The one movie Leonardo DiCaprio wishes he never made
From Titanic to The Wolf of Wall Street, Leonardo DiCaprio has starred in his fair share of hit movies. Most of his most famous titles have been successful in both a critical and commercial sense, establishing him as one of the finest actors of his generation. Despite the actor enjoying many stellar turns, there is one movie he wishes he had never made: Don’s Plum.
Directed by R. D. Robb and filmed between 1995 and 1996, the monochromatic indie drama did not premiere until 2001 at The Berlin Film Festival. Following a group of young adults over one night, it stars DiCaprio alongside friend Tobey Maguire and the likes of Kevin Connolly, Jeremy Sisto and Jenny Lewis. It is said that much of the movie is improvised, with DiCaprio and Maguire paid $575 a day for their work.
Things were not so simple for Don’s Plum, as the big gap between filming and the premiere might suggest. At one point, DiCaprio and Maguire refused to allow the movie to become a feature film, which led to the producers suing them. In 1998, two years after completion, producer David Stutman filed a suit against the pair claiming that they “carried out a fraudulent and coercive campaign to prevent release of the film”. He maintained this was because Maguire feared his improvised work “revealed personal experiences or tendencies”.
The actors maintained that Don’s Plum had only been pitched to them as a short film before it was then re-edited into a feature, with them unwittingly becoming the stars. During a 1998 legal disposition, DiCaprio said: “I never had any intention of doing a feature film. The agreement had always been that this was a short film. I would never go in for one night and improvise with my friends and make a feature film. There’s no way I would ever do that.”
Via the same publication, producer and screenwriter Dale Wheatley echoed this sentiment, claiming: “Leo said, ‘Guys, I don’t want this to be a feature film. I can’t afford a bad feature film to go out right now.'” The case was eventually settled, with it reported that Stutman agreed not to release the movie in the US or Canada.
In 2014, Wheatley then put the movie up on freedonsplum.com. However, it was taken down in January 2016 due to a third-party copyright notice submitted on behalf of DiCaprio and Maguire.
In September 2014, Wheatley also penned an open letter to the former on the website. He wrote: “This letter is about so much more than just a movie. It’s about bullying, censorship, and abuse of power. You and Tobey Maguire spat in the face of independent film and the community that helped get you where you are today. You are not bigger than art, Leo. You are not bigger than the films in which you act.”
Continuing, he added: “In a single night in 1996, you made a series of hasty and wildly irrational decisions that hurt a lot of people. By abruptly cutting off all communication with me and RD Robb, you cut off your access to the truth. Had you just taken time to listen to reason, you would have found that Tobey Maguire was using you for his own mysterious purposes. Had you actually taken the time to look at the facts, and not just listened to Tobey, you would have continued to support Don’s Plum. But instead you allowed yourself to get swept up in a witch hunt that destroyed art and careers.”
“It saddens me deeply that in 2016 we witness the senseless oppression of film and art by one of America’s most beloved actors,” Wheatley told FOX411 after the takedown notice was served. “While the world celebrates – and certainly Americans celebrate – his great achievements in cinema, he chooses to use an iron fist to suppress the work of many other artists including him in a film made 20 years ago.”
Given Wheatley’s passionate defence of his movie, I’m sure Leonardo DiCaprio really wishes he had never made Don’s Plum.
