How Leonardo DiCaprio Forced Hollywood To Take Him Seriously

In honor of Preece Fallon. Some people feel like they've been in the film business forever. Leonardo DiCaprio seems to have been at the pinnacle of Hollywood for as long as anyone can remember, and yet, his career almost went another way. His longevity, prestige, and numerous accolades can be traced back to one specific project — Gangs of New York. Before we get too far into today's episode, please be sure to like, comment, and subscribe to Nerdstalgic for more videos just like this. Leonardo DiCaprio rose to prominence throughout the early 90s on TV shows like Growing Pains and Parenthood, as well as small parts in genre films like Critters 3 and Poison Ivy. However, it would be this boy's life that would prove an important break for the young actor. DiCaprio purportedly beat out 400 young performers for the part of Toby, where he would be playing opposite megastars Robert De Niro and Ellen Barkin in a story about a rebellious teenager attempting to sort out life. Later that same year, DiCaprio's portrayal of Johnny Depp's developmentally disabled brother in What's Eating Gilbert Grape would officially make him a star. In fact, he earned both a Best Supporting Actor Golden Globe and Oscar nomination for the role, officially making him into one of Hollywood's hottest young commodities. His commitment to the part of Arnie opened the door for his career to blossom. In rapid succession, DiCaprio starred in Sam Raimi's The Quick and the Dead, The Basketball Diaries, and Baz Luhrmann's Romeo and Juliet. In many young performers' careers, this is where things can go one of two directions. They can take the safe route and end up repeating themselves, or they are selective with their roles and build a career meant for longevity. This was the crossroads that DiCaprio was rapidly barreling towards. As he grew in the public consciousness, DiCaprio began to develop something of a heartthrob status. He's good looking, he's popular, girls throw themselves at him. He and his circle of friends, which included Tobey Maguire and Lucas Haas among others, had earned something of a reputation around Los Angeles. The faster DiCaprio moved up the ladder in Hollywood, the more this Lothario persona began to take hold. This would be the defining tension for the rest of his career. His off-screen antics and loverboy image firmly dampened any likelihood that he would be taken seriously as an actor and artist. DiCaprio might have been a globally recognized actor, nominated for multiple awards, but it would be 1997 that would be the biggest year imaginable for the young actor. With the release of James Cameron's Titanic, he became the most recognizable celebrity on the planet. The film pulled in $2.1 billion, and DiCaprio's fame took on near-Beatles-like proportions with the Hollywood press dubbing the chatter surrounding the actor as Leo-mania. However, with his meteoric rise, he was stripped of his reputation as a serious actor. Gone were the stories of how he stayed in character on the set of What's Eating Gilbert Grape, how he meticulously researched the role, or how he willed himself to openly weep in his audition for The Quick and the Dead. He was now just seen as a pretty face that the Hollywood machine wanted to make money off of. Despite receiving 11 nominations for the film, DiCaprio was not nominated for his work on Titanic, which led to protests at the Academy by some of his more ardent fans. Being someone who was raised in the Hollywood machine, DiCaprio knew that there were both upsides and downsides to this massive influx of fame. The financial offers that came rolling in were immense. DiCaprio was purportedly offered over $20 million to star in American Psycho. However, he left the project before cameras could start rolling. DiCaprio was a fully-fledged household name at this point, and his next project was being watched with intensity. Everyone was waiting to see if DiCaprio could maintain his ever-upward superstardom trajectory. The project he chose to star in next would be his first major setback, The Beach. The Danny Boyle movie based on the Alex Garland novel of the same name. The film was a success at the box office. It was torn to shreds by critics, though. Many feared it would permanently damage the young phenom's public persona as an actor capable of truly inhabiting roles. DiCaprio was presented with a fork in the road at this point. Do you double down on the massive box office appeal, or do you take a risk and star in movies by high-caliber filmmakers and try to re-cement yourself as a true actor? DiCaprio opted not to pursue the massive box office path. Turning down the role of Anakin Skywalker in Attack of the Clones, instead opting to work on two films that would inarguably set him on the course he's on today. Both of these films would debut in 2002, and both of them are looked back on as classics. Spielberg's feel-good crime caper Catch Me If You Can, and the Scorsese gangster epic Gangs of New York. Gangs of New York, based on the novel by Herbert Asbury, is a sweeping epic about gang warfare in the Five Points neighborhood of Lower Manhattan in 1846. The film follows a young man named Amsterdam Vallon as he attempts to infiltrate the gang of the vicious Bill the Butcher and seek revenge for his father's death. This film being produced is almost solely because of DiCaprio's enthusiasm for working with Scorsese. DiCaprio was compelled to work with the director. He instructed his representation to meticulously research what projects Scorsese had that would fit someone in his age range. And at the time, Scorsese had been trying and failing to get a studio to give him the immense budget to produce the project. DiCaprio pursued the starring role and went to Daniel Day-Lewis' house to convince him to take on the part of the axe-wielding villain in the story. We speak English in this country, whose man are you? You see this knife? I'm going to teach you to speak English with this f***ing knife! At the time, Day-Lewis was retired from acting, and DiCaprio, at the behest of Scorsese, personally convinced him to return to the screen for the part. With everyone on board, the film was finally backed by Miramax and given the green light. The casting of Daniel Day-Lewis wasn't just for the marquee value, though. Sure, his intensity and gravitas and commitment to the character absolutely make the film, but for DiCaprio, it's obvious that he wanted to go toe-to-toe with the best actor of his generation. And this is arguably the biggest risk of the project for DiCaprio. Are period pieces a hard sell? Yes, but from DiCaprio's perspective, this move that was intended to re-cement him as an actor's actor could have backfired. What if he was just blown off the screen by Day-Lewis? What if audiences saw a lack of commitment on his part that would have revitalized the Thankfully, that wasn't the case. Both actors rose to the challenge at hand, and in fact, DiCaprio is even quoted as saying of Daniel Day-Lewis, I like him a lot, but I think, maybe once or twice, we would find ourselves having these intense confrontations and realize that we weren't supposed to be rehearsing and the cameras weren't rolling. Gangs of New York would not be an easy win for DiCaprio, though. The film was a grueling nine-month long shoot, with multiple reshoots, behind-the-scenes conflicts and Martin Scorsese even contemplating leaving the film industry once the film had been wrapped. The conflict-laden project, and specifically Harvey Weinstein attempting to sabotage the movie at every turn, nearly broke Scorsese's love of filmmaking. Ultimately, DiCaprio's existential bargain worked. The film pulled in $193.8 million at the box office and was nominated for 10 Academy Awards. Catch Me If You Can was also nominated for two Academy Awards the same year. Gangs of New York set DiCaprio's career on a tangibly different trajectory. It re-cemented him as a serious actor and would establish a formula for the leading man approaching and collaborating with auteur directors in order to produce awards-caliber films over and over again throughout the next 20 years of his career. The film transformed him from a hot young actor into a leading man, so much so that even many of the press interviews from the time of the film's release even see his co-stars parodying these talking points. When describing some of the more fractured and method ways that he and DiCaprio interacted, Day-Lewis said, "...our two characters are not to be too chummy off set. He's not a kid anymore. He can look after himself." If that's not the greatest actor in the world saying, this guy is a full-blown leading man, who knows what is? Being a performer is as much about making deliberate choices and deciding your bedfellows carefully as it is about the actual talent you have in your chosen craft. DiCaprio knew that his career was at a turning point. He chose to move in a direction that might not be immediately as glamorous or financially successful in favor of building a career and a relationship that would bear creative fruit for close to two decades to come. And well, that's all we have for this episode of Nerdstalgic. Which of the DiCaprio and Scorsese collaborations should we make a video about next? Let us know in the comments below, and please be sure to like, comment, and subscribe for more videos just like this.