“His Brand Is Excellence”: How Leonardo DiCaprio Became Hollywood’s Last Movie Star
By: Tatiana Siegel (The Hollywood Reporter)
BUZZ NOTE: There is a video with scenes of his movies at the end of this article that I am unable to copy and paste so to watch it click on the SEEDED CONTENT link just below this message which will open the original source article, then scroll to the bottom of the source article.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
“His Brand Is Excellence”: How Leonardo DiCaprio Became Hollywood’s Last Movie Star
Illustration by Guillem Bosch Ramos
A look into how Leonardo DiCaprio became Hollywood's last movie star and whether Tarantino's 'Once Upon a Time in Hollywood' will extend or break the streak.
In November 1997, six-plus weeks before Titanic opened in the U.S., 20th Century Fox launched the movie at the Tokyo Film Festival in hopes of generating some early buzz in the largely untapped Asian market. Paramount chief Jim Gianopulos, who was running international distribution at Fox at the time, expected the theater to be crowded. After all, the film's star, Leonardo DiCaprio, already enjoyed a budding global popularity thanks to the studio's 1996 release Romeo + Juliet , which had earned $148 million worldwide — 69 percent of its haul coming from overseas. But Titanic 's Japan bow was something more akin to Beatlemania.
"It was pandemonium. The entire area of Tokyo basically shut down, with fans coming out to see Leo," Gianopulos recalls of the James Cameron-directed epic. "He started to be a heartthrob with Romeo + Juliet , but with Titanic , it just became insanity. It was the first time in history that a film was No. 1 in every single country in the world by a massive margin."
Fast-forward 22 years, and DiCaprio remains a global movie star, one whose consistent bankability and acclaim set him apart from his peers. In fact, he is arguably the only global superstar left in a film industry in which an interchangeable group of actors regularly suit up in spandex or brandish a lightsaber for the latest billion-dollar earner — only to be ignored by audiences outside of franchises. Unlike waning megastars like Will Smith, Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Downey Jr., DiCaprio sits alone atop the Hollywood pantheon without ever having made a comic book movie, family film or pre-branded franchise. Leo is the franchise.
Now, after a four-year absence from the big screen following his Oscar-winning turn in The Revenant (a 151-minute R-rated film that earned $533 million worldwide), DiCaprio returns July 26 with Sony's , Quentin Tarantino's adults-only interpretation of the Manson murders.
"One of the things I like about Leo is he just doesn't plug himself into two movies a year," says Tarantino, drawing an unstated comparison with current stars like Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart, who are omnipresent on social media as well as in multiplexes. "He kind of stands alone today, like Al Pacino or Robert De Niro were in the '70s, where they weren't trying to do two movies a year — they could do anything they wanted, and they wanted to do this . So that means this must be pretty good."
In other words, in an age of brand management, DiCaprio has cultivated a brand "of excellence," says Sony film chief Tom Rothman, amid an industry where "brand" these days usually means Marvel, DC or Lucas.
"What is remarkable about Leo is his consistency," says Rothman, who first worked with DiCaprio on Romeo + Juliet and Titanic at Fox. "If he's in it, the audience knows it's going to be good because he's in it. I mean, when is he not great? But that's not an accident. He works his ass off."
Sources say DiCaprio took a $15 million upfront payday — $5 million less than his usual $20 million — in order to get Once Upon a Time made, but he stands to make north of $45 million if the film meets expectations (his deal is structured in a way that certain territories yield higher percentages than others).
DiCaprio's ascent to the pinnacle of actors began well before Romeo + Juliet . A decade after appearing as a toddler on Romper Room , the baby-faced teen landed TV work, including a part on Growing Pains , which proved pivotal for two reasons: It led to him being signed by his manager Rick Yorn, who has guided his career for 27 years (DiCaprio is the rare A-lister who doesn't work with an agent), and helped him land his first significant film role, the 1993 drama This Boy's Life . That same year, at age 19, he co-starred in What's Eating Gilbert Grape , earning the first of his five Oscar acting nominations.
After the unprecedented success of Titanic — then the highest-grossing movie of all time — DiCaprio made a choice that would define his career over the next two decades: Instead of following up the blockbuster with a tried-and-true formula of tentpoles or high-concept thrillers, the Los Angeles native eschewed box office glory to work with the top directors in Hollywood.
That includes five feature collaborations with Martin Scorsese ( Gangs of New York , The Aviator , The Departed , Shutter Island and The Wolf of Wall Street ) and multiple films with Baz Luhrmann ( Romeo + Juliet , The Great Gatsby ) and Tarantino, who also directed him in Django Unchained . And his one-off collaborations represent a who's-who of Oscar winners and nominees including Cameron, Alejandro G. Inarritu, Clint Eastwood, Christopher Nolan, Sam Mendes, Ridley Scott, Steven Spielberg and Danny Boyle.
Among his compatriots, DiCaprio is by far the one most coveted by studio heads and top-tier directors, offering that rare blend of prestige (three of his past five films have been nominated for best picture) and box office prowess (those same films earned a combined $1.8 billion worldwide). While Smith is doing Netflix originals and a Disney remake, Lawrence is on a cold streak and Downey only makes money as Tony Stark, DiCaprio continues to choose films that would seem risky on paper — typically R-rated, longer than 2½ hours and with budgets topping $80 million — bets that have paid off and given him an unrivaled amount of power.
Before their collaboration on Gangs of New York , Scorsese found himself in a creative rut. He credits DiCaprio with reigniting his passion for filmmaking.
"He became the perfect muse. I was rejuvenated again," Scorsese says. "A key thing about Leo — and I always tell him this — is he's a natural screen actor. He could have been in silent films. It's the look on his face, the look in his eyes. He doesn't have to say anything. It just reads, and you can connect with him. Not everybody is like that."
Tarantino first met DiCaprio in 1993 at the premiere of True Romance , which the Once Upon a Time helmer wrote. "He was kind of the man of the hour at that party," Tarantino recalls of the days when DiCaprio first became a fascination of the paparazzi as Hollywood's latest "It" boy. "He told me he thought the script was really terrific."
They casually discussed working together and nearly did on 2009's Inglourious Basterds ("That ended up not working out," is all Tarantino will say). Ultimately, it took almost two decades before their collaboration came to fruition with 2012's Django Unchained .
Unlike his Once Upon a Time character, the star's ruthless slave owner Calvin Candie in Django was not written with DiCaprio in mind. "I had written Calvin Candie to be about 62 or 63 or something like that," Tarantino remembers. "And then I heard that he wanted to meet me to talk about it. So, we got together and we talked about it, and I was at his house for a couple of hours. A relationship almost always starts at his house, sitting out in the back by the pool and talking about things. I was really interested, but I told him, 'Look, I'm not going to be convinced right here because this is just such a big change.' "
Tarantino went home and gave it some thought, and DiCaprio's pitch to play what Tarantino had originally envisioned as an old, crusty plantation master began to intrigue him. "I thought about him as being an evil, corrupt boy emperor like Caligula or a young Nero, just fiddling while Rome burns," he says. "And that was like, 'Oh wow, that's an interesting idea!' He has the power of life and death."
While modern stars scramble to maintain a constant presence and relevance via social media and nonstop work spanning all platforms, DiCaprio as an actor sticks to cinema (he hasn't acted for the small screen since a 1992 appearance on Growing Pains ). Rather than using Twitter for self-promotion, he offers his 19.1 million followers updates on the Waorani tribe's efforts to protect the Amazon from oil drilling or to promote vegan burgers.
Off-camera, DiCaprio has maintained a carefully crafted air of mystery. Some crewmembers on Once Upon a Time were instructed to avoid making eye contact with him, according to an on-set source. At the Cannes Film Festival in May, he brought his parents to the Once Upon a Time premiere but skipped other events on the Croisette despite having his security team do a sweep of a Nikki Beach party to promote the environmental documentary And We Go Green , which he produced with longtime friend Fisher Stevens, who says that they are in talks with John Kerry about producing an eco-minded series about threats to the world's oceans.
Stevens says the public would be surprised by the depth of DiCaprio's understanding of environmental issues, particularly climate change. "Leo is definitely into meeting people and talking to people on the cutting edge of this issue," he says. "It's definitely something he is passionate about."
DiCaprio rarely talks about his personal life or even his career and typically promotes a film only in partnership with the director (he declined to be interviewed for this piece). Despite being one of the most photographed men in the world, hopping on a Citi Bike in New York or hanging out vaping with supermodels, little is known about his day-to-day life.
If he's made a misstep, it was becoming entangled with Riza Aziz, whose Red Granite Pictures financed Wolf of Wall Street . In January, DiCaprio gave closed-door testimony to a Washington, D.C., grand jury regarding a multibillion-dollar Malaysian corruption scandal. In June, Aziz was arrested and charged in Malaysia with laundering $248 million from a state investment fund and channeling the funds into Red Granite bank accounts. It remains to be seen if DiCaprio will be dragged into any trials. Regardless, the Red Granite debacle appears to have had little effect on DiCaprio's standing in Hollywood — agents will say privately that there is no actor or actress that they would rather put their clients next to in a movie.
Django producer Stacey Sher, who has known DiCaprio since he was a teen, notes that the intensity of his performances is no accident. "He makes it look effortless, but he's that '10,000 hours' and beyond," she says of the Malcolm Gladwell rule that explains success in any field. "I think everybody thinks of him as the greatest actor of his generation first, who happened to become the biggest movie star of his generation."
It was playing the grizzled frontiersman Hugh Glass in Inarritu's dark, violent Western The Revenant that proved DiCaprio could still draw massive audiences despite leaving behind the boyish charm that made him a star. "He is a perfectionist and demands a lot of himself," says Inarritu of working with DiCaprio on The Revenant . "There was this scene in the river that he is meant to be floating, and there were huge pieces of ice. He never hesitated, and even when you got the take, he asked for another. He was relentless when it was sometimes not necessary."
When it came time for Tarantino to cast Once Upon a Time 's Rick Dalton, an actor experiencing something of a midlife crisis because he's never lived up to expectations from his youth, the director was hopeful that the famously finicky actor would commit despite taking a four-year hiatus. "I absolutely had him in mind, but I didn't know if I was going to get him," says Tarantino. "I'm not presumptuous. I mean, everyone in the world wants him."
Once Upon a Time producer Shannon McIntosh says there was only one scene that instilled fear in DiCaprio, albeit briefly: a sequence on a campy variety show called Hullabaloo that required singing and dancing. "We were about to walk into dailies one evening, and it was about a week before he had to do the Hullabaloo scene where he sings. And he stopped me and he said, 'I'm not really a singer. How am I going to sing this in a week?' Cut to a week later, he was absolutely fearless. He just got up and did something out of his comfort zone."
Next up, DiCaprio is expected to reteam with Scorsese for Killers of the Flower Moon at Paramount. (Sources say salary and budget negotiations are at a critical juncture.) The film chronicles the FBI investigation into a series of 1920s murders in Oklahoma that likely were tied to oil deposits. In other words, it's a film that would probably never be made at the studio level without DiCaprio.
"I've admired the fact that throughout all of this fame, all of this success, he has maintained his friendships, his relationships, his closeness with his parents," says Gianopulos. "He is a truly lovely human being. Hollywood can change people, and it really hasn't changed Leo."
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I was surprised to see that he has acted in only 38 movies, but he is only 49 years old now so he should have many more years to act in more movies. I've seen only 12 of his movies, the first one I saw him in was What's Eating Gilbert Grape, and the last one I saw was either Django Unchained or Shutter Island, just not sure which one it was.
I am not a film buff and do not follow actors, but Leonardo is an exception. I agree with the article and fully believe that he is the last and only great actor left in Hollywood.
IMDb has published a list of the Top 50 Hollywood Actors and Actresses, but how they could leave Julia Roberts and Harrison Ford and a few others off that list I just don't know.
LINK -> Top 50 Popular Hollywood Actors and Actresses (imdb.com)
That list is not an "IMDB" list, it is one person's opinion.
You're right. Not only that, but it's also 11 years old. I should've noticed that - I wouldn't have posted it had I been more careful.
I agree DiCaprio is a great movie star, and carries himself like that, because I think he appreciates the tradition and history of Hollywood and some of the younger actors dont seem to.
I think that Ryan Gosling and Margot Robbie are also "movie stars" and Emily Blunt has that sort of charisma. We dont have new movie stars because there are much fewer prestige movies and of those that there are some are made outside the Hollywood system. And streaming has detracted from the number of true movie stars.
Tom Cruise is the biggest "movie star" in the world though, and as long as he is still making movies DiCaprio wont be the last.
Tom Cruise "drops in" at the Olympics closing ceremony.
If you're saying "in the world" then you're opening the door to a lot more possibilities.
Is Tom Cruise the Biggest Movie Star in the World? We Asked the Experts
He embarrassingly jumped on a couch?
That was on the Oprah Winfrey show. I dont remember why he did it, but he did.
He was expressing how "in love" he was with Katie Holmes.
This was about the same era he got in a fight with Brooke Shields over taking meds for post-partum depression, because apparently, nobody knows more about PPD than a male actor who gets his medical device from a "church" invented on a bet.
LOL!!!
I get why people put stock in actor's opinions. They like the characters they play on TV and films. Only the most incurable soy-boy would not want to be Clint Eastwood's Man With No Name. But, really, there isn't any reason to place any more faith in them than Bob the Plumber who has an ass-crack big enough to tuck in the blueprints for the mansion he's working on.
That's why I wonder why on earth anyone would care who Taylor Swift is voting for any more than they would care what her favorite vegetable is. I suppose it has something to do with wanting to be her, or having what she has, but for goodness sakes! People should make their own decisions.
What the fuck is a 'soy boy'?
Yeah, Scientology is a cult. Nutty to say the least.
I thought this was about Leonardo DiCaprio.
I sort of trust Tom Cruise to be an expert on acting. Or, more precisely, movie-making. And that's it. I know he sells a lot of movie tickets, but he is not my favorite actor.
To be fair to Taylor Swift, she limited herself to urging people to register to vote, without endorsing a candidate, until Trump shared a false meme claiming she supported him. IMO, she had every right to set the record straight, and any damage from that correction falls to the account of the person who made it necessary.
I really dont care about movie stars personal lives , or if they jump on couches on daytime talk shows.
Mission Impossible :Fallout is arguably the greatest action movie of all time, and it was Cruise's baby. He delivers like a movie star should.
Cruise has turned in some good performances, but generally, action isn't my favorite genre.
And he made an absolute fool of himself for a while there. Jumping on couches, feuding with Brooke Shields, arguing with Matt Lauer. I was happy for Katie Holmes when she escaped, which seems to have required a good deal of planning and secrecy, and glad she has kept their daughter away from his crazy.
I suppose that makes sense. I did not know that.
Yup. But as illogical as it is, he totally redeemed himself as Les Grossman in Tropic Thunder. I could forgive him anything with that performance!
I haven't seen it.
I do like Rain Man and love A Few Good Men, but, while he gave good performances in those movies, I think their success is equally owing to his costars, especially Dustin Hoffman and Jack Nicholson.
Oh, my goodness! Not only is the film a humorous expose of the film industry, Cruise is brilliant as a studio executive. His performance in the film is arguably the most memorable thing about the film precisely because it is so opposite of the roles he usually plays. His performance is so good that it nearly drowns out the rest of the film.
Youtube deleted by administrator
"...a "church" invented on a bet."
Not a "church" IMO, just a cult invented by a Sci-Fi author, yet another one in which its members proselytize. If I were ever to join a cult, I'd prefer Transcendental Meditation that was headed by the late Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. I had once attended a lecture he gave in Toronto many years ago. Maybe that's why I'm so comfortable living with a Buddhist.
That would be an incredible insult where I live. Soy sauce is a most common condiment, and figures into many Chinese dishes, and others that are not. For example, I mix a little wasabi with soy sauce as a dip for smoked salmon.
And in my opinion can be dangerous, especially to persons who leave the cult.
It is, but I'm very liberal with off topic comments as long as they are civil.
I absolutely agree.
Nor do I. They don't often seem to be particularly "together" - revolving door marriages, children going astray...lots of problems.
That can't be denied, and he does a lot of dangerous stunts himself successfully.
No matter how old and/or educated we are, we never stop learning.
I never saw that movie.
Both excellent movies.
@ Drakkonis
Please take note of my RED BOX RULE about videos and describe the youtube that you posted.
You do what?!?! Sacrilege!
Don't be shocked, GG. I also eat lox on a cream-cheese smeared bagel here. I buy the sliced smoked salmon at a METRO big box store that imports from other countries. I can get bagels at METRO and a local bakery. I also get various types of cheeses at METRO. The Chinese aren't into great cheeses very much - only processed sliced cheese.
Umm... not really sure what you're asking me to do. The vid seems self-explanatory to me. Tom Cruise is an icon and this vid turns that on its head, which is the point. Sorry if that violates your rules. This is not sarcasm. I'm genuinely replying to your post
um... also, I don't do red box rules. I think that is stupid. I'd rather hear what someone has to say than attempt to restrict them from expressing themselves.
Buzz cant see You Tube videos because China blocks them.
I'm just tired of the agnorance from certain folks.
He's not so civil otherwise. That comment reeks of agnorance and deflection.
@ Drakkonis
Maybe the video is self-explanatory to you, but as John pointed out, I'm unable to open it, so as far as I know it could be contrary to the ToS or the CoC or it could be something that insults me personally which is why I require an explanation of what it is. Just telling me that the video just turns the fact that Tom Cruise is an icon on its head does not describe it, just gives me your opinion of it. I will give you one more chance to describe it or I will delete it 5 hours from now.
Maybe you don't like RED BOX RULES, well, what is happening here is an example of why I need to use them, and another example is what happened recently on a Jane Austen article I posted that flew right off its wheels.
Unfortunately, we have to bear that burden from people who must be intelligent enough to know how to type.
No, thank you. (DELETED)
(Deleted by administrator for off topic)
Soy is unique in that it contains a high concentration of isoflavones, a type of plant estrogen (phytoestrogen) that is similar in function to human estrogen but with much weaker effects. Soy isoflavones can bind to estrogen receptors in the body and cause either weak estrogenic or anti-estrogenic activity.
Thanks for that info. At least it's weak. If it were strong there might be fewer people here. LOL
De Caprio has worked with three of the greatest directors in modern Hollywood, Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, and Clint Eastwood.
If you have never seen the Spielberg /DiCaprio/ Tom Hanks movie (also Amy Adams and Christopher Walken in small roles) Catch Me If You Can , seek it out. One of the most underrated movies of the century.
Catch Me If You Can is a great movie, worth watching more than once, and it's based on a true story.
I like Tom Hanks more than DiCaprio. I don't think DiCaprio could pull off a one man show on an Island with a volleyball named Wilson. It's not that he's not a good enough actor he's just not as likable as Hanks.
As popular as DiCaprio is, Hanks definitely is more popular.
Wow. It took me AGES to catch up with the comments posted while I was sleeping, even delayed my preparing my breakfast. LOL