Actor Leonardo DiCaprio did not want to use the flamethrower on the set of Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
In Tarantino's film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Leonardo DiCaprio plays an actor named Rick Dalton, known for his television series about the west. But he also played a Nazi hunter wielding a flamethrower. While we got to see Rick Dalton enjoying himself with that gun, it seems Leonardo DiCaprio was not very happy using it.
Shooting this scene from Once Upon a Time in Hollywood required Leonardo DiCaprio to actually set his co-stars on fire, which the actor was understandably concerned about doing. Stunt co-coordinator Robert Alonzo, who has been working in Hollywood for 26 years, tried to allay DiCaprio's concerns by setting himself on fire first. Alonzo recalled:
“Leo wasn't very enthusiastic about all the flamethrower stuff. You literally don't want to hurt anyone. I was very afraid for the specialists. And I completely understood it. Normally you use a specialist person at that location to be able to shoot a flamethrower at someone. When I did Tropic Thunder, Nick Nolte accidentally shot me with a flamethrower. This time, Leo is actually lighting them up and holding them a flame for about seven or eight seconds. As the flamethrower goes back and forth around eight guys he's never met. That's psychologically difficult to do, so you have to congratulate him for being able to stay in character and do that scene. "
After each scene, Leonardo DiCaprio was so impressed by the stunt work that he made the rest of the film crew applaud them.
