
The action figure has force because it allows a behavior to be recognized before it is explained. However, each film can use that familiarity in a different way: confirm it, harden it, or put it into crisis. Reducing Eastwood to a single pose would prevent us from seeing how the same presence takes on different meanings depending on the conflict.
Burt Reynolds: closeness, stories, and the memory of the craft
Tarantino's relationship with Burt Reynolds came to include preparation for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Reynolds died in 2018 before filming his part, and Bruce Dern ultimately played George Spahn. One should not speak of a completed scene with Reynolds that is part of the released film.
In the 2019 interview with Morgan, Tarantino recalled his conversations with Reynolds and the pleasure of asking him about people he had worked with. The connection brought together admiration and curiosity about the craft. The actor could offer memory of television and of an industry the director was trying to reconstruct.
Reynolds's charisma offers a useful contrast to the restraint of McQueen and Eastwood. His smile, his ease, and the impression that he enjoys a situation can draw him closer to the audience in a different way. In his action comedies, that closeness allows skill to appear without always being wrapped in solemnity.
The ability to laugh at difficulty also changes the relationship to risk: the character can remain appealing when something goes wrong. The star does not need to maintain an image of absolute invulnerability every minute.
Deliverance shows, in turn, that this physical confidence can enter a world it does not control. A recognizable star does not guarantee that the adventure will obey him. The tension between confidence and vulnerability helps explain the richness of these actors when a film uses their image without simply repeating it.
InOnce Upon a Time in Hollywood, the friendship between Rick and Cliff brings work, reputation, and bodily presence together within a single relationship. They are not copies of any specific historical pair. The film examines how an industry distributes visibility between the person who appears on screen and the person who supports part of that image through physical work.
These stars coexist in Tarantino's cinephilia with character actors like Aldo Ray and Ralph Meeker. The difference matters: a history of cinematic charisma does not end with the names at the top of the bill. A supporting face, a voice, or a brief scene can leave a memory as lasting as the entrance of a major star.
See the selection of filmmakers and actors admired by Tarantino.