Martin Scorsese names the Leonardo DiCaprio performance destined to stand the test of time
Leonardo DiCaprio has given many performances that will live long in the memory. There was his poignant breakthrough role as the developmentally disabled Arnie Grape, the Titanic performance that captured millions of teenage hearts, and his brutal Academy Award-winning turn as fur trapper Hugh Glass in The Revenant. The characters he has played under the direction of his greatest collaborator, Martin Scorsese, are also incredible, from the reclusive germaphobe Howard Hughes in The Aviator to the debauched Jordan Belfort in The Wolf of Wall Street. Scorsese reckons he was at the helm for another classic DiCaprio performance, though – one he believes is destined to stand the test of time.
Bizarrely, when DiCaprio initially signed up for the movie that would feature this time-tested performance, he was supposed to play an entirely different character. When Scorsese set his sights on adapting David Grann’s non-fiction opus Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI, he envisioned DiCaprio playing Texas Ranger-turned-FBI agent Tom White. He was the agent sent to help the Osage Indian Nation in the 1920s when a wave of murders swept their small yet wealthy community. You see, the Osage’s land was rich in oil, making them rich in the process – but it appeared someone was out to remove them from the picture.
Scorsese worked on the script with screenwriter Eric Roth for two years, and it ballooned to 200 pages long. At a certain point, though, he realised that approaching the story from White’s perspective made it a standard police procedural and also risked falling into “white saviour” territory. While they tried to figure out how to re-shape the story they’d already put so much time and effort into, DiCaprio suggested something radical: telling the tale from the perspective of Ernest Burkhart.
Burkhart was one of the prime suspects identified by White and the FBI in the murders – but he was also seemingly a loving family man who was married to Osage tribe member Mollie Kyle. In reality, though, even while insisting he loved Mollie, he also poisoned her for months under the guidance of his uncle William King Hale. It was Hale who had ordered the contract killings of the Osage to gain control of the rights to their oil.
Scorsese and Roth agreed with DiCaprio and scrapped the screenplay they had been writing. They realised that shifting the focus to Burkhart turned the movie into a twisted love story and also gave them more opportunities to show things from the Osage nation’s perspective. DiCaprio became passionate about playing Burkhart, so his role was switched, and the role of White was reduced to a small supporting turn. Lily Gladstone was cast as Mollie, and her chemistry with DiCaprio resulted in a truly unforgettable pairing at the heart of the film.
When it came time for Academy Award nominations, though, Scorsese banked one for ‘Best Director’, Gladstone was nominated for ‘Best Actress’, and Robert De Niro – who played the villainous Hale – was up for ‘Best Supporting Actor.’ Conspicuous by his absence from the nominations, though, was DiCaprio, and this didn’t sit well with his director and co-star.
Gladstone revealed that DiCaprio was the first person to text her congratulations when the nominations were announced. She admitted her parents were “pissed” he didn’t join their daughter in getting recognition for his work. The young star mused, “I told him how upset we all were. My nomination is equal parts his. I would not have been able to do what I did without his generosity as an actor and as a human being.”
Scorsese was more sanguine about what many called a snub, though. He’s been around long enough to know what will and won’t stand the test of time, and he saw something special in DiCaprio’s performance. He knew that even if he didn’t get his flowers at the Oscars, this layered, insidious performance is the type that will be talked about and returned to for decades to come.
The Gangs of New York director said, “He went so far into the complexities and contradictions of a man who was so weak, so malleable, who did such unspeakable things, but who also truly loved his wife. Leo fearlessly created a true Everyman – an Everyman that people just don’t want to acknowledge. So, that will endure.”
