The one actor who scared Leonardo DiCaprio and changed everything: “It completely altered and shifted the scene”
Any veteran actor like Leonardo DiCaprio usually knows how to maintain their cool under pressure when working onset.
He was going to do whatever he could to get the job done when the cameras were rolling, and judging by his performance in Django Unchained, it’s not like he wasn’t afraid of putting himself through a bit of pain to get the right shot. But if you’re staring down someone even better across the table from you onset, there’s a good chance that you’re going to break out into a cold sweat when they look at you the wrong way.
Then again, DiCaprio always seemed to treat every one of his films as a learning experience. He always wanted a chance to flex his acting chops when he could but if there’s one specific circumstance that the character had that made him afflicted or impaired, it was a lot easier to inhabit whatever role he was doing.
That can be extremely liberating for an actor, but the young actor was in for a listen when working on films like Titanic. He had already spent enough time making the best blockbusters he could, but the biggest challenge for him was to play someone completely straight. This was a simple love story and since everyone was focused on the ship sinking, they would need to relate to Jack a lot more as a person rather than a version of him that had any kind of physical impairment.
Although DiCaprio could have worked with anybody, the idea of getting in front of the camera for Martin Scorsese was too good an opportunity to pass up. They were meant for each other in many respects, but when working on films like The Departed, DiCaprio did have more than a few starstruck moments when people like Jack Nicholson arrived.
Nicholson is the kind of actor already synonymous with film history, but when he stepped into the role of Frank Costello, he was no longer the acting legend. He was a truly ruthless member of the New York underground, and it wasn’t an exaggeration when DiCaprio became fearful for his life when looking at his scene partner.
This was the same person who brought all of those dark presences to life, and if he could translate that to film screens around the world, it was bound to be even more sinister when he was a few feet away, with DiCaprio recalling, “It completely altered and shifted the scene in a completely different direction. I think we all knew that if he came on board that he would have to sort of grab the reins with this character and let him be freeform and we all were completely sort of ready for that every day that we walked up on the set.”
But the real power behind Nicholson’s performance also comes from the kinds of characters he played in the past. The Shining is among the finest films he has ever been in, but since he was an unstable man that was pushed too far by the Overlook Hotel, imagine what he could have done if he made a character truly unhinged. The Joker would always be played for laughs, but with a single smile, Nicholson could level someone if they so much as moved one eyelash out of place.
It was all in the subtlety for him, but that’s part of what made DiCaprio’s later career so captivating as well. He was still on set to learn, and when looking at his career trajectory, maybe he wouldn’t have been as magnetic in something like One Battle After Another without learning the lessons that he was taught with Nicholson next to him.
