Before dying of a heart attack at the age of 82, late Hollywood star Burt Reynolds was practicing lines for the film “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” according to filmmaker Quentin Tarantino.

The Oscar-winning writer-director talked up about casting Reynolds in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood in a recent interview with CBS Sunday Morning to promote the novelization of his 2019 picture starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt, even though they never got to shoot any footage.

“I got a chance to rehearse with him,” Tarantino said on CBS Sunday Morning in the United States. “I’m officially the last role he played because he came to the script reading (sic). So, that was his last acting.”

The famous Reynolds was supposed to play George Spahn, the real-life owner and operator of the Southern California ranch used for multiple Westerns until business dried up and Charles Manson and his ‘Family’ moved in. After Reynolds’ death, Bruce Dern took up the role.

On CBS Sunday Morning, Tarantino stated that he knew Reynolds died happy after being cast in the film. “The night he died, what he was doing before he passed on was he was running lines with is assistant,” Tarantino said. “That’s, like, sad and beautiful at the same time. He was so happy. I can honestly say he died happy. I am not saying he died happy because of me, but he was definitely happy when he passed on.”

Tarantino announced the opening of the Vista Theatre in Los Angeles while on the promotional tour for his novelization of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, although it would run differently than the New Beverly, which he already owns.

“We’ll show new movies that come out where they give us a film print. We’ll show new stuff. It’s not going to be like the New Beverly. The New Beverly has its own vibe. The Vista is like a crown jewel kind of thing,” he said on Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert podcast.

Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio, Margot Robbie, and Emile Hirsch star in the film.