“J. Edgar” is a monumental work in which DiCaprio awakened to become an eccentric “character actor”

The next Jack Nicholson DiCaprio?

Of course, both Eastwood and DiCaprio are professionals. Although there was some quarrel, they continued filming without any hard feelings after that. Eastwood, who was so particular about one take, may have understood DiCaprio's feelings, and sometimes took several takes.

What DiCaprio especially appreciated was that Eastwood scheduled the old age scenes for the last two weeks of the filming. It gave him the opportunity to focus on his acting at that age without having to go back and forth between adolescence, middle age, and old age. But even so, the old age makeup on DiCaprio and Armie Hammer was so sloppy! Both of them looked like dead people in a George A. Romero Dawn of the Dead movie, and it almost seemed like a comedy skit.

"J. Edgar" (c)Photofest / Getty Images

Looking at the ratings on the movie review site Rotten Tomatoes, Eastwood's other works, such as "The Bridges of The Bridges of Madison County County" (1995) with 90%, " Million Dollar Baby " (2004) with 91%, and "J. EdgarRiver " (2003) with 88%, have a low rating of 43% (as of December 14, 2020, when this article was written). Perhaps it was the failure of the old-age makeup that affected DiCaprio, and despite making a very risky choice, he was not able to achieve the success he had hoped for.

But DiCaprio didn't give up. He stuck to his belief that "my path in life is to be an eccentric character actor," and continued to play overly eccentric characters. In contrast to Tom Cruise, who has become more and more like Jackie Chan as an action star every year, and Brad Pitt, who has consistently played tough guys with man juices gushing out, DiCaprio is fighting alone on a different level of stage. Looking at his aging, fatter body and his crazy acting, I'm secretly convinced that he might actually be the next Jack Nicholson.

Text: Rui Takeshima

A pop culture writer who wants to be kicked by Hit Girl. Host of the web magazine " POP MASTER ".

Watch now

View work information

(c) Photofest / Getty Images