by Paul Fischer
by
Chuck Schwartz
Have you
ever seen a better example of how celebrity can sabotage a career as you
have 
with
Leonardo DiCaprio? After a stellar
start in This Boy's Life, The Basketball Diaries and Romeo+Juliet,
Leo's career went stratospheric (even as the boat sunk underneath him)
inTitanic. Two bombs, The Beach and The Count of
Monte Cristo, followed. That and an incessant string of gossipy stories
in the papers threatened to fling DiCaprio into the realm of pretty boy
has-been. With this year's Catch Me If You Can, DiCaprio has
righted his course, used his looks to their best advantage in the role
of con man and check forger Frank Abignale who, between the ages of 16
and 19, passed four million dollars worth of bad checks all around the
world. In doing so, he passed himself off as a doctor, a lawyer and an
airline pilot, just for starters. We sat with half a dozen other critics
in a stuffy New York hotel room to put the questions to DiCaprio, who
slouched in his chair and pulled a Detroit Tigers ballcap over his face.
Only at the very end did we get a rise out of the man
CrankyCritic.com:
Why do you think we love con artists so much?
Leonardo DiCaprio: Because they're great actors, I suppose.
They're able to manipulate their surroundings to their liking. There haven't
been all that many movies about con artists lately, I don't think maybe
The Talented Mr. Ripley was one. But yk it's certainly fascinating and
adventurous to go on the journey of the character and see how they are
able to manipulate their environments.
CrankyCritic:
You're 28 now, playing a character who is 16 pretending to be 28.
DiCaprio: It's really interesting, actually. When I first read
the character it was like 'I am 16 I can play this character!'
I realized how it was tailor made for me. I felt like I had the spirit
of this man but he simultaneously looked older than his years and had
a maturity level older than his years. I'm actually 11 years that character's
senior so I had to think about getting rid of some of the habits that
I had being 27, at the time, and try to get back to that state of innocence;
to try to be young like that again.
CrankyCritic:
What did you come away with when you met the real Frank Abignale?
DiCaprio: A number of different things. I was skeptical
at first and Steven was skeptical. He didn't want me to meet the real
Abignale but I was looking for the undercurrent of who
.
I knew about the way he did things and the mechanics but I didn't understand
what drove him as a person and how he was so able to easily disarm people
and how he made people feel at ease and trust him. I picked up on a number
of different things about the way he presented himself physically and the
way he spoke to you; the way he made you feel special. He had this intense
eye contact with you and engaged you as well. He has this innate talent
and instinct as an actor. I asked him if he ever manipulated his voice and
he said 'no' and I said 'give me an example' and all of a sudden he went
into this sudden drawl as an example of him talking to, you know, a bank
on the telephone. I said to him 'Do you know what you're doing?' And he
said 'No.' I said 'You're manipulating your voice! You're creating a character,
is what you're doing.' It was so part of his talent that he didn't recognize
he was doing it
CrankyCritic:
We know what drives Frank in that answer. What drives Leo?
DiCaprio: What drives me? As far as being an actor is
concerned what drives me is the love of the work. The love of being to
show up on set every day and the love of being able to get into a different
character's mind and become another person. That's what I love to do.
What drives me to continue to make movies is the unbelievable unique experiences
I get to have and the education I get to have. It's my college and has
been ever since I was 16 and did This Boy's Life. It's a long
college course that's been endless and given me so much.
CrankyCritic:
You put on 30 pounds for Gangs of New York. Did you have to lose
it to regain a boyish figure?
DiCaprio: Yeah, I did [everyone laughs]. For Gangs
of New York I trained for six months, put on a lot of weight and
had to maintain it for 8 months because the movie got pushed. For this
I wanted to slim down and look sleek but the truth of the matter is that
Frank, at the time, looked so - he actually had grey streaks in his 
hair.
The guy looked like a 30 year old man at 16 when you see the pictures.
It's quite shocking. The combination of the way he looked coupled with
his talents and instinct and intelligence; he wouldn't have been able
to get away with what he got away with if he didn't actually physically
look years older than he actually was.
CrankyCritic:
Does the fact that you look younger than 28 concern you?
DiCaprio: Well I don't look sixteen anymore.
Over the years as an actor playing roles it's been beneficial. I'm able
to be able to play a character who's sixteen. In other words I'm not trying
to rush to make any big transition to playing adult roles. I think that
things like that happen naturally. I'll be able to do those roles when
I get older. Right now I don't believe in any big plan as an actor. People
either buy you in certain role or they don't
CrankyCritic:
Do you think it'll feel weird the first time you're cast, say, as a father
DiCaprio: Yes.[laughter] Yes, absolutely.
CrankyCritic:
What do you think has been your best work so far?
DiCaprio: My best work? Phew. You know I can only tell
you what people have told me. They've told me that Gilbert Grape
is something they really like. I don't know, really. Maybe it was. I have
a personal sense of satisfaction about many movies that I've done. I've
had bad experiences on some. Some have resonated with me and I haven't
forgotten. Certainly This Boys Life, my first film, was something
I felt very attached to that film. When you make a movie like that at
a young age it really forms you. It molds you for the rest of your career.
Those people become like family. They become part of who you are.
CrankyCritic:
Talk about what you had to do to lock down these two roles.
DiCaprio:
Gangs of NY was a long arduous road to be involved in
that project. I actually gave up on it for years. When I was 17 I heard
about the project and wanted to be attached to it. Martin Scorsese was
someone I was dying to work with and I switched agencies and sort of forgot
about it and it sort of resurrected itself when I was 25 and our mutual
manager asked Scorsese what movie he wanted to do (as opposed to forcing
a movie on him). He said I've always dreamed of doing Gangs of NY.
And it happened like that. Catch Me is a really boring story
in that I read the book and someone submitted the script to me when it
was ready and I attached myself to it. The ironic thing is that I never
thought of Spielberg for this project. I never imagined it was the type
of movie he wanted to do. When they asked me to compile a director's list
I didn't put him on it because I didn't think he wanted to do it. He came
to me later and said "You know you didn't put me on that director's list..."
I said "Well, come on, I obviously would of if I had any thought
that you wanted to be involved." He basically read the script like
Hanks did and it jumped off the page at him. He called me and said "Look
if you don't have a director I want to be a part of it." And it's
all good.
CrankyCritic:
Is there a concern about Gangs and Catch Me coming out
one week apart?
DiCaprio: Maybe financially for the studios. I would
have preferred them to have a little bit of separation but maybe it's
a good thing for me. Maybe people will see two distinctive characters.
I put so much time and effort into these projects. I really put my heart
into them and I'm just proud to finally show them.
CrankyCritic:
When he was 16, Spielberg spent a summer sneaking onto the Universal lot,
pretending to be an executive. Have you ever pulled off a con of your
own?
DiCaprio:
I do remember going through emotional changes trying to get out
of my math homework but that's about it.
CrankyCritic:
What are you passionate about, beside film making
DiCaprio: The environment. I believe in doing a couple
of things and doing them well. I want to be an actor and I want to be
an environmentalist. I try to bring more attention to the issue of global
warming and that came, actually, from a talk I had with Al Gore. He told
me to start reading up on global warming because it's something that doesn't
get enough media attention and it's something that can completely transform
our planet forever if we continue on the path of not leaning towards renewable
energy resources and green technology and continue burning fossil fuels
we'll have a profound effect on our climate and it could have horrible
effects in the future.
CrankyCritic:
Have you been able to recapture a sense of privacy and put all the tabloid
crap behind you?
DiCaprio: You know what the truth is? That's really out
of my control. I'm not going to live my life to duck the paparazzi or
trying to keep out of Page Six. I'm going to live my life. I don't think
it's a great way to live if you have to be constantly worried about something
like that. The only time I comment about myself is when I'm promoting
a movie or trying to support a film coming out. Other than that I try
to lay low and I don't think it's important to go out there and try to
read all the various things people say about you. It's not necessary.
It's a no win battle.