Conversations with Leonardo DiCaprio

Oh save your applause trust me good evening my name is Janel Riley I'm the associate features editor at variety and I am so thrilled to be here tonight for the SAG Foundation conversation with not just the biggest actor working today but the best and that's very rare that those two things collide since bursting onto the scene with 1990s 1993 this boy's life this is an actor who has continued to make bold choices and deliver outstanding performances in a wide variety of genres over the course of his career he's played everything from an autistic teenager Romeo himself Howard Hughes Gatsby Hoover and of course the wolf of Wall Street 20 years ago he received his first Oscar nomination for What's Eating Gilbert Grape and just last month he was nominated for his fourth Oscar as an actor for the wolf of Wall Street and his first as a producer for the same film I am so honored so pleased so intimidated to welcome Leonardo DiCaprio [Applause] thank you so much for being here congratulations I was gonna say on a great year but really a great 20 years but most recently on your two Oscar nominations for wolf of wallstreet can you tell us how you heard the news I was falling in and out of sleep in my in my house and I think I had the television on it I don't know it came on at 4:00 or 5:00 in the morning and and then it woke me up around 6:00 no one called me actually which is what happened before and I saw my name up on the on the screen it was pretty amazing pretty shocking I didn't expect it actually really well I know people always say that but you I mean it was a tough year for actors there was some amazing performances really a great year for movies really I maintenance truly I you know I've we're talking about I suppose a retrospective on my life but I have seen you know different herbs and flows in the industry and I got to say this year is pretty astounding a lot of you know outside financing has come in and and you know greenlit films that I don't think would normally be financed and therefore there'd been a lot of you know outstanding performances as well I'm really excited to be you know just in the conversation this year it's been great I want to go back and start up the beginning because you are I understand one of those rare creatures I've heard about and Los Angeles native yes yeah you were actually born and raised here I was born in Cedar sinai which is now the Scientology Center the old one on Sunset Boulevard and I grew up in on Hollywood and Western which is kind of a well-documented area because it was Bukowski's safe haven where he would sort of roam around and right my father would also carry me around in and in a crib and run into Bukowski but it was a kind of a my parents both came from New York and they had this postcard image of utopian Los Angeles in Hollywood and then we kind of moved into the mecca of prostitution and drug addicts so that's that's where I grew up and then later on moved to Silver Lake and Los Feliz for a long period of time after that but yeah I always I was I'm from LA born and raised here but as I've said many times before I never felt like I was a part of the Hollywood system I always felt like this weird outsider and I I think that if it weren't for the fact that I had a mother that really took the time to listen to a kid that said you know I want to do this for a living this is what I know I want to do this is my passion you know 10 11 year-old kid if it hadn't been for her taking me to auditions in the sheer proximity of being going to a school that accepted me in Beverly Hills and then being able to drive to the valley or drive to you know Hollywood on the way back from school I probably wouldn't be doing this for a living because I'm you know if I live in any other location I don't think my dream would have been a possibility it might have happened it might have just taken a little bit longer well you know I think to tell you the truth I think that you know it's a combination of you know being in the right place at the right right time and being prepared for it and and being aggressive about it and sticking with it you know I I don't know I mean I've done a lot of television and commercials before then but it was really this one role that launched my career net career and that was this boy's life you know that was the truth of the matter no I was at the right place at the right time and aggressively going out on auditions uh when did you know you wanted to be an actor I mean you've started at such a young age did you think of it as a career or were you having fun i I just I really like I said I always felt like an outsider because I knew of people you know that were in the industry I just didn't know how to get into it and I remember going to cast different agents when I was 9 or 10 years old I was rejected twice ever there was like this sort of cattle call of kids and I lined up it was like a prison photo or something like that I'm standing there like this and I had had this crazy breakdancing haircut and when I was breakdancing and I kind of dressed in hip-hop clothing and they remember they went yes yes when we went nope yes yes no and that was it so I got rejected a couple times and then I just kept asking and asking and asking I remember my dad saying just stick with it someday you'll have your day and then I came back I think two years later and finally got an agent Harry gold with bonny Waikiki bonny Mike it was my first agent and I know you started doing commercials and TV appearances like Santa Barbara and Parenthood the first time around they do hood was it a lot of on-the-job training or had you taken any classes well my favorite class was drama school drama class in in high school I was you know was the only thing I did exceedingly well in everything else I was pretty mediocre and except for biology I was pretty good in that but yeah I mean I my first job was living with a parent who takes drugs which was an educational kind of after-school thing and then I then I got a commercial for Matchbox cars where I played a little gangster and opened the match box set and raced this other kid and I couldn't believe I got that job it was was I was excited from that point on I was like this I can do this for a living if if I seriously can get paid for this and this is a possibility let's let's go for it let's let's just keep being aggressive and do it I mean auditioning at any age is it is a cruel cruel process or worse what's it like as a kid I mean how do you handle that rejection you know it's interesting because I remember you know you're sort of set up and you're put into this system where I think that you're supposed to be a jack-of-all-trades and you're 11 12 years old there's sort of condition to say well you know the casting directors there and say well can you juggle and you're like absolutely I can juggle you know you know can you ski hell yeah you know tap-dancing show so you're supposed to like set yourself up as somebody that can you know you know basically do anything that they want and I remember sort of having that attitude for a while and I didn't book a job for like a year at like 12 13 years old I know that's not yeah it's like a big sob story but but the truth is it was that year of like like rejection where I finally said to my I kind of I suppose I took a different attitude towards the audition process and I started to get jobs after that and I think it was really because I said to myself you know I'm not dependent on this job you know I'm not this isn't going to define me you know and I started to sell myself less prepare more for the for the roles you know you know really investigate the characters as much as I could and not feel like you know my self-worth was dependent on whether I booked the job or not and I think that's finally what clicked with me and I realized that casting directors weren't always necessarily looking for the you know the Broadway show men that could do whatever they wanted but somebody that had you know I don't want to say a little edge to them but you know a different attitude about the audition process because you know you focus more on the work you focus more on the character rather than selling yourself constantly these people which is you know and the auditioning process at a young age was kind of cutthroat I mean I I remember a kid bringing a gun to an audition yeah a real gun it was heart you might have gotten the ropes and might have down the road but you know you'd go in there and I met one of my best friends ever and tobey maguire at an audition and you know there's this whole dynamic with mothers there and like what kid is doing what and she she said she said to Toby and I was just doing karate kicks over in him and like having a good time she's like watch out for that kid he's trying to psych you out Toby don't don't kidding it was mind games and and I was like I was just having fun I like you know this very competitive environment for kids at that time yeah I'm still is a you know I'm sure you spoke about you really the next movie is the one that really broke you out this boy's life I believe were you on growing pains at the time and they had to allow you out yeah yeah what a wonderful group of people give me that opportunity too because I I think that they kind of they foresaw that it was probably the last season and I had three or four three or four episodes and I didn't know you know contractually they didn't need to let me out to go do this movie but you know thanks to the support of the cast and everyone that who is so lovely they they kind of lobbied for me to be able to go do this movie and so they wrote me out of out of the season getting readapted by my father because I was a homeless kid on growing pains and I got to go do this boy's life that's very adopted by your father yes all coming together for me now this boy's life for those of you who don't know and shame on you is an adaptation of Tobias Wolf's memoir about growing up with an abusive stepfather and I've spoken to the director Michael Kate and Jones who said he saw over 400 kids for this movie I mean do you remember the audition process oh yeah very well and at one point I believe it was narrowed down to like maybe five kids and you and Toby yes in the final five [Laughter] do you remember the audition when you first met an arrow that was yeah I mean that was one of those incredible auditions that came around that I suppose every kid had been waiting for for a long period of time because it's just not that often that you get a starring role above Robert De Niro and this incredible you know the screenplay and was you know Ellen Barkin and Michael Keaton Jones and was just everyone was sort of feeding for this role and I I got down I suppose to the final five and it was like a last sort of day Toby was there and I I do remember thinking to myself I got to do something I got to do something to stand out and in the audition there was art lence and Michael Keaton Jones art Linton was the producer and DeNiro and I remember there was a mustard jar scene and he had to jam a mustard jar in my eye repeatedly it was an abuse scene and the script so didn't call for it but I got up and I he said now is it empty is it empty and I got up and I screamed Oh like completely unnecessary but I screamed in his face and i sat there you know with my head you know looking like a red tomato and and and everyone started laughing at me and then the entire room de niro everybody was in hysterics i sat there frozen's thinking oh my god I just screwed this entire and I just sat there frozen and then you know Bob and traditional DeNiro fashioned kind of just looked at me with and and and then you know we carried on doing the scene and I think I actually had dinner with DeNiro recently and he told me no I was the one who said I was the one who said you should get to get the job which was very sweet so he told me that which is very cool and and yeah I mean as far as memories concerned are concerned that I'm the most nostalgic about that movie and I remember every single day on set because everything was so new to me having come from you know straight from a sitcom where everything was very relaxed on set everyone was constantly joking around to having you know DeNiro walk on set and the difference that the sort of dynamic and presence that he had with the crew was just I was like what you know what is going on here I don't know I I don't quite I can't quite fathom what what everyone's so serious about and then I saw him sort of go through his process the The Improv the you know that the just the technical work was just something that I witnessed every single day and really really blew me away because I didn't know how to conduct myself on a set I was just sort of a a wild animal and it was really it was really Michael Kate and Jones that you know gave me some of these incredible fundamentals about making a movie you know every time I would sort of you know get tired of a scene or not one of persist you go pain is temporary film is forever you go back in there and you give it everything you possibly can you know and then you know I remember scene when Toby actually we made a vow Toby and I we said whoever gets get the rope gets a role we got a whoever gets the lead we got a fight for some you know one of us to get a role in this movie so that was my one request that Toby got a role in the movie and he has a small role in the film too and we remember Michael Keaton Jones sitting there and we're all sort of goofing off and being kids being 15 year old kids and you know he went up to Toby who was goofing off with me right before a dramatic scene he goes you know leave him alone he's like why why why he's like an actor prepares and he sent me off to the corner goes you go you go focus on what the scene means and and I did you know I mean it was those types of basics that that were you know lifelong lessons that that I learned from that movie I mean I really learned everything about making movies from that one experience did you ever get over the intimidation of you know being in a film with Robert De Niro did it fade as you work together oh no I'm never still not to this day he you know he is my favorite actor of all time it really is he's that relationship with him and Scorsese just influenced every one of of my friends in the industry that I've met through the years he that is the sort of golden relationship of cinema to me I mean it just gets no better than that that run of films that they did together it's just I can't even talk about it it's it's that mind-blowing I believe you've also said you know like I said you you weren't training as a kid but you were reading a lot of books on Meisner technique yeah I did I did I mean I never went to a formal acting I was only until really the Aviator that I started working with Larry Moss who you know it was it was the first film that I uh I I had produced that I had thought of it was sort of my concept and I felt like I needed to brush up on on my technique so that's when I really started doing formal training and he was he was a it was an amazing experience with him I mean he was it was more than learning how to be a better actor he was a life coach it was like he's like over the first day he was like all right you want to you want to go over this stuff I'm like yeah yeah let's do it he's like okay you're Howard Hughes you're and you're you're playing this is your cocoon this is your sanctuary show me how you fly a plane I'm like well I haven't really he's like come on don't you know basically sit in that chair and do it for me right now I'm like well I haven't quite prepared he's like don't you pull that with me he's like you're getting that goddamn cockpit right now and you show me who the hell Howard Hughes is you do in front of me right now I'm like okay I mean and and from there we you know we started working on breaking down this this script in a way that I'd never had had before I have to say I'm impressed because most people you know don't get an Oscar nomination and have like many hit films behind them and then choose to go see an acting coach I think everyone can always you know brush up on their technique it is you know what we do is takes a lot of research a take I mean if you really want to inhabit a role it takes oh it takes a lot of work and training and I think it's incredibly important to constantly no matter what how successful you are it's incredibly important so after this boy's life you went on to play Arnie grape and What's Eating Gilbert Grape and this was a turning point I [Applause] this was a turning point in a lot of ways because I understand you actually turned down another movie just for the opportunity you I don't even think you had an audition lined up for Gilbert Grape I did have an audition lined up for yeah no I was it was one of those situations were you know I did this movie this boy's life and it hadn't come out come out yet but there was this one role that I wanted to play desperately and I but I started to get you know offers offers from for other movies and there was a big Disney movie that I would they wanted me to do and I don't know where I got those little balls at 16 years old to say no I'm gonna I'm gonna wait it out because I want to audition for this other film but if there's one thing that I'm really proud of and my my entire career it's that moment that's 16 to say that you know and do that and have that sort of a conviction of what I wanted to do that's the one thing I'm really proud of because the other movie was an offer it wasn't it yeah for a lot of money at that time because which sounded great at the time but I said no man did you have a good support team at this point an agent a manager was not my father would always sort of steer me towards interesting projects you know example doing playing Arthur Rimbaud was never something was on my radar and my dad sort of he's an incredibly well-read person and he's like look you know I know you're getting off with these other things but take a look at this guy Arthur Rimbaud he was kind of the James Dean of his era he was a very radical poet changed poetry at that time and you know I'm not telling you what to do but you know special attention to that one and to the course of my career he's always you know gently said to me hey you know you might want to take a look at this I often haven't always listened to him of course but you know it's been great to have somebody like that what was it about the part of Arnie that spoke to you so strongly I I was a big fan of lots of hallström and my life is a dog I remember seeing with my mother in the theaters and being blown away by that film and I was also a huge fan of Juliette Lewis I saw Cape Fear and I was just like this is one of the greatest actresses I've seen come out in this industry in a long time and of course getting to work with Johnny Depp was was a was a big but but it was the role you know it was the role I remember talking to my agents and them saying me look this is a real if you really you know want to do a special kind of character and really go for something a little different you know this could be it for you so you know I really and Lassa gave us these tapes these tapes of a kid that he wanted a model Arnie off of and you know I kind of just obsessively watched that for a week and imitated what was on the tapes and then after I got the role it was a whole other process of you know investigating that role now I don't think he found out until after you'd gotten the part or maybe even after the movie was done but lost they originally didn't want to cast you because he thought he was too good-looking oh yeah that's what I heard yeah yeah I remember getting the role actually remember the moment when I got Gilbert Grape it was I was so excited because I'd said no to a few things and I was with I think Toby and my friend we're doing hotrod Brown class clown or something like that television join I was in his trailer and we're in an Airstream and I remember jumping up and down and hitting my head and we're all sort of celebrating and rolling around in wrestling it was a great moment it was like it was like winning the lottery really Toby didn't go out for Gilbert Grape - did he I don't think so but like I said I have a terrible memory I'm terrible he's done just fine so we don't have to feel bad for him and once you actually landed the role I understand you continued to sort of study this character bite by spending time it was it a home yeah for someone who for people who had a condition like Arnie's I again I I sort of this was really the first distinct character that I was playing so I tried to emulate I suppose what I saw Bob do on set and you know I I went I said Lassa he was kind of involved with structuring the script and I think he was kind of just expecting me to do what I did in the audition and I said well I'm gonna go to you know a home in Austin Texas and spend some time with some kids who have mental disabilities and I spent about a week there and I remember coming to him with this checklist and he and it was like a hundred different little attributes that I learned from hanging out with these kids and I said will you just show me what you want he was like no I why don't you just act those out so I did all of them I said I think I'm thinking of 1 7 8 9 10 24 and he's like okay you do that do you do that and I remember the first day being incredibly nervous and we did a lot of takes that a lot of takes would Lassa and I felt like I had it was a catastrophe but the more I was on set the more I got used to the atmosphere and sort of got my you know got my feet into the roll it just sort of took on a life of its own and it was oh there was a lot that that roll was so fun because I wasn't dependent on the screenplay whatsoever I mean I had my own set of rules I could do whatever the hell I wanted I mean it was sometimes it was like you know a dramatic scene for Johnny and I would just be throwing spaghetti and in the air and and they and you know last would say he sure you want to be that I'm like I don't know this is what I would be doing he's like all right you go for it and it was it was incredibly freeing because I didn't have to and I we paid attention to the script but it was so loose you know everything was so incredibly loose and so improvisational and I really just lived in my own world it was great it was awesome was a great experience and for that role you were named Best Supporting Actor by the National Board of Review and you received your first Golden Globe nomination and your first Oscar nomination at the age of 19 what was it like going through you know that whirlwind and you probably couldn't have expected that from this this small little movie directed by some foreigner no I didn't I didn't even know what the hell was going on to tell you the truth I I just remember when they told me that I was nominated I was like incredibly excited shocked and then my first reaction was I did I just don't want to go up on stage and accept anything because they told me a billion people watched you give award speeches and I said I I don't want to you know I told my mom I don't want to go up there mom she's like well you have to go you have to go yes I go do but that's but I was incredibly shocked I remember going to a screening and somebody complimented me afterwards and I you know I was just completely unaware of anything that was going on you know it's nowadays you're infused with all this stuff about awards and and this and that and the box office and I mean at that time it was just I had no idea I mean I didn't even read or a single review it was just like you know a random person coming up to me after seeing a screening saying hey good job little bit cool you know it was a much different time so are you we're aware that Janet Maslin of the New York Times called your turn show-stopping no I didn't like I said I didn't read anything it was just it was nice to get a reaction from my you know my friends and people that I knew did that film or the Oscar nomination I mean change your career did you find more offers for coming to you certainly yeah I mean after that for sure yeah things accelerated after that for me for sure but again it seems like you made very interesting choices you did two small films you mentioned playing Arthur Rimbaud and total eclipse and you also play Jim Carroll in the basketball I mean there's are really interesting choices especially you know someone who's 20 at the time I think I think I was even younger I think I was 18 when I did Basketball Diaries think so yeah cuz I was in New York for the first time with my own apartment yeah yeah that was a that was I that was a role that I really fought for and really wanted and it was incredibly low-budget god I think we did it for two million dollars or something like that in New York and that was another there was another role that I was really really passionate about and I just was incredibly exciting incredibly exciting time what 18 year old is passionate about Jim careful well I read his you know his his poetry and his and his book and I remember talking my my parents about New York at that time and I just thought it was so beautifully written yeah um this also began a trend of yours of playing real-life people which you'd continue with movies like Jay Edgar and willful Wall Street obviously what is it that attracts you to real people I suppose when you're reading a screenplay and you're moved by something that happens in it to know that it happened in reality you just get a different sort of emotional attachment to it and oftentimes people's lives are just so much more surreal and interesting and an obscure than you know something that a writer can create from their own imagination so I don't know I've had this weird I've never really questioned why I I'm attracted to material I just have sort of gone for it and you know I've looked in into history a lot of times to to find interesting characters because I just feel like they're just so much more original they are patiently and and and bizarre people's people's motivations and choices all they puzzle me all the time you know what I mean you you know you're you're doing a scene and you think ok he breaks up with his girlfriend he should have this sort of traditional response but then if you're like looking at it like a historian and you look back at that time period I if they took a completely different direction he wonder why just people are so interesting you know their their choices are so interesting do you approach playing a real person differently at all I mean do you feel a certain responsibility knowing that this person has family and ancestors I just like the investigative process of it I really do I think that kind of it's almost like a college thesis on somebody and you know like I said with the Aviator that was I read I read a book on Howard Hughes in my early 20s and I tried to develop that for many many many many years Michael Mann wrote a screenplay and where I was gonna do with Michael Mann and he had just done Ollie and said he was bio picked out and I respected that then I brought it to Marty and thankfully he did it and he read it was called The Aviator and you know I didn't know if you would respond to cuz we'd just done gangs in New York and he he basically said to me look this screenplays interesting because it's about you know my new show of germs with any you know this incredible tycoon this guy that is victim to his own sort of psychosis and he goes I picked it up when I read Aviator on the front title and I said well I don't know anything about aviation but then I said to myself well I didn't know anything about boxing and I did Raging Bull so I'm gonna I'm gonna give I'm gonna consider this and thankfully he did it but yeah I just I loved the I mean for for The Aviator for example I did this entire road trip sort of meeting everybody that I knew that ever knew Howard Hughes or had Howard Hughes stories and it was I was like an investigative journalist it was so much fun to dig into history like that and and try to encapsulate you know where he was at certain time periods in his life and the choices that he made well he may not be real but I don't think any historical figure comes bigger than Romeo in Romeo and Juliet which was your next film what was it what was the appeal of doing Shakespeare but it's Shakespeare via Baz Luhrmann oh you know it was really bad Baz is such an interesting dynamic force and so enthusiastic about creating art and an experimenting that you sit alone with him for you know an hour and you just wanted to do anything that he says it's amazing I mean he's he's he's incredible he's so inspiring he really is and he's he is and he's a director that takes a lot of chances and he and a lot of the stuff is incredibly broad but when it comes down to the to the text to the actual words he is he is incredibly precise and persistent about you know doing the literature justice and with Romeo and Juliet you know he was incredibly precise about it too but at the same time it was this incredibly new journey of trying to modernize the bard which was you know very scary at the time for a lot of us of course we have to talk about the big one Titanic right uh when you signed on to make it you you had no way of knowing that it would become this phenomenon what was it that initially appealed to you about that script well it didn't initially appeal to me because I think I took a long time to just get my mind around doing a film of that nature I you know done all these independent movies but it was really you know my conversations with Kate Winslet who's been a lifelong friend since doing that movie and her passion about the project and then meeting Jim after that and it was an experiment to try to do something that was this incredible epic and I it was it was a mind-blowing and saying thrilling experience for the both of us it really was it was unlike any other experience I've ever had really is it true the first scene you shot was the one where you're sketching her nude I believe so they threw you right into it I think so I don't remember I mean obviously the one of the reasons the reason for the film's huge success is the chemistry with you and Kate was that instantaneous was it something you guys worked on before I think we just really got along right off the bat I mean we you know she she is such a committed actress and I saw that it kind of worried 22 something like that she was so committed and focused and amazing and worked so hard on that movie and of course you know the movie went over by many many months and there was an incredibly hard experience for both of us to do but you know it was rewarding at the same time it was it was rewarding for both of us because you know we got to act alongside each other in a in a film that I think you know touched a lot of people around the world and I'm proud of it I'm very proud of the movie was there a certain moment when you knew it had become you know there's part of the cultural zeitgeist again you know I like I said I I didn't at all grasp how far-reaching this movie was I people would say to me you know this movie is doing really well I'm like great that's wonderful like no no no really really really well so it's doing really really really well great so what does that mean well you're gonna hit a billion dollars I'm like so that's a good average for you know how a movie does like no no it's it's enroute to being you know incredibly successful maybe the most successful I'm like oh okay so and that's really good right I these these numbers that people were throwing at me I didn't understand box-office statistics or how many people were going to repeatedly see this movie teenage girls and it just became this this thing you know I I don't I don't really know how to describe it but you know it was really Jim's writing in his story in that romance and that those sort of I know those those lovers that you know basically at the end of the film don't get to be together and then did a lot of tears I suppose you know for people at the end of that movie but there was no where to foresee what what kind of impact that would have had and it was like I said it was an experiment for both of us both Kate and I had no idea while we were making the movie doing those on the cover of Hollywood reported disaster this film is a catastrophe three hundred million dollars being spent on this you know gigantic film that's destined to fail it's like Jesus Christ so when it came out it was like I said we didn't even know we were just our heads were spinning yeah heads were spinning it became such a phenomenon I mean to be at the center of that madness how did you keep yourself grounded during that time or did you maybe you didn't I basically kind of ran away from it all I think I ran away from not from I it wasn't necessarily a success of it all but it was just you know I think it's probably a lot worse nowadays for people who are sort of pushed into the limelight like that because of the media and the intense sort of scrutiny of of the Internet and all that but even at that time for me it was it was you know I was nowhere nowhere to sort of run to and I sort of I wanted to say okay I want to let everything kind of calm down let the dust settle from this movie regroup and go find a project that I'm really really passionate about and I really want to do and so I you know I didn't work for a while mm-hmm you took like a year and a half off at least yeah something like that you know it was but at that time I was when I really said to myself okay you know Here I am with this incredible opportunity what am I gonna do with it you know what am I gonna do you know people dream about being in the position where they can finance a film based on their name and I said to myself all right let's go back to the drawing board so to speak and now you can make movies that you want and not that Titanic wasn't something I wanted to do but you can really be in control of your career like never before you know you can you can develop things and and seek things out that are interesting to you and and and pursue them and get them financed and your next movie was the beach yeah the beach yeah yes with Danny Boyle I remember seeing Trainspotting and Cannon and Danny Boyle's work was just I was it was so incredibly punk rock that movie and I and I just I immediately you know they they offered that me the film and I wanted to work with them really really bad really really bad it's interesting because at this you know I talked about being intimidated by De Niro and who he was and his stardom when you when you showed up on set were you aware of how I mean were people treating you differently when you arrived on set now could you feel it oh yeah I was different yeah it was different you know I always just came into it like an actor and and but then that it was the whole pressure of this being a film that is you know has no spectacle to it it's based on your your name and your and your you know who you are and you're you're sort of the the headliner here so you know is sort of I suppose people were looking at me to do certain things that I was unaware of you know as a as the lead in the movie for the first time but it was um lead in the movie of a film that was like larger budget and you know was financed because of me so but I just you know I I tried my best to just you know stick to doing the material is as best I could really after the beach you began a run of truly exceptional films you worked with Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks and catch me if you can it's actually strange to me you hadn't worked with Spielberg yet at this point yeah I'd come straight from Gangs of New York and and went straight to do catch me if he can write after that yeah not too shabby um so Gangs of New York actually came first yes okay and this was the first of five collaborations with Martin Scorsese which has proven to be one of cinema's greatest partnership you mentioned that you know you you de niro first told him about you and I believe you met him like right after Gilbert Grape briefly met yes Marty yes yeah I ran into much some sort of after-party for a film and I walked up to him and I was kind of in shock to meet him and I said hi and he goes I was kind of on his way out he's always usually on his way out somewhere hi kid hi hi hi hey you don't Bob told me about ya a really great job and Gilbert Craig that's how the other films to what kind of burger great to meet you like so so I said Wow he's seen my work he's actually seen movies that I've done this is incredible Wow so that kind of got the clock ticking not clock ticking but my mind thinking maybe I could work with this guy one day so I asked my agent if there was anything that he had in mind for someone in my age range and they sort of researched that in his development he had been wanting to do this film about you know the five points turn the century in New York and there's been a passion project of him this book Gangs of New York that uh that he'd been trying to do for 20 years and I and I kept sort of penetrating his representation with mine and saying I want to do this I want to do this I want to do this I want to do this and I was hitting my pad tied doing the beach I remember the moment when I got the call that I had my noodles in my hand goes he wants to do the movie tonight drop my Pad Thai and couldn't me um it's interesting because I actually spoke to him and he said that you know he met you after Gilbert Grape and you guys had talked maybe and then Titanic came out and he was like oh this this kids never gonna work with me he's gone off to become a movie star and he was so impressed that you came through for Gangs of New York and he had this quote that I love that he said and that was when he learned he's an actor first and foremost and he checks any stardom at the door and well you know that being said I mean who wouldn't want to work in skirt six I know I mean that's anyone would jump at the opportunity of course and obviously your co-star in this movie Daniel day-lewis he was in retirement at the time yes it was how did you guys get him out we were talking about who was gonna play this incredible role or bill the butcher and um a few names came up and somebody said Maybin Marty said what about Daniel and people immediately said well he's retired he's not met he's a cobbler he's making movie and making shoes in Italy so so it was actually my job to get to go speak with him because I think that he was was this kind of thing between both of them had worked together you know previously on age of innocence of course and but he did stop acting so Scorsese actually said to me look I I'm not sure how Daniel feels if he's ready to work or not you know you're another actor you should you know have a conversation with him and suss it out and I'll never forget you know meeting him in New York I went to his brownstone sort of knocked on the door and and he said and he opened the door he was hi hi how are you and I go hi nice to meet you Leonardo Daniel because should we walk I go okay he started he started walking through Central Park and he didn't say anything to me for the first couple minutes so I said all right I'm not gonna say anything to him either so we kind of walked in a silence which for about ten minutes through Central Park he never met one another and just walked it was incredibly surreal and I just said to myself I'm gonna wait till he's ready to speak finally middle of Central Park he finds a bench and goes that looks good would you like to sit he sat down and we started talking about acting and you know he and as I immediately asked him I said look you know there's a role of a of a gangster in the turn of the century in New York who's a butcher who carries butcher knives with a top hat and a mustache and a Martin Scorsese movie who in the right mind wouldn't want to do this and he's like he said Leo you have to understand it's not about not about not wanting to work with him on a film like this Marty is the reason that I became an actor I saw mean streets and that film was so wrong incredible and made me you know inspired to act and I don't want to be a disservice to him and I said well I'm sure that we can figure something out and and so it was like this slow sort of conversation that we had and we went out to dinner a few times it was actually Toby who said to him you know I think it's when somebody has a talent like that like yours it's almost their responsibility to to to do it you know to get back in the saddle and I think he slightly disagreed at first but eventually think thank God he said yes and I got to work with somebody who was a huge huge another huge influence on myself as an actor I mean I there was that there's there's commitment and then there's Daniel day-lewis please tell me Toby told him that with great power comes great responsibility you didn't quite say that but I remember the first day when we developed this for a while we're there for months he built all these sets and Cinecitta studios I mean we had the five points it was like it was the most unbelievable set ever because he walked into a world and you submerged herself back in time they built a wharf they built a Chinese pagoda an entire neighborhood the five where all the five points got together and I remember you know walking around this crazy set and then we're working on the script constantly every day and then it was like two days before we started shooting and you know we've been saying hi Daniel hi MA you know good morning stuff like that and Daniel just kind of I kind of walked by and he and Daniel went Daniel look I said morning Dan anyway I didn't say I don't think I don't think I said another word to him to the nine months that we were there we it was just you know he was build a butcher and I was he he was build a butcher and you know and was only until the last day of reshoots that we kind of looked at each other and laughed you know I'm like cracked a smile I mean it obviously works for him whatever he's doing do you do you think you could do that though yeah yeah I mean I've done that to a certain degree myself but you know I think to each his own and I think that you know his level of commitment is just so absolute and he goes home you know he goes home and character but you know to a certain degree I'm sure he has to kiss his child and his wife go to bed but you know it's it's that that kind of level of commitment was inspiring again for me I mean his I mean he was just phenomenal and in character all the time and you know again that I think as an actor being able to witness that and seeing this sort of heights of commitment like that was another stage of learning for me so did you know when you were working on games of New York that this collaboration with Martin Scorsese was you know going to continue on and normally not absolutely so you went to him with the Aviator yeah I mean to tell you the truth it's just been very simply this that we work well together I think we shouldn't generations but we share similar tastes and material and the type of movies that we want to do and I think accidentally we've just you know after the Aviator things have sort of come to us simultaneously or we've developed things together and you know I suppose I've been convincing a few times with him and persuading him to do certain material because I just feel felt like there was nobody else for the job and certainly with the aviator and Woolf those were two movies that I was sort of hammering him up and gangs in New York as a matter of fact yeah but shutter island' just sort of came about and he offered it to me as well as the departed so with the departed he came to you yes isn't like I mean you know he was the this is dumbing it down a bit but he was the Susan Lucci of the Oscars this was the guy that everybody loved Marty could never win was regarded as the best filmmaker ever so to be such a integral part of the movie where he finally wins the Oscar that must have felt pretty great oh yeah I mean if you talk about Marty's work he's really been to me the heartbeat of American cinema ever since Mean Streets I mean the his contribution to film is just and incredible and breathtaking and and as far as him not winning I think you know if anything you know it's it's it's strange I think he he always probably felt even though he's highly regarded as one of the greatest directors of all time I think he always felt a part of the New York establishment of filmmakers guys that were sort of doing films that are a little more a little more raw a little more dangerous a little more out there and and never quite being accepted by you know the west coast's so to speak and I think you know it was it was was of course you know overdo that he won for the departed of course overdue but you know didn't Kubrick and Hitchcock never win Oscars as well which is incredible incredible the hell did they know before we get to your most recent collaboration I just want to touch on a couple other recent films starting with one of my favorites Christopher Nolan's inception so was it all a dream or what I had my own interpretation and that was that I got back to reality I had to make my own choice on that one now really of course that was set up from the beginning that Christopher I don't to give anything away but it's supposed to be ambiguous you know you're supposed to extract what you want from that yeah but as an optimist do you think he gets home that's what was it that was my choice yeah um I know he's notoriously discreet with his scripts so had you been looking to do something together I mean did he let you read the script before you signed on yes I read the script it was a very sort of top-secret script absolutely and you know in he had I think he'd constructed this screenplay many many years beforehand even before Batman before Dark Knight then sort of reworked it again and then it was I think it was for both of us it was a matter of finding the character within that and we got to sit down for for two months and sort of bring out all this sort of subplot of the you know my character having this past life with his not past life but this life in his own subconscious with with his wife where he almost had an entire relationship in another you know another life that went on but all in his mind yeah well that's the thing about inception is it's it's so beautiful visually and overpowering I think people forget how emotional it is I mean it's it's about a man trying to get back to his children yeah that was what was kind of paramount for both of us in the in the pre-production process was bringing that that storyline across as much as we could within the sort of incredible matrix of phenomenal stuff that Christa we'll be it's kind of mind-blowing what he pulled off and then we yeah the other movie I want to talk about really quick is Django Unchained where you played yeah [Applause] Calvin J candy who is obviously a completely vile character it's a very fun performance and I I think this might be the first time we really see you playing out and out villain I suppose so yeah was that part of the appeal I wanted to work with Tarantino for sure and that was a very interesting set to walk I mean there's there hadn't been you know many films up into that time about about slavery certainly a film of that sort of scale and playing such an incredibly detestable human being like that and so such a well-written character I it was really the first day that you know I sort of talked with the other actors and Jamie and Samuel and it was like you know you know how far do we go with this and they're both said you better you better go the distance I'm like I'm prepared to I'm prepared to go to the distance to like look you know this is obviously incredibly touchy subject matter but you know if you don't play this guy as the worst possible son-of-a-bitch that could that could ever be you know people are gonna think we're sugarcoating this issue and it's an important issue to talk about as far as American history is concerned I said I totally agree and let's let's go but the first day was right and quite crazy I mean I had two fighters and I was calling them the n-word every single day and it was it was tough it was really tough it was actually took a long time to adjust to he never quite felt comfortable but that's part of what we do you know did you was at the end of the day did you do a lot of apologizing just I'm sorry I'm so sorry well everyone was supportive an entire cast was you know supportive you know we know we're making a movie and and and like I said the the entire cast was kind of especially Jamie was incredibly encouraging to me you know kept you know giving me the thumbs up when when I was being incredibly horrible I think you actually shot the Great Gatsby before Django yeah reuniting with Baz Luhrmann my pronouncing the right is a bass bass bass got even bahs bahs tomato tomato mister Lerman and I've heard that you really you were very meticulous in your research into this character are you willing to expound on that well you're taking on Fitzgerald or taking on one of the greatest novels ever written certainly what's may be considered the greatest American novel possibly I mean I think so I remember reading it in high school and you know III and I also saw the the Redford version in high school and identified with it but in a completely different way from when I picked it up again you know as an adult and it was really one of the most existential novels I've ever read and and and and it's one of those novels that you can keep investigating and keep trying to find answers to and Fitzgerald's words and and the it really is a lot to do with the editing of that book that's so fascinating you know because we we took a lot from tremolo which was the unedited version of of The Great Gatsby and that's what I kept referring to back and forth because so much of Gatsby is mysterious and unanswered and that's the beauty of that character and why he's such a sort of almost almost mythological you know character in in our culture and so for me it was about going back to true Macchio to find Fitzgerald's original intent and motivation with Gatsby you know what he meant by certain lines but you know what he was saying to Daisy when he was sometimes sound obscure in The Great Gatsby tremolo was a lot more overt and a lot more you know spelled out to the point where it wasn't you know as a subpart novel but like I said it was the editing and what was taken out of tremolo or sort of Gatsby's interrupted and he just sort of trails off or wanders off or says something that's elusive and like what the hell did he mean by that you know but for me as an actor was the compare and contrast of those two novels constantly and you know thank God Baz handed me that because it gave me so many answers thank God we had that as actors because it gave me so many answers and we didn't we didn't change a lot of the dialogue from Gatsby maybe a few lines here and there but I always understood what I felt I understood closer to what Fitzgerald's original intent was from that book and that mr. Lerman so that he you actually hesitated at taking on the role partially maybe the intimidation of playing Gatsby but also he said you don't really like to play characters where the looks are such a strong tolerance that's not true he is a liar no it was I was completely the you know yeah taking on break at speak yes Christ I mean that it's it's incredible undertaking and and but we it was like a theater group we were really and what I was blown away by by doing that movie and this is the truth was the level of commitment of the actors in Australia I mean we should be ashamed these people out there they they're isolated you know on this continent and there and there they know about Hollywood but they're all they all work four times as hard yes it's amazing how hungry they are to be a part of the industry and they're just constantly focused on you know everyone around us every every single day was just in there and into the novel reading everything working their ass off I was so impressed by the Australian actors I can't say enough about them really not that we should all be ashamed but yeah but it was it was inspiring to see you know a place that was sort of isolated on the other part of the world that you know wants to be a part of the American movie industry and the ferocity that they had to sort of stand out that of course brings us to the wolf of wallstreet such a amazing performance and kind of a great combination of all the things you really excelled at over the years you're playing a real person sometimes an unreliable narrator and just this larger-than-life character but like you said these things really happened um I didn't like the Aviator I understand this was something you really shepherded for years yeah this was another this there's been really two projects in my life that I've really pushed as hard as I can to to make happen and get greenlit and that one was the aviator and this was the other one and it was a seven year process too we we originally found the found the book that we optioned the book and I think Jordan himself kind of like the idea of Marty and I doing the movie so we got the rights to it was kind of a sought after novel and we had a we had a screenplay pretty soon afterwards with Terry winner that blew me away with these incredible speeches and this this insane debaucherous hedonistic world that he created and he captured all the best stuff from the book and we were prepared to do it at at one point and very early on and I remember we got a certain budget that was really really low-balled for the kind of you know you know epic nature of what this movie needed to be it needed to be opulent and they needed to be all about this guy's you know you know wealth and decadence and and Marty kind of felt the the budget wasn't right but more so than that he you know as he said to me many times look he's look I'm seven years old and at this point I don't want to have resistance and making the movies that I want and and you know if I'm gonna do a film and I'm gonna put these people in this culture up on screen I'm not gonna sugarcoat it and and so he kind of dropped dropped out of doing it because he felt a certain resistance from the studio about the nature of how deplorable and disgusting these characters are at times up on screen and we kind of fell through at which point you know the the sort of industry pushes things along and another director got attached and another director but I never I could never say yes to it and I don't know what it was but I just said there's nobody that's gonna capture the essence of these people and give the actors enough time to play and you know explore the darker nature and and the you know the comedic elements of this of these characters except for Marty he has to do this so I waited and waited and waited and waited and then sort of uh seven years down the line I uh I found financing from people that are outside of the industry that said you know not only do we want you to do this movie but we want you to really go for it like go to the extremes because that's the truth of this world and I came back to Marty and said we're not gonna get this opportunity very often and almost never you know I remember times where I could finance things like Blood Diamond door the Aviator I don't think those can be financed right now so it's really I think it's really you know it's up to the up two people who I think have who want to take some chances who've run into some you know luck with financing that say you know there's a marketplace for these other types of movies because I think about six or seven years ago studios just kind of said look this is our limit this is our cap on this this type of movie it's got to have special effects it's got to be you know and it's got to be a part of you know you know the bigger sort of broader scope and they stopped doing movies like that really it's almost been like this strange sort of unspoken thing yeah there's like a memo to everyone in the industry no more dramas above this level that don't have these checkpoints you're screwed so it's that's why we talked about this year and a lot a lot of the movies I feel like that are getting done either the you know ultra low ultra low-budget films or it's people that are fans of film let's say we want to see these other types of movies out there and some of them take bigger budgets and we're gonna take a chance on them and thank God for them I love it the age of 70 Martin Scorsese can still do new things on film still surprise me and I love that after 25 years of doing this you can surprise me I want to talk specifically about the quaaludes scene would you rank amongst I mean it might be my favorite Scorsese segment ever and just what you put yourself I understand you hurt you truly hurt yourself yeah I was in the neck brace for a little bit yeah no big deal well it was it was three days of crawling around like that but it was I got over it and I understand you got some inspiration from that scene from a YouTube video no yeah well I knew that you know when I said when I was talking with Marty about this this this movie I said look it's got a feel to me how the segment in Goodfellas felt with Ray Liotta with the cocaine and the marijuana and there was a marinara sauce cocaine and marijuana cocaine and marinara sauce with the helicopters the whole movie should have that energy so we knew that this quaaludes sequence which was a combination of many scenes that we fused together to add more tension to how did to even had to even up the ante of that and so we kind of just that was the the beauty of having you know Finance ears and people that really encouraged us this was really our movie you know it's it's you know many people say that but you know you you can't help but be influenced by other voices when you're making a movie it just it it gets into your subconscious you can't help but feeling thinking second-guessing your instincts when it comes to decisions that you make with characters or how crude certain characters are what distance you go to or you know all these things come into play if you hear those voices we didn't it was just you know us as artists saying this is the film we're gonna make and it's going to be you know crude and it's gonna be you know hedonistic and it's gonna be hardcore but this is reflective of the culture around us and this world and we're gonna tell the truth about it and so we got we really got to make a film like they used to make in the 70s they I mean it's true I mean this was the director's vision this is back to the Arab you know before Heaven's Gate or whatever when directors really had the power whatever they wanted it on a large scale like this so that I'm really really proud of I'm really proud because I don't see many many many films like this getting made nowadays it's a big gamble it was a big gamble this movie but as an actor when you're reading the script and it's like you know Jordan has a lit candle in his ass is there any part of you that is like you know maybe was there anything that you hesitated today of course there was a few moments like that but I I we we were encouraged from the onset and this was so cool and fun about it is that he immediately said to us you know sort of anything goes and we all every actor on set looked at this like we were in the Roman Empire like it was a giant Hieronymus Bosch painting like we were just hedonistic to the utter extremes and we were only it's so fun to play a character character has absolutely no moral compass and and and your only question every day is what is good for me hmm that's it you know and that just you know actors have said many times before it's it's so fun to play bad but it's it's it's been so you know it's it's been so fun to play a character like this that just is a vacuum-cleaner of consumption he just it's you know just never never questions his his impulses and so it all this sort of took a life on its own and I think the whole movie really took on a life of its own as we were shooting because we had we didn't know quite what we're gonna do yeah you know and it just it just became this other thing is it true that you didn't realize it was a comedy until you saw it no no I mean no no I knew we did a lot of crazy yeah yeah I mean we as Marty's said many times before he wanted to be authentic with this world and they happened to be doing incredibly despicable crazy things and this was their environment so it was it was gonna be funny you know was gonna be funny but we didn't say we're making a comedy right we didn't say we're gonna push the comedic element of it it was just kind of the why this of Jordans life and his and his book and this is a situation where you're playing a real-life person but you actually have the real jordan belfort to consult with yeah how often did you go to him because I believe Martin didn't really want to to meet him personally no no he didn't uh he as well as with Henry Hill and Goodfellas he wanted to be able to keep a distance from the subject to make his own film and determine you know what type of movie he wanted to make for me I'd never been able to actually play a character I can call them on the phone it was a revelation kind of you know I be we'd be in the office and I'd call him on his cell and I'd be like okay so what else was in this room you know is that you know you know he's a chimpanzee and you know rollerskates it was but more than that he they took me through every scene and every and kind of gave me the the beat by beat of his motivation where his head was at it was a whole different dynamic you know it was a whole different dynamic to making a movie and incredibly beneficial are you the kind of actor who takes work home with you like we're you fun to be around at this well making this movie I don't know if I was fun I was yeah it was such a constant adrenaline rush every day was just we were all you know kicking on you know every possible cylinder and it took so much energy out of me but yeah I mean I think I took on a different attitude while making this movie Jonah and I both did and you know we'd walk around and have to sort of look at each other remind one another that were still human beings with thoughts and emotions and feelings and and but this was this is one of those rare opportunities where everything was so loose and he allowed us to really experiment every single day and so much of it was improvised and and freeform you know it was it was a unique experience that way because I think so many movies that I've done have been so you know specific to the plot and the structure of the story but this was something that kind of grew and evolved as we were making the movie and we're making you know decisions on the day really pivotal ones I just don't know where you found the energy I get exhausted just watching I haven't worked since that was the last movie you did yeah yeah I do want to take some audience questions if we have time add any door Modi he wants to know the single most important acting lesson you learned from working with Martin Scorsese I think that it really had look you know I do I've done these films with them and I've had an incredible opportunity to learn from you know one of the greatest artists of our time but to tell you the truth I am so focused on what I'm doing every single day that it's so hard to pick up you know people have asked me if I wanted to direct but it's so hard to pick up on what he's doing in his process because I'm off in my own world and then we connect together but he said something to me in this last movie that was just he hit it so on the head that it everything sort of made sense for me we were we were making a film about pretty deplorable characters pretty unlikable people with him with Wall Street in the title wondering if audiences would at all connect with these characters or this world or going along the journey with them and and he said to me look Leo you know I've done many films in my life and I have to say as long as you're honest and authentic about your portrayal of who these people are no matter how despicable at times no matter what part of you know the darker nature of humanity you're exploring audiences will always connect with that and go along with that journey with you and that's what I've found in my career and I said that makes sense here's a guy that you came out of the gate with Main streets and did taxi driver Last Temptation of Christ and that that was his motto that's been his motto in filmmaking and and and that's why his films last for such a long period of time and and everything kind of clicked for me with that one comment I do think we're out of time I'm so sorry I want to thank you so much for being here congratulations on a great 20 years this year thank you guys [Applause] no it's all good thank you guys for saying

Channel: SAG-AFTRA Foundation

Views: 1,415,124

Rating: 4.9017105 out of 5

Keywords: SAG Foundation, Acting, Actors, Leonardo DiCaprio (Celebrity), Film (Media Genre), Entertainment (TV Genre), The Wolf Of Wall Street (Award-Winning Work), The Aviator (Film), What's Eating Gilbert Grape (Award-Winning Work), Inception (Award-Winning Work), Titanic (Award-Winning Work), The Departed (Film), Shutter Island (Award-Winning Work), Catch Me If You Can (Award-Winning Work), Gangs Of New York (Film), Django Unchained (Award-Winning Work), SAG-AFTRA Foundation, Q&A

Id: 61oxkOk4jy0

Length: 71min 22sec (4282 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 23 2014