It all started with (Howard) Hughes and it has to come a full circle to Hugh (Glass) for him.
The story of Oscars and Leonardo DiCaprio is a fascinating one, is an understatement. It’s as exciting as a mythological adventure where a hero comes off age and proves his mettle to lead his people to one final victory.
It has all the classic epic adventure story features.
1. A hero who don’t know his potential
2. A visionary master who discovers the hero and unearths the gem
3. A mentor who guides the untapped potential to fulfilment
4. Failures in fulfilling the wishes
5. Break from the task
6. Retrospection
7. One final attempt
8. Victory
In the world of Star Wars, it was Luke Skywalker. Obi wan Kenobi discovers him. A hero’s journey. Shepherd by Yoda. Failure in taming Darth Vader. Recuperation. One final attempt. Wins the battle for his people. Same is the case with Frodo Baggins in The Lord of the Rings. And millions of others adventures.
A hero’s journey!
Leonardo DiCaprio was a hidden gem under the guise of a teenaged punk waiting to be unearthed. He already got an Oscar nomination even before he turned twenty. He scored marks for his acting prowess. He was the leading light to his unassuming friend, Toby McGuire. But, the Luke Skywalker of Leonardo DiCaprio was badly in the need of a Jedi master who can train him for greater deeds.
Came James Cameron.
He wasn’t exactly the master he needed. But the one he deserves.
Cameron!
The Maverick director of The Terminator who upped the ante of technology in filmmaking was already a hot property. He delivered four consecutive box office successes. He was critically acclaimed, though grudgingly. He was an egoist. He was a showman. He was a perfectionist. He was the God in making.
Titanic!
The dream project. His creation par excellence. DiCaprio was the God’s creation.
The story goes like this.
After the lovely Kate Winslet screen tested with Leonardo DiCaprio for Titanic, Winslet was so thoroughly impressed with him, that she whispered to James Cameron, “He’s great. Even if you don’t pick me, pick him.”
Later on, her persistence, as well as her talent, eventually convinced him to cast her in the role! But what about the hero? He needed to be convinced. And how!
It took just fifteen minutes for Leonardo DiCaprio for the audition. But Cameron needed three months to get his man.
“You keep looking for a problem, an addiction, a limp. You’re doing what you know, what you’ve gotten acclaim for, playing a retard, an addict. You’re looking for an acting crutch.”
Cameron wanted DiCaprio to see Jack as a character who in the past would have been played by Jimmy Stewart or Gary Cooper, an actor who could make a plain old decent guy so compelling that he owned the screen.
“When you can do that, then you are a man, my son. You want to do something more challenging? Believe me, this is the hardest part you will ever play.” A simple, plain, open hearted guy who smiles in the face of an adversary instead of usual DiCaprio heroes who screams and freaks out.
Only when he thought of the role as difficult in its own right did DiCaprio decide to take it.
It was not all roses. Not always. Overnight stardom did no good for Leonardo DiCaprio. Leo mania, as it was termed, became a curse, and he got cute man characters. Hailed as a teenage acting sensation, rest of his films of that decade failed to garner critical and commercial acclaim. Titanic was a success Cameron himself needed time to sink into. He went into a filmmaking limbo.
DiCaprio going into obscurity? A one hit wonder? The boy going to vanish like Edward furlong who played the role of humanity’s hope, John Connor, in Terminator 2: Judgement Day? No. That was not to be!
Then came Steven Spielberg.
And Catch Me If You Can. Apt!
Stephen Spielberg caught the teenage heartthrob and worked around his undoings and cast him in the role of one Frank Abagnale. Now an American security consultant known for his history as a former confidence trickster, check forger, and impostor between the ages of 15 and 21. He became one of the most famous impostors ever, claiming to have assumed no fewer than eight identities, including an airline pilot, a physician, a U.S. Bureau of Prisons agent, and a lawyer.
Cast opposite multiple Oscar winner, Tom Hanks, this film did a world of good for him. He took to the role like fish to water and then came a flurry of real life roles.
Given an offer the world never lets him reject.
‘Talian. Mob film master. The Yoda!
Martin Scorsese was down the sorts for some time. DeNiro was aging. The old master needed A New Hope. Gangs of New York!
Paired with Daniel Day Lewis, Leonardo not only matched one of the master actors of the century take to take and shot to shot, he learned the lesson. Success comes at a cost! The punk slowly took back seat. Out came the Man.
Playing Abagnale in Catch Me… he learnt impersonation. He understood how to under the skin of the charater, not under to skin of people.
What followed was history. His Story. Howard Hughes character pushed him into the upper echelons of acting pool.
The Aviator, The Departed, Blood Diamond, Shutter Island.
By the time of Inception, he became what he is now. A master actor himself, universally acclaimed. Unanimously people rooted for his success. Box office failures were long forgotten. But one last connection missing.
The best actor since 1990 hasn’t got an Oscar, the gold standard of Hollywood acting success.
He could have got the statue with The Aviator. No. With The Departed. No. Django Unchained! It’s a blasphemy that such a master like Leonardo DiCaprio get an elusive Oscar for a supporting character. Wolf of the Wall Street. No. A BIG NO
He took an acting break. Concentrated on environmentalism. He was out to save the Tiger. Save the Greenery. Save the Planet! Yes.
The Man became the Human. Hugh-Man
Hugh Glass!
While Jack Dawson challenged him on a mental note, Aviator challenged him to push away the still surviving boy punk in him, Hugh Glass tested him in a way no other actor had endured in recent memory!
The rest as they say is His Story (of fulfilment)
“Making The Revenant was about man’s relationship to the natural world. A world that we collectively felt in 2015 as the hottest year in recorded history. Our production needed to move to the southern tip of this planet just to be able to find snow.
“Climate change is real. It is happening right now. It is the most urgent threat facing our entire species, and we need to work collectively together and stop procrastinating. We need to support leaders around the world who do not speak for the big polluters, but who speak for all of humanity, for the indigenous people of the world, for the billions and billions of underprivileged people out there who would be most affected by this. For our children’s children, and for those people out there whose voices have been drowned out by the politics of greed …
“Let us not take this planet for granted. I do not take tonight for granted.”
Let’s not take it granted! A Legend was born!
Leonardo DiCaprio. Not an Oscar Winner
A Saviour of the planet.
Fifteen years down the line, he will win the Nobel!
Done!
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