Leonardo DiCaprio says he once brought his father and stepmother to the set of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood—and Brad Pitt assumed they were background actors.
The Oscar winner was named TIME’s Entertainer of the Year last December, and in a video tied to the honor, he opened up about the funny moment that happened during production of the 2019 Quentin Tarantino film. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood also featured Margot Robbie.
“I know they look like they’re extras in this movie, but that’s really them,” DiCaprio joked. “My stepmother is a Sikh. My father is from this sort of, hippie counterculture. [He] grew up in San Fran and Los Angeles, hung out with a lot of the underground art movement in Los Angeles in the ‘70s.”
The actor’s biological mother is Irmelin Indenbirken, who split from DiCaprio’s father when he was still young.
Pitt, however, reportedly brushed off DiCaprio’s explanation, joking that his dad and stepmother had to be hired extras—especially given the film’s focus on the 1970s-era Manson Family cult.
“‘No, that’s them,’” DiCaprio said he told Pitt. “He was like, ‘Yeah, right.’ And I’m like, ‘I know they look like they’re extras in this movie, but that’s really them. That’s how they dress every day.’”
DiCaprio described it as an “amazing moment” he says he’ll “never forget.” His father would later make a big-screen appearance years after, landing a role in Licorice Pizza, the Paul Thomas Anderson-directed film set in the ‘70s.
“I created a picture of a guy who owned a wig shop that sold these waterbeds, and I couldn’t put my finger on it. I kept saying, ‘Who do I know who looks like this?’” Anderson told The New York Times’ Kyle Buchanan.
“And like a bolt of lightning, I remember, like, ‘Leo’s dad looks exactly like this,’” he added. “So I tracked him down, asked him if he’d ever be interested in being in a film. He said, ‘Sure.’”
