An analysis of Leonardo DiCaprio's acting from Romeo and Juliet to Inception with specific reference to his choice of roles, his work with Martin Scorsese, and his audience appeal.

An analysis of Leonardo DiCaprio's acting from Romeo and Juliet to Inception with specific reference to his choice of roles, his work with Martin Scorsese, and his audience appeal. By Seamus Merca



Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio, born November 11th 1974 in Hollywood, California, is the son of George DiCaprio and Irmelin Indenbirken; two parents who most certainly can be proud of their son who, since the 1997 “epic romantic disaster film” Titanic, has not only been to but also remained at the pinnacle of fame and stature in the world. Walk along any street in today’s world and you would have an easier job squeezing blood from a stone than trying to find someone who has not seen or heard of Leonardo DiCaprio, he is one of the most prolific actors in the movie industry and has rightly earned that reputation for his sustained greatness in every role he undertakes.


However, throughout his career which has seen so much success, there has been one award which has evaded DiCaprio; the Oscar. Why exactly has this highly prestigious award escaped his clutches? A lot of it is simply down to bad luck, he has been nominated three times for best actor and lost out each time to “career defining” performances from Forest Whitaker and Jamie Foxx in ‘The Last King of Scotland’ and “Ray” respectively as well as losing out to Matthew McConaughey who in 2014 is enjoying the best year of his career with tremendous critical acclaim. The two individual performances by Whitaker and Foxx were the sort of jaw-dropping individual display we do not get from DiCaprio simply because he performs at such a consistently high level that we no longer marvel at his work; we now expect these kinds of performances from him which I believe overshadows his hard work.


DiCaprio makes good career moves, he consistently picks good roles in great movies that suit his style of acting. He has worked his way up the metaphorical acting “mountain”, from performances in This Boy's Life and What's Eating Gilbert Grape which defined him as a child star and teen heartthrob” to Romeo and Juliet, Titanic and The Beach as he became a certified A-Lister. Since the dawn of the new millennium he has remained at the top of his game, appearing in blockbusters such as The Aviator, Blood Diamond, Shutter Island, Inception, Django Unchained, The Great Gatsby and of course his most recent success, The Wolf of Wall Street for which he received his fourth Oscar nomination, three of which being “Best Actor” nominations. Because of all his maintained success, DiCaprio is still yet to have one of those “career defining” performances that have “Oscar Winner” written all over them, but even then it may not be enough as the media and academy love to have a “story” behind the winner, whether it be Daniel “The Method Man” Day-Lewis or Matthew “The Comeback Kid” McConaughey, Leonardo may end up being the greatest actor to never win an Oscar.


I wish to take a closer look at some of the movies DiCaprio has been in and the first movie I have chosen is Romeo and Juliet, the 1996 “American-Australian” film adaptation of the great William Shakespeare’s work that goes by the same name. What makes this movie stand out to me is who the story comes from, yes the great William Shakespeare which makes this movie vitally important to DiCaprio’s career because a failure here would have been seen as an insult to the great playwright of the 16th century and possibly ruin the great repertoire he had been building. However, it was neither an insult nor a failure but instead, a tremendous movie that brought Shakespeare’s work into the 20th century without sacrificing any of the original quality. Minor adjustments were made but the movie still retained everything that it needed to thanks to the brilliant portrayal of Romeo by DiCaprio as well as Claire Danes’ role as Juliet.


To me, this is DiCaprio’s greatest performance to date, simply because of how seamlessly he transitioned into the passionate, Elizabethan verse speaking Romeo. DiCaprio captured the very essence of the film and never once lost the tragic nature of the film during the Baz Luhrmann directed rowdy humour, fast paced action and secret romance. A mightily impressive part of this film is that no dialogue is ever sacrificed in favour of on screen action, which allows the film to retain all of Shakespeare’s masterful words during the modernised mise-en-scene. An example of this is during the first time Romeo and Juliet meet at the costume ball, Romeo is wearing a knight’s armour, potentially representing a knight in shining armour, and Juliet is accessorised with a pair of wings, described by Romeo as his "bright angel". But before any contact is made between the two protagonists, Romeo utters the words, "Oh, trespass sweetly urged." It is easy to see why Baz Luhrmann has seen much success for his staging of plays and operas in his home country of Australia, it is easy to inject Elizabethan verse into any play but to have the words retain their meaning is truly impressive, in a day of age where this sort of language falls on deaf ears, this film was extremely enjoyable to watch. If anything, the romance between Romeo and Juliet was even more profound and believable in this adaptation, which is testament to the work of DiCaprio and Dames. However, a certain movie later in the career of DiCaprio showed that his ability to work with his fellow cast members, in particular the female ones, is second to none. This is the reason why he developed the reputation as a “film anchor”; someone who every other cast member knows is going to show up and put in a performance of the highest level and essentially carry the movie even when it had potential to fail. This allows the characters around DiCaprio to push boundaries, step out of their comfort zone and try something different, because they do not have to “play it safe” whilst working with DiCaprio, this has led to some marvellous performances from actors and actresses you would not necessarily expect it from.


The second film I want to analyse is Titanic, James Cameron’s 1997 masterpiece that grossed over 2 billion US Dollars at the box office and stands behind only Avatar, another work of James Cameron, as the most successful film of all time. Jack Dawson on the Titanic is without a shadow of a doubt the most memorable performance of Leonardo Di Caprio’s entire career and easily one of his very best as he portrayed Rose DeWitt Bukater’s lover on the perilous voyage of the Titanic. In this film DiCaprio displayed everything that he was required to, whether he needed to be passionate and reckless or angry and mad, he displayed it perfectly without ever coming across as artificial or even “cheesy”. DiCaprio’s casting for Titanic actually brings up an interesting point, the studio funding Titanic actually wanted Matthew McConaughey to play Jack Dawson because they believed that he was likely to make them more money, they were spending an awful lot on this movie after all. However, director James Cameron stood by his man DiCaprio and got his way, it was not surprising though, the argument for DiCaprio had a lot of weight behind it. DiCaprio had received a lot of critical acclaim for his recent work and his character in Romeo and Juliet, which surprisingly turned out to be a great success, showed that DiCaprio was capable of expressing the exact range of emotions that Cameron was looking for.


The 2012 3D release of Titanic surprised a lot of viewers, not because of the story but because of DiCaprio and his youthfulness. It is easy to forget that he was only 21-22 years old during the shooting of the film because of how masterful and confident his performance was. Of course it is not the same DiCaprio that we see on our screens these days, the DiCaprio so experienced and flawless, but what this youthful version of DiCaprio brings us is vibrant energy and so much effort. He clearly saw this film as a chance to fire himself into the A-Lister category and took the opportunity with both hands, he has not looked back since; in fact, when Cameron showed him a part of the 3D version DiCaprio apparently said “I’m such a young punk. Look at me” as well as nearly crawling under his seat according to Cameron. But it was not all bad, more recently DiCaprio has stated;


“It changed my life in a lot of ways, but at the same time, I can’t say that it didn’t give me opportunities. It made me, for the first time, in control of my career.”


The filming of Titanic also displayed Leonardo DiCaprio’s professionalism, James Cameron is regarded as nothing short of a perfectionist which can make working with him difficult, especially for those who are not used to working with him but DiCaprio never once let this affect his on screen performance, even though he had to put up with issues like illness after spending so long in cold water with Kate Winslet and the ridiculous amount of takes it took to film the “dinner scene”.


The final movie I am going to look at is Inception, this may not be the obvious choice because of his recent successes such as The Wolf of Wall Street and The Great Gatsby but I feel that this movie’s story and plot make it a remarkable part of his career. Many of those who saw the first screening stated that they wanted to go back and watch it again and many of the cast needed to read through the script quite a few times before understanding the movie. As well as the puzzling script, the director, Christopher Nolan, prefers to use as little computer technology as possible which means that scenes such as the tilting bar, the rotating corridor and the train running straight through Los Angeles were all very real and created using ingenious devices such as a mid-air suspended 100 foot long corridor which meant the actors were really off balance during the filming. This of course requires supreme acting and once again DiCaprio makes it look easy as the protagonist of this film, Don Cobb, and he was strongly recommended to be nominated for “Best Actor” by those who reviewed Inception but once again DiCaprio found himself snubbed.


The acting in this film showed the refined part of DiCaprio’s acting that had been shaped by Martin Scorsese, everything he does in Inception looks so smooth and flawless until he falls back into his own memories of his deceased wife, when this happens we see the DiCaprio of young, so passionate and vivid, full of emotion. His ability to switch styles so effortlessly and seamlessly has made him one of the greatest actors in the industry and Inception showcases both sides to his acting. This movie gave DiCaprio his typical “anchor” role and his co-stars flourished around him, able to push their boundaries, in particular Joseph Gordon Levitt was incredible as DiCaprio’s right hand man. The very best workers are not just revered for how great they are, but also how much better they make those around them and DiCaprio has done this for years and will continue doing it at the expense of his own recognition. DiCaprio does not shoulder the entire weight of the plot in this film but he does bear the entire emotional weight, something which cannot be understated. His co-stars provide a lot of help with the story but Don Cobb’s character is the only one which really divulges a background that you get emotionally invested in. Thankfully Don Cobb is played by DiCaprio who brings us along on his emotional ride through memories and thoughts that his character has found himself lost in and the brilliant part is that you find yourself getting lost in them as well.


But how exactly did Leonardo DiCaprio transform himself from the young, energetic teen star into the refined, smooth A-Lister we see in cinemas today? The answer is simple, Martin Scorsese. This is a director who DiCaprio begged to let him in his film “Gangs of New York”, surely a sign of how much DiCaprio respects Scorsese. The pair went on to make four more movies together, “The Wolf of Wall Street,” “The Departed,” “The Aviator,” “Shutter Island” but more importantly than that, Scorsese provided him with invaluable knowledge about acting and DiCaprio has said “I’ve grown so tremendously as an actor from just being in those moments with him. He’s just given me the right guidance.” Whilst Scorsese has stated their relationship is so special because;


“We’re a different generation, but he goes in the same places that I want to go. He’s not afraid to go there. He’s not afraid to deal with that part of himself and that’s interesting. We have a different context, we grew up differently, but I think we speak the same language emotionally and psychologically. It’s very lucky.”


To have that kind of connection with such a renowned director and teacher has turned young Leonardo into the man DiCaprio and we are all very lucky to be able to witness the masterpieces that these two legends continue to produce together.


To conclude, Leonardo DiCaprio is hugely popular all around the world, not only by his “heartthrob” looks but his magnificent acting that has captured hearts and minds alike. This man may not have won an Oscar but is that any reason to doubt him? I do not think so, it is very clear that DiCaprio would rather make a great movie than just a good character which means that he may be overshadowed by the movies he is in and his selfishness leads him to make those around him better rather than leaving them behind and stealing the show himself. He knows what characters work best for him and from movie to movie you can see the similarities between the parts he plays, but it is not a case of a “one trick pony”, it is a case of greatness being compared to greatness. Lots of actors take up gimmick roles to make them stand out to the crowd but DiCaprio has found his specialty in other roles and his desire to work with the very best directors instead of taking the very biggest paycheques is truly remarkable in today’s world. But in saying that, DiCaprio’s portrayal of Arnie Grape as a mentally challenged brother to the protagonist in "What's Eating Gilbert Grape" was unbelievable and because DiCaprio was not so well known at the time it actually led a few people to believe that he was legitimately mentally handicapped. Leonardo DiCaprio is a well-rounded, fantastic actor and any opportunity to see one of his films should be jumped at, otherwise you are just missing out.


Bibliography and References


Catalano, G., 1997. Leonardo DiCaprio, modern day Romeo. 1st ed. New York: Bantam Doubleday Dell Books for Young Readers.


Esquire, 2014. The Moment Leonardo DiCaprio Became a Man. [online] Available at: <http://www.esquire.com/features/leonardo-dicaprio-interview-0513> [Accessed 21 Apr. 2014].


Hiatt, B., 2010. Leonardo DiCaprio Faces His Demons. [online] Rolling Stone. Available at: <http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/news/leonardo-dicaprio-faces-his-demons-20100805> [Accessed 21 Apr. 2014].


Hill, E., 2014. Martin Scorsese on Leo DiCaprio: 'We Speak the Same Language'. [online] Parade. Available at: <http://parade.condenast.com/40606/erinhill/12-martin-scorsese/> [Accessed 21 Apr. 2014].


IMDb, 2014. Inception Reviews & Ratings - IMDb. [online] Available at: <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1375666/reviews?ref_=tt_urv> [Accessed 21 Apr. 2014].


IMDb, 2014. Romeo + Juliet Reviews & Ratings - IMDb. [online] Available at: <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117509/reviews?ref_=tt_urv> [Accessed 21 Apr. 2014].


IMDb, 2014. Titanic Reviews & Ratings - IMDb. [online] Available at: <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120338/reviews?ref_=tt_urv> [Accessed 21 Apr. 2014].


Interview Magazine, 2014. New Again: Leonardo DiCaprio. [online] Available at: <http://www.interviewmagazine.com/film/new-again-leonardo-dicaprio/> [Accessed 21 Apr. 2014].


Mail Online, 2010. In your dreams: Leonardo DiCaprio's new movie will have you going back for more (if only to work out what it's all about!). [online] Available at: <http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1295085/Inception-review-Leonardo-DiCaprios-new-movie-going-more.html> [Accessed 21 Apr. 2014].


Night, D., 2013. Martin Scorsese doffs cap to saviour Leonardo DiCaprio. [online] Express.co.uk. Available at: <http://www.express.co.uk/news/showbiz/451219/Martin-Scorsese-doffs-cap-to-saviour-Leonardo-DiCaprio> [Accessed 21 Apr. 2014].


PEOPLE.com, 2014. Leonardo DiCaprio. [online] Available at: <http://www.people.com/people/leonardo_dicaprio/> [Accessed 21 Apr. 2014].


ShortList, 2014. DiCaprio interview. [online] Available at: <http://www.shortlist.com/entertainment/dicaprio-interview> [Accessed 21 Apr. 2014].


SUCCESS, 2014. Leonardo DiCaprio's Star Power. [online] Available at: <http://www.success.com/article/leonardo-dicaprios-star-power> [Accessed 21 Apr. 2014].


The Inquisitr News, 2014. Leonardo DiCaprio Embarrassed By ‘Titanic’ Performance. [online] Available at: <http://www.inquisitr.com/213566/leonardo-dicaprio-embarrassed-by-titanic-performance/> [Accessed 21 Apr. 2014].


Wight, D., 2012. Leonardo DiCaprio. 1st ed. London: John Blake Pub.


Filmography


Inception. 2010. [film] Warner Bros. Pictures: Christopher Nolan.


Romeo + Juliet. 1996. [film] Bazmark Productions: Baz Luhrmann.


Titanic. 1997. [film] 20th Century Fox: James Cameron.