Leonardo DiCaprio on the Oscar he “really didn’t want to win”
Hollywood icon Leonardo DiCaprio rose to prominence in the early 1990s as one of America’s most promising young actors following several spellbinding performances. Most notably, DiCaprio drew directors’ attention with his breakout roles in This Boy’s Life, in which he acted opposite Robert De Niro, and What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, as he deftly portrayed Johnny Depp’s titular character’s mentally disabled brother.
A seamless portrayal of Arnie Grape earned DiCaprio his first Oscar nomination. Although his fans were hopeful on the evening of the awards ceremony in 1994, the 19-year-old lost his ‘Best Supporting Actor’ nod to Tommy Lee Jones, who gave a similarly impressive performance in Andrew Davis’ The Fugitive.
In 2016, DiCaprio finally won his first Academy Award, swiping the ‘Best Actor’ trophy for his lead role as Hugh Glass in Alejandro González Iñárritu’s The Revenant. Just a few months before his win, TimeOut asked the actor what an Oscar win would mean to him.
“Honestly? It’s never ever what I’m thinking about when I’m making movies,” he said. “There’s nothing I’ve done for the specific reason of getting an award. Every single time, you just go in there trying to bat a thousand, trying to give it your all.”
With the conversation moving onto his missed chance in 1994, DiCaprio was asked whether he had an acceptance speech prepared after What’s Eating Gilbert Grape. “No! I had absolutely nothing prepared,” he asserted. “I didn’t think there was a shot in hell I’d get it. It would have been an absolute catastrophe if I had.”
It was unclear whether DiCaprio referred to the atrocious off-the-cuff speech he would have been forced to make or the dreaded Oscars curse. Fortunately, he shone some light on the matter in an interview with i-D magazine in 1997, just after his appearance in Romeo + Juliet and before his big break in Titanic.
“I wouldn’t be human if I didn’t,” DiCaprio answered when asked if he thought about winning an Oscar. “I don’t want to expect anything at all because then it doesn’t happen. I have a funny feeling about Oscars because I was nominated for What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, and it’s a funny situation.”
Continuing, DiCaprio revealed that he was, in fact, glad not to have won the Oscar for What’s Eating Gilbert Grape. “I really didn’t want to win because just the fact you have such an expectation on you at that time, people almost want you to be perfect in everything you do, and if you’re not, then it’s almost like ‘OK, get him out of here, he was lucky once and now we’re done with him.’ I don’t want to think about that much either, just because it’s all tricky stuff, man. Who knows how to deal with it? I just want to keep doing what I’m doing, and hopefully, people will watch my movies.”
DiCaprio sensed the infamous Oscars curse early on and appreciated winning ‘Best Actor’ when the time was right. In 2016, he was a well-established and universally revered name in Hollywood, seemingly immune from the Oscars curse. Watch his acceptance speech below.
