The worst thing Leonardo DiCaprio has ever done for a movie role
After a televisual debut in Parenthood in the early 1990s, Leonardo DiCaprio became one of Hollywood’s most promising prodigies as several spellbinding performances funnelled wind into his sails. Most notably, DiCaprio drew the attention of directors in 1993 with two breakout roles: This Boy’s Life, where he acted opposite Robert De Niro, and What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, in which he flawlessly portrayed Johnny Depp’s titular character’s developmentally disabled brother.
By the mid-1990s, DiCaprio had received further praise for performances in The Basketball Diaries and Romeo + Juliet. Still, it was a landmark appearance in James Cameron’s 1997 blockbuster Titanic that sealed his fate as the most sought-after name in western cinema.
Looking back from the present day, DiCaprio now stands atop a mountain of critically revered blockbusters and boasts projects with the likes of Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino, Alejandro G. Iñárritu, James Cameron and Steven Spielberg.
Of all the directors DiCaprio has been lucky enough to collaborate with so far, he’s most proud of his work with Scorsese, who caught DiCaprio’s imagination in his teen years. “I got into this business because I worked with Robert De Niro, so I wanted to see everything he had ever done, and that led to this guy called Martin Scorsese that he had worked with a lot, and he is basically the greatest director around,” DiCaprio once told New York Foreign Press. “I became a huge fan of their movies, and ever since I was 16 years old, they have been my mentors, my icons and my heroes in the business.”
To date, DiCaprio and Scorsese have collaborated on Gangs of New York, The Aviator, The Departed, Shutter Island and The Wolf of Wall Street. When asked to name his career highlight during the 2012 premiere of Django Unchained, DiCaprio picked out the 2004 Howard Hughes biopic as a personal favourite.
“If I had to choose one, it would probably be The Aviator, playing Howard Hughes,” he said. “It’s a different set of circumstances when you’re able to say to yourself, ‘You know, someday I’m going to play this character,’ and then you get to develop it. And I got to develop it for over eight years, and then the great Martin Scorsese got to direct me in it. So that’s the one I’m probably the most proud of.”
Since then, DiCaprio has starred in a host of exciting movies, some of which may have taken the medal from The Aviator. Most notably, DiCaprio’s central role in Iñárritu’s The Revenant in 2015 earned him his first Oscar for ‘Best Actor’ and surely marks one of his proudest moments.
In the 2015 epic, DiCaprio plays frontiersman Hugh Glass, who survives a bear attack against the odds to seek vengeance following the betrayal of Tom Hardy’s character, John Fitzgerald. Known for giving his all while performing, DiCaprio more than earned his Oscar as he chowed down on a raw Bison liver in one of the film’s many uncomfortable scenes.
In an interview with Timeout, DiCaprio discussed the worst thing he’s ever done for a film. “I did [eat raw liver],” DiCaprio said of the scene from The Revenant. “Because the fake liver they gave me didn’t look real … I was sitting there eating a big piece of Play-Doh. I had to give it a shot. But I only did it twice, and my reaction is up on screen. That’s instinct.”
