The actor who called Leonardo DiCaprio a try-hard: “That is why it does not work”
Few actors have defined the past three decades of Hollywood quite like Leonardo DiCaprio.
From babyfaced teen heartthrob to sought-after leading man to a selective screen legend who only crops up once or twice a year, he has gone on a journey that most performers can only dream of. He’s worked with all the best co-stars, the top directors, the best writers, and has amassed a body of work to rival the very best of the best. However, not everybody is a fan.
Early in his career, he had a brief feud with Mark Wahlberg, as the two stars began their Hollywood journeys at roughly the same time, and then Lady Gaga reportedly had a run-in with him backstage at the 2016 Golden Globes, while Jennifer Lawrence repeatedly clashed with him on the set of Don’t Look Up.
Even Stephen Baldwin, brother of DiCaprio’s The Departed co-star Alec, once claimed that he wasn’t a very good actor, but given that his most high-profile role was as Barney Rubble in The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas (which isn’t even the good Flintstones movie), we can probably disregard that opinion.
Another performer who hasn’t been completely won over by Leo is Indian actor Manoj Bajpayee, the star of Satya, who, speaking with Chalchitra Talks, made these comments about his American counterpart, which have been translated partially from Hindi.
“I was just looking at DiCaprio. And how he is before the shot. What is he doing between the shots. I realised that he is putting in too much,” he said, “It becomes too hard, that is why it does not work. But see how [Martin] Scorsese works with him so many times. He pushes things he believes in and wants to be in those roles.”
Bajpayee, who has won four Filmfare Awards, one of India’s highest cinematic honours, might have a point. DiCaprio is extremely dedicated to his performances, often putting himself in highly dangerous situations to get the most out of himself. Rumour has it that he slept in a real horse carcass while making The Revenant, although this has been disputed, and while an actor should always put the effort in while filming a movie, sometimes they can go too far and expose the artificiality of what they’re doing. If an audience is thinking about the actor in a scene rather than the character, something has gone horribly wrong.
To go against everything I just said, Leo clearly hasn’t damaged his career too badly by taking the extra step. Take The Revenant, for example, where all those weeks of wading into frozen rivers and (potentially) sleeping inside dead horses paid off when he finally got his hands on a ‘Best Actor’ Oscar. Some actors might resent DiCaprio’s methods, but from a critical standpoint, these ‘over-prepared’ roles usually emerge as his best.
Ultimately, Bajpayee’s comments feel slightly unfair, and whether he genuinely believes them or was just chasing a little clout by going after one of the biggest stars in the world remains to be seen, but either way, DiCaprio probably isn’t losing any sleep over him.
