Spoiler alert: Please do not read on if you haven’t seen Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood”
One more person is singing Quentin Tarantino’s praises for the final scene of “Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood”: former Manson Family member Dianne Lake.
“I thought the ending was very clever,” Lake said in a review of the film in The Daily Beast on Friday.
The climactic scene is a reimagined take on the 1969 murder of pregnant actress Sharon Tate and four other people at the hands of Charles Manson disciples — who all meet very different fates to what really happened.
“You know, I loved those people. It’s hard,” Lake said about the Manson Family members that committed the crime in real life — and were destroyed in the movie. “But they did commit these horrific, brutal … They committed mayhem. It was only fitting that the mayhem ended up on them.”
Lake became the youngest member of the Manson Family when she joined at age 14 in 1967. Three years later, she was the star witness in the trial that put Manson and several of his followers behind bars.
Overall, she seemed to enjoy “Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood,” complimenting the movie’s depiction of Spahn Ranch, where the Manson Family resided on the outskirts of Los Angeles.
In Tarantino’s version, Lake — who was nicknamed “Snake” by family members — is played by actress Sydney Sweeney when Brad Pitt (as stuntman Cliff Booth) visits the ranch.
Lake did push back against the film’s fictionalized motivation for the Manson Family’s attack, though, where several members talk about the need to kill the people who taught them to kill — actors — while outside Tate’s home. Lake said the attack was spurred on by Manson’s obsession with setting off a race war in the U.S., as prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi argued at trial.
“I know that there’s a lot of people out there that say that’s BS, but I was there. He had been talking about this race war for a long time,” Lake said. “Then once The White Album came out, it was Helter Skelter. But it was still this race war, and we were preparing for it. And once it was over, ta-da! Charlie and family would rise from the ashes and, you know, repopulate the earth and fix everything. Charlie thought he was this Messiah. He thought he was Christ, coming again. It was just crazy.”
12 Actors Who Have Played Charles Manson in Movies and TV (Photos)
No other mass criminal or cult figure in American history has garnered as much fascination within Hollywood and popular culture as Charles Manson (though Ted Bundy is coming close). He and his "family" have been the subject of many onscreen treatments from "American Horror Story: Cult" to Quentin Tarantino's "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood." Here is a sampling of actors who have dared to play the notorious figure.
Steve Railsback - "Helter Skelter" (1976)
The memory of Manson was still fresh when this TV special based on Vincent Bugliosi's book aired. CBS even made it a two-night special.
CBS
Michael Reid MacKay - "Summer Dreams: The Story of the Beach Boys" (1990)
This TV special about the career of the Beach Boys explored Manson's relationship with founding member Dennis Wilson.
ABC
Marcelo Games - "The Manson Family" (1997)
Officially released in the U.S. in 2004, this dramatization of the Manson Family murders in director Jim Van Bebber's film is seen all through the lens of Super 8 home movies.
Dinsdale Releasing
Trey Parker - "South Park" (1998)
Way back in Season 2 of "South Park," Trey Parker had some fun with Manson by having the kids teach him the true meaning of Christmas after he escapes from prison.
Comedy Central
Jeremy Davies - "Helter Skelter" (2004)
This CBS update of their classic "Helter Skelter" shifted more of the focus away from Bugliosi and onto Manson and "family" member Linda Kasabian, with Jeremy Davies playing the cult leader.
CBS
Ryan Kiser - "House of Manson" (2014)
Kiser actually had the "honor" of portraying Manson twice, once in 2009's "Lie" and again in 2014 for "House of Manson." The latter film goes further back into Manson's life leading up to the murder of Sharon Tate and resembles Charles "Tex" Watson's account of events most closely.
Gravitas Ventures
Taran Killam - "Saturday Night Live" (2014)
Remember when news came out that Manson had found love in prison with 26-year-old Star Burton? Who couldn't fall for his beard and "winning smile." And he's only in for income tax fraud!
NBC
Gethin Anthony - "Aquarius" (2015)
The short-lived NBC drama "Aquarius" was set in 1967 and followed two detectives searching for a missing girl who ended up being a Manson recruit.
NBC
Jeff Ward - "Manson's Lost Girls" (2016)
Even Lifetime got into the Manson Family story. One of the network's original movies focused on Linda Kasabian and several of the other female members of the family caught up in Manson's spell.
Lifetime
Evan Peters - "American Horror Story" (2017)
In "American Horror Story: Cult," Evan Peters plays a politician who becomes obsessed and inspired by Manson and is eventually possessed by him.
FX
Matt Smith - "Charlie Says" (2019)
"Charlie Says" is set years after the Manson Family murders and focuses on the psychological rehabilitation of Leslie Van Houten, Patricia Krenwinkel and Susan Atkins. "Doctor Who" actor Matt Smith portrays Manson in flashbacks to examine the mental spell he cast on the many women who killed for him.
IFC Films
Damon Herriman - "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" AND "Mindhunter" (2019)
Damon Herriman makes only a brief appearance in Quentin Tarantino's ninth film -- but the Manson Family and victims like Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie) figure prominently in the plot set around the time of the 1969 murders. And the actor was also cast as the cult leader in the second season of David Fincher's Netflix series "Mindhunter" -- where he has a more extensive scene in a prison meeting with an FBI investigator.
Sony Pictures
1 of 13
From Steve Railsback in ”Helter Skelter“ to Damon Herriman in ”Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood“ and ”Mindhunter“
No other mass criminal or cult figure in American history has garnered as much fascination within Hollywood and popular culture as Charles Manson (though Ted Bundy is coming close). He and his "family" have been the subject of many onscreen treatments from "American Horror Story: Cult" to Quentin Tarantino's "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood." Here is a sampling of actors who have dared to play the notorious figure.