Interview: Leonardo DiCaprio, actor and film producer

IF THERE’S one person who knows how Kate Winslet felt before she won an Academy Award, following her sixth nomination, it would be Leonardo DiCaprio. After all, the 35-year-old who starred with Winslet in Titanic has yet to win one, despite a hat-trick of opportunities.

“I don’t think anyone would say that they wouldn’t want one. I think they would be lying,” says DiCaprio, chuckling. The heartthrob received his first nomination in 1993 for his breakthrough role in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, and then later for The Aviator and Blood Diamond.

DiCaprio’s latest performance as John Edgar Hoover, the long-serving first head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), in Clint Eastwood’s J. Edgar, is also expected to land him a nomination but, ever the professional, DiCaprio prefers to bat away any awards talk.

“I have learned from my experiences in this industry that there is absolutely no way to control people’s opinions on your performance in your movie,” he says. “You go out there, promote your film and hope people like the work you did. But they’re going to respond the way they’re going to respond when they’re in a room with that ballot. I’m thankful people are talking about it in that capacity, but ultimately I truly have no control over it.”

Eastwood’s biopic, which spans the five decades of Hoover’s professional life, also stars Armie Hammer – as Hoover’s long-time confidante and associate director of the FBI, Clyde Tolson – and Dame Judi Dench, as Hoover’s domineering mother Annie.

Hoover who headed the FBI through eight presidencies and three wars from 1935 until his death in 1972, is portrayed by DiCaprio during his glory years and through some less popular times. “

“This was one of the most challenging characters I’d ever seen on the page, and it was terrific to breathe life into this person, because he was such a mystery. Hoover was incredibly ambitious as a young man. He was highly motivated to succeed in Washington, primarily due to his mother’s expectations of him.”

Di Caprio has only praise for Dame Judi as his screen mum, describing himself as a fan:. “She’s a sweetheart, she couldn’t be more lovely. But as soon as the cameras start rolling and you hear that voice, it’s powerful. We had a scene where I am freaked out, stuttering, and her voice just froze my spine. She has a way of commanding a scene in a room, and it’s just astounding.”

Transforming DiCaprio from Hoover in his mid-twenties to his 77-year-old self took hairpieces, full facial prosthetics and padding. “The ageing was difficult, that was a huge challenge. It’s a constant adrenaline rush every day – you have so much pressure and stuff to accomplish.”

Little is known about the personal life of Hoover. And like his on-screen alter ego, DiCaprio, – who previously dated models Gisele Bündchen and Bar Refaeli – keeps his love life under wraps.

Di Caprio says: “Early on in his career, capturing outlaws like John Dillinger helped Hoover to fashion the G-Man image in the eyes of the general public. There were comic books about them, they were on cereal boxes. From a character aspect, he was just a great grab bag of different eccentricities. You name it, this guy had it. We tried to give hints … from his obsession with cleanliness, to his stuttering, issues with his mother, questionable sexuality, the repressed lifestyle, obsession with communism, and ambition for personal glory.”

Hoover’s close relationship with Tolson – they were rumoured to be gay lovers – is explored in the biographical drama. “They ate lunch and dinner together every day, went on vacations together. Whether they were together in any other respect … well, no-one living knows the truth,” says DiCaprio. “In the film, it’s seen as almost an unrequited love, but a lasting one, nonetheless.”

In one scene, DiCaprio has to pucker up for a kiss with Hammer – quite a contrast after locking lips with beautiful women such as Marion Cotillard, Claire Danes and, of course, Winslet. His discomfort is clear as he gives a nervous laugh before saying: “These are the things we do as actors … I was in character.”

DiCaprio says director Eastwood knew exactly what he wanted: “Clint was very clear, saying, ‘I want you guys to beat each other up first, I want as much blood as possible, and I want you to grab each other as if you want to kill each other – and then that moment will happen.’ He was very adamant about the fact these men were of a certain time period and no matter what they felt it wasn’t something they wanted to express. There was so much bottled up with their emotions for one another, it resulted in two men going fisticuffs first.”

Oscar or not, DiCaprio – who was named after the Italian Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci – says awards aren’t the be-all and end-all of his career.

“I don’t think I ever expected anything like an Oscar ever, to tell you the truth. That is not my motivation when I do these roles. I really am motivated by being able to work with great people and create a body of work that I can look back and be proud of.

“I grew up when I was 15 when I had my first opportunity in movies. I watched every great movie for a year and a half, and since then I’ve asked myself how I can emulate such artistry. That’s really my motivation. I want to do something as good as my heroes have done.”

With upcoming roles in Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby and Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained, DiCaprio plans to make the most of his time in the spotlight: “I just really love doing what I do. I know every career is fleeting and there will be time periods when I don’t get the opportunities that I’m getting right now, so I am taking advantage of them.”

BACKGROUND: J Edgar Hoover

J Edgar Hoover was the FBI’s first director and stayed in the post for almost four decades (1935-1972). He also managed the agency’s predecessor, the Bureau of Investigation, for nine years, before the FBI’s creation.

Hoover was known for groundbreaking innovations at the agency such as building a huge, centralised fingerprint database, and founding the first forensics unit in 1932.

He was also one of the most feared and hated men in America due to his approach to “subversives” – left-wingers and union organisers. He amassed huge files on political leaders and activists, using illegal methods in the hope of prosecuting them for what was often perfectly legal activity.

He is also famous for personally heading the team that investigated the assassination of John F Kennedy in 1963.

Since his death in 1972, FBI directors have had their term limited to ten years in an attempt to prevent Hoover’s dictatorial style from gaining a foothold at the agency again.

THE BEST OF DICAPRIO

WHAT’S EATING GILBERT GRAPE (1993)

DiCaprio’s turn as Arnie, a teenager with a learning disability living with his family in Iowa, earned him an Oscar nomination, this time for Supporting Actor. In preparation for the role, DiCaprio spent a few days at a school for children with developmental difficulties, and said: “People have these expectations that mentally retarded children are really crazy, but it’s not so. It’s refreshing to see them because everything’s so new to them.”

ROMEO + JULIET (1996)

Baz Luhrmann’s reimagining of Shakespeare’s star-crossed lovers as LA gang members, who take ecstasy and live in mansions full of bling, retained the original dialogue of the Elizabethan play, but left everything else behind. The study in teenage lust, with DiCaprio as Romeo, left much of the female Western world in tears for days afterwards.

TITANIC (1997)

The once-highest grossing film in the world centred on the love story between a working-class man named Jack (DiCaprio), and the rich, married woman he falls for, Rose (Kate Winslet). Their doomed romance aboard the world’s most famous ship launched the pair into Hollywood’s upper ranks of fame.

THE AVIATOR (2004)

DiCaprio received an Oscar nomination for this film biopic about the early years in the career of legendary director and aviator Howard Hughes’, from the late 1920s to the mid-1940s. Hughes, once the richest men in the world, spent the last two decades of his life in complete seclusion.

BLOOD DIAMOND (2006)

DiCaprio was nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor for his role in this film about the illegal diamond trade in Sierra Leone during the long civil war of 1992-2002. DiCaprio plays Danny, a mercenary who rescues a fisherman, Solomon, from jail on the condition that he leads him to a hidden rare pink diamond at the forced labour camp where Solomon was sent by a rebel militia.

INCEPTION (2010)

Inception centres around a man, Dominic Cobb (DiCaprio), who taps into people’s dreams in order to steal commercial information from them. He’s down on his luck and wanted for murder, but a businessman offers Cobb the chance to get his old life back – as long as he implants an original thought into a young man’s mind without his knowledge.