Interview

By Earl Dittman

In their first cinematic pairing since portraying the ill-fated, North Atlantic-chilled lovers in Titanic (the highest-grossing film of all time), Leonardo DiCaprio and Academy Award-winner Kate Winslet (The Reader) teamed up with Katie’s real-life Oscar-winning director hubby, Sam Mendes (American Beauty), to play an idealistic, young couple that feebly standby as their dreams fade away and their marriage falls apart in Revolutionary Road.

Read Earl Dittman’s chat with DiCaprio about Road, Scorsese, and how it ain’t easy bein’ green (plus: this week’s DVDs and Blu-Rays), after the jump.

Based on the classic novel by Richard Yates, and set in the 1950’s, Revolutionary Road depicts the incisive, heartbreaking tale of Frank and April as they are transformed from a carefree, dreamy newlywed couple — very much in love – into emotionally-tormented prisoners trapped in a marriage and a suburban lifestyle filled with lies, despair and loneliness. DiCaprio, the intensely private, former child actor (Growing Pains) opens up about his desire to reteam with Kate Winslet (who took home a Golden Globe for the role of April), life in the 1950s, his thoughts about marriage, making movies with Martin Scorcese and his thoughts about going Green.

There was a lot of expectation about you and Kate working together again in Revolutionary Road. Did that pressure ever affect the chemistry between the two of you?

“No, never, no. We both knew that we needed to find a special project to do together, if we were going to work together again. I know that Kate, to me, is the best actress of her generation, but we did do that film Titanic together. We didn’t want to tread on similar territory, so we needed to do something different — but, at the same time, the right project that was genuine and well written enough, with all the right elements in place. This was something that she shepherded for a long period of time to make in to a movie. Luckily, she asked me if I wanted to do it. At certain times, we all shepherd things but this was something that she had been working on for many, many years. I was struck by the ultra-realism of these characters. It was voyeuristic, in a way. I felt like I shouldn’t be listening to this relationship unravel, you shouldn’t be listening to these characters having these conversations. It felt uncomfortable in a lot of ways. That, to me, said that this is really truthful stuff. This is really what Yates was able to accomplish in that book. It was pretty incredible.”

With your character Frank, do you think you’re playing a bad guy or just a weak man?

“Hmm, where do I begin? I think what’s interesting about the story and these characters is that the sympathy shifts constantly. In the beginning, you sort of think that Frank is despicable for cheating on his wife, and then later, you realize that he’s the one trying to salvage the relationship. So, who is a hero and who is not a hero? I don’t know? I just loved playing a character that just slightly fell short of his ambitions. I felt it was just a compelling thing to do. He just did not have the courage, at the end of the day, to follow through with the life he wanted. He would be happier conforming to his existence.”

What was it like doing a period film set in the 1950s?

“To me, I felt the 1950s period was a huge component of the story. You know, this is the era of prescription medication. This is when people started moving to the suburbs and becoming alcoholics. And, you know, having that symbolic American iconic family existence — and it drove a lot of people nuts. I thought, as much as that was a product of the movie, once we did the film, a lot of that just kind of stripped away, you know? And a lot of that just became a backdrop to the emotional drama of these characters’ lives sort of unraveling. So that’s what was interesting about it.”

Was hard to watch your character’s relationship falling apart? Was it emotionally demanding, and if so, how did Sam help?

“Yes, it was emotionally demanding, definitely. There are some very difficult scenes to do, but the way that Sam Mendes had set this film up for us as actors was really incredible. I think that this is attributed to his experience making plays and his stage work. He really approached this like a theatre experience. We did a tremendous amount of rehearsal beforehand, and we did the whole movie in sequential order. So, basically if we weren’t sure of the trajectory the way our characters would unravel, we knew that we would live the life of these characters for four or five months. You have to understand that that’s a really rare thing to be able to have happen when you make a movie. Usually, you’re locked into certain locations at certain times, so you’re doing the end of the movie first or the beginning of the movie last. Everything’s mixed up. But by doing it like that, we got to — it really gave us the scope of our character. By the time we ended up shooting, toward the end of the movie, we had all this pent up stuff that we just sort of released. It was great. It was a great feeling to do a movie like that.”

Did doing Revolutionary Road scare you off of getting hitched? Are you never going to get married now?

[Laughs] “I think that this film is very much about two people who were destined not to be together. I don’t think it’s a very good reflection of how relationships or marriage has the potential to be — at all. I think that these people — no matter whether they live in the ’50s or the suburbs, whether they went to Paris or not — they’re two trains that run on separate tracks, going in different directions and who are destined to not be together.”

Does that mean you don’t plan on getting married one day?

“I will not talk about anything having to do with that, because it always gets twisted around.”[Laughs]

Why do you think you and Kate have remained such close friends over the years?

“We’ve known each other for such a long period of time. We went through an incredibly different movie to make with Titanic. We both lived through that whole post-experience of that film, but more so than any of that, we’re just great friends. Since meeting each other, we’ve remained great friends. How it translates into the work environment is that it gives you the innate ability to know that you can go to the very far depths with somebody, performance-wise, because you have a tremendous trust that I know the limits to. I know where to go. We both know each other so innately well.”

What was the sex scene like to film? In addition to you and Kate, her husband, Sam, was also there. Kate said that you were totally cool during the scene, how did they react?

“You’d have to ask them, because they’re the ones who are married. [Laughs] They’re the ones — you’d have to ask Sam how he felt. For me, we’ve done that kind of stuff before in movies, I felt kind of comfortable with the whole thing.”

Did you discover something new about Kate that you didn’t know about her during the time you did Titanic together?

“What did I discover about her? What I’d always known but what reminded me again about her is just by virtue of being a great English actress –she’s such a real human being. She’s a down-to-earth, regular kind of girl who admits, who is so honest about who she is and even her faults or things that she feels she’s good at. She’s just a great, real person, and I think that maybe there’s possibly an aristocratic vibe that she gives off, because of the mere fact that she is, like I said, British and fucking unbelievably talented. But she’s not, she’s just the most down-to-earth gal around and just a great person. I can’t really pinpoint it. Just a great person.”

A decade ago, you used to party with Tobey Maguire and a whole posse. But you’ve all gotten older. What do you do now to have fun? What does the mature 30-something Leonardo DiCaprio do to have a good time?

“My favorite thing to do is talk to press on days off. [Laughs] I like talking about this movie, I do, it’s good. It’s been interesting. These movies I’ve done, I’ve literally worked for two years straight. When you’re an actor your whole life goes on hold and you kind of have to go back away from location and you realize you’ve changed and everyone around has changed. It’s a constant game of catch up, of ‘Oh wow, you had a baby? Let’s see the baby. Sorry, I gotta go to the next location.’ When you’re working at that pace, especially far from home, it’s a very weird dynamic to balance.”

Do you find the traveling fun?

“I love traveling, but sometimes for example, when you’re off for a year of your life in Africa you kind of want to go home for a while. As wonderful and rewarding as these locations can be, you just want to go home.”

What do you do to reconnect?

“I’m from Los Angeles, and my family is all there. It’s catching up, it’s bizarre to be away that long and see how everyone’s lives have changed. I kind of calculated that it’s been about eight years of making movies, so I subtract that and then you find my maturity level. And you’ll find out how old I really am.”

Could you ever envision setting out, leaving everything behind and exploring life and yourself?

“Sure, and there’s going to be a lot of opportunity for that in the future. I feel like I’ve been given a tremendous opportunity to choose the movies I want to do, and this is my time to be able to do that as an actor and to fulfill the dreams I had as a younger actor. And that’s it. I have friends in the industry and I know how hard it is — how lucky you are to be able to steer the course of your career. It’s something I look at as a gift, and all other things are kinda put on hold.”

For your next film, Shutter Island, you worked with director Martin Scorcese again. You and Marty have been doing a lot of work together, so are you his next Robert De Niro?

“Well, I think it’s a far different dynamic. They were contemporaries starting out together — and through that relationship forged to me probably the greatest film relationship ever. You’re speaking to a younger actor that is in a different mind-set of tremendous honor and respect of being able to work with someone who I think is the greatest filmmaker alive. So I’m bestowed with that honor. I can’t really even begin to make a comparison like that. All I know is that I do feel a kinship with him. I feel like that ever since we’ve meet, we do share a taste in what we like film-wise and artistically. I say, ‘You know that movie has been deemed as great, but I don’t really think it’s great,’ and he says, ‘No, no, I don’t really like it either.’ So that’s where it forged and we also dislike the same things but he’s been a mentor to me, but what can I say? Who wouldn’t want to or feel like it’s a gift to work with that guy?”

You have gotten very publicly involved with environmental issues. Do you personally buy eco-clothing and use energy-saving devices?

“I do all that. But without getting into my solar panels and my hybrid car, I feel like that argument segregates a group of people, and I think that’s not the right way to approach the issue. It’s not telling people how to live. It’s not saying you should be judged because you don’t drive a certain car or have the right light bulbs or don’t buy this. To me, it’s about cultural awareness, that’s the whole point of the issue. As much as it is important to change your light bulbs and be Green and all that stuff, it is important, but it’s gonna be a collective thing on a massive level. When the argument gets shifted into the judgment of people and how you live your life and if you’re Green quote/unquote or not, this muddies the issue in a way that I think is not productive for the overall problem. This is a cultural and global shift that needs to happen on a massive level. These things should be integrated into everyone’s lives. Things should be made more efficient. They should have a concern for the planet and global emissions and it should be integrated into everything we buy.”

If you had a chance to talk to a Leonardo DiCaprio — right before the release of Titanic — what would you tell him?

“I think I knew a lot of the same things, and I think I was responding to it. But what happened was it became so much about the publicity surrounding that movie, about it being the biggest movie of all time and it sort of culturally, globally reaching so many people that it became less about the work. But as a movie, I think that Titanic is a great film, and it’s given me unbelievable opportunities. What I would tell that younger person is it’s all about the work. I knew that at the time, but I was having to concentrate on so many other things that had nothing to do with the work.”

Revolutionary Road BD + DVD Bonus Features: Commentary with Mendes and screenwriter Justin Haythe, the making-of featurette “Lives of Quite Desperation,” and deleted scenes with optional commentary. BD-Only: “Richard Yates: The Wages of Truth” featurette.

Source: http://www.drivenmag.com

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