The actor on looking for positives in disruption that has turned the movie business on its ear.
Tarantino’s first written part for DiCaprio was an awful slave plantation owner named Calvin Candie in Django Unchained. In Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Tarantino cast DiCaprio as Rick Dalton, a fading TV series leading man struggling with the realization he is a falling star in a changing moment in 1969 Hollywood. That turn is counterbalanced by the adventures of Dalton’s longtime stuntman Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt), and Dalton’s next-door neighbors Sharon Tate and Roman Polanski, for a Pulp Fiction-like pastiche of stories that connect in the final act.
DiCaprio doesn’t do many print interviews, but sparked to this opportunity because it was about the film and his, Tarantino’s and Pitt’s work that has put them in the center of the awards race. The 45-year-old who grew up in front of the camera to become arguably Hollywood’s biggest star, also wanted to discuss how movies are changing in the disruptive digital age. He steered clear of viral soundbites, and so didn’t want to discuss beyond his issued statement a recent bogus charge by the president of Brazil that he was starting fires in the rainforest, not wanting to throw gas on that momentary media blaze. The fact is, the global warming issue is an overriding concern in DiCaprio’s life and he continues to produce and finance documentaries to bring attention to the issue and to endangered animal species.
Deadline: You weren’t born in 1969, but the movie reflected Quentin’s memory of hippie culture and movies at that time. You explored the movie business in the period of Howard Hughes for The Aviator. And you see all the disruption going on right now. What’s better or worse about that glamour of old Hollywood in 1969, compared to today?
DiCaprio: I mean, if we’re going back to the ’30s and ’40s the thing that people often take for granted is how most actors were under contract to do movies, and as much as we think they had all of this artistic choice it was a constant battle of the studio system to let yourself out to go do a passion project. It was a chess game for how you employed, and they were churning films out like there was no tomorrow. That, in comparison with today, I think that we have a plethora of opportunities now, with the exception of the ability to watch them theatrically in a communal experience. I mean the types of films that aren’t major tentpole experiences.
Deadline: The film business has been turned on its ear. You see what is happening as a good thing?
DiCaprio: I actually am looking forward to…not necessarily looking forward to, but I think they’re going to find a way to be able to give some of these great artists the ability to give people a true communal experience of watching a movie. Much like the concert experience with music, but also, through a subscriber-based model say, to have a plethora of wealth to finance new and intriguing ideas, and do a film like The Irishman, where I wonder if a lot of the other players out there in the industry would’ve financed that film.
Deadline: I don’t think Scorsese could have made that movie the way he wanted to. The optics of such a high budget and P&A spend would have been different than it has been as a Netflix film.
DiCaprio: When I first heard about it, I was like, please f***ing make this movie. This has all of the guys I want to see in one epic master orchestra led by Marty. I don’t know if it’s him saying farewell to that genre, but it’s a completely new mind-blowing experience. This was the way it got done. You take that type of film mixed with a bunch of other films that might not get financing to the tune that they need, or might completely disappear as far as a theatrical audience is concerned. There has to be this mixture figured out where you get the at-home engagement and you get the theatrical experience. I think it’s happening, and that right now a lot of new creative ideas, and things that are out of the box and more difficult to finance, it might be better now and in the future for those than it ever was.
Deadline: Well, what does it mean for the future of the moviegoing?
DiCaprio: That’s the thing that I’m saying has to be figured out. Because to me, the theatrical experience, besides the zing and the pow of seeing some of these major budget tentpole films, that communal experience that we have of seeing a really engaging Hitchcock or Scorsese or Tarantino film…that palpable energy that you feel, coupled with the fact that you’re watching it on widescreen format with that sound, seeing truly the director’s vision, is what I don’t want to be lost. That’s why these guys have to figure it out. At the same opportunity I’ve, in my career, watched the inability to make even some of the movies that I wanted to do. It’s incredibly difficult to get some things made, and now it’s seeming like there might be a whole new opportunity for a lot of filmmakers out there who have great and engaging ideas to not be fighting against the massive slate of things that the studios want to push out into theatricals. That is what needs to be figured out.
Deadline: Let’s consider the downside of this disruption. Right now this is a business in turmoil. The writers have fired their agents as the agencies fight with the WGA and a whole new negotiation looms next year between unions and studios that prize streaming above everything. They’re pushing deals there where there are either no backends or pre-negotiated backends, eliminating the chance for many to profit in success.
DiCaprio: We’re in a massive transition right now. All of the negotiation of how studios have to still exist because for me they’re the treasure trove of great material, and the capital of this industry always lies in great ideas. It really starts with that. How and when this transition happens, is not what I’m concerned with.
Deadline: Your next film is with Scorsese and De Niro, Killers of the Flower Moon. It hasn’t yet been set for distribution even though it has financing. If Marty tells you that the best move here, like The Irishman, is to do this on a streaming service. You’re a big movie star, one of the few left. What would you say?
DiCaprio: To be honest, there wouldn’t be that much that I would say to Martin Scorsese, if that’s what he wanted to do. But honestly, I’m open for anything. I’m not here to be some vestige of holding on to the old guard. It’s kind of weird given the film we’re talking about, but considering the silent film to talking transition, or something like that…you have to go with the inevitable flow of where technology and this industry takes you. What’s the use of being the last vanguard of some old form? I rarely think about those things. I just think, who can I make a great movie with? That’s it. I’m not here to make any statements.
