The infamous 1984 audition tape Leonardo DiCaprio became obsessed with: “Actually kind of a genius”
Having spent the last three decades as one of the biggest stars in the business, Leonardo DiCaprio probably hasn’t had to audition for anything since Titanic.
When you play the lead role in the biggest movie of all time, reading lines in the hope of beating countless peers to a high-profile role instantly becomes a thing of the past. While it’s something he hasn’t done for a long time, there’s one particularly infamous audition that became DiCaprio’s obsession.
It could be interpreted as unprofessional for an actor of his standing to mock one of their colleagues for putting themselves on tape in the most obliviously portentous fashion, but in this case, his gentle mockery is well deserved, since it’s one of those readings so bad that you can’t take your eyes off it.
When he was alive, most thespians would kill for the chance to work with Stanley Kubrick. As history has shown, they may not have enjoyed themselves while doing it or remembered it very fondly, but since the legendary auteur very rarely worked with the same actor more than once, it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
Denzel Washington might have turned him down, but Brian Atene wouldn’t dream of it. The name might not ring any bells because his career didn’t really go anywhere after he graduated from Juilliard, but if you’ve spent far too much time online, you’ll likely know exactly what we’re talking about.
In 1984, with auditions underway, Atene put himself on tape in the hopes of landing Full Metal Jacket. Did he get it? Did he fuck, but more than 20 years later, he gained viral fame when his cringeworthy, bizarre, and altogether strange pitch to Kubrick started making the rounds online, and it found one especially famous fan.
“Have you seen that Brian Atene clip?” DiCaprio asked, shortly after it re-emerged. “It was the taped audition that he did for Stanley Kubrick, and he begins, ‘Good day, Mr Kubrick’. It was a YouTube sensation. ‘I like to think of myself as a young Alec Guinness… Since I am saying whatever I want to Mr Stanley Kubrick, one of the greatest directors in the world, though not quite as good as Michael Curtiz, the director of The Sea Hawk…’ Brilliant.”
Being able to quote so many soundbites from Atene’s fascinating audition makes it clear that DiCaprio had seen it a fair few times, which isn’t entirely unexpected, since he’s also acknowledged that parts of his performance as Jordan Belfort in The Wolf of Wall Street were lifted directly from YouTube videos.
It’s about the only notable contribution that he made to the world of acting, but it was at least notable enough to land on DiCaprio’s radar and stay there for a while. For some, it’s up there with the worst auditions and strangest line readings they’ve ever seen, but for the Academy Award-winner and generation talent, he called Atene “actually kind of a genius.” To each their own.
