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February, 2000 |
| Heat Magazine in Maui |
| An Interview in Promotion of The Beach |
Hollywood has never seen anything quite like Leo. There have been male stars - Keanu Reeves, River Phoenix and, going back in time, James Dean -who ignited the passion of the world's female pubescents. There have been young actors - like Tom Cruise - who made movies that took serious amounts of money. But there has never been a young star who simultaneously excited this much global hysteria and generated this much box-office, becoming in the process one of the most famous people on the planet. DiCaprio has had a lot to process since December 97, when Titanic began its slow cruise around the world's cinemas, generating $1.8 billion in ticket sales. He has seen the rowdy antics of his "Pussy Posse" - the mates who always surround him - catalogued in endless gossip columns and one sometime Posse member pleaded guilty to harassment following a New York scuffle in March98 with Showgirls star Elizabeth Berkley and her boyfriend. And all the while he has been seeking a suitable follow-up film to Titanic. He flirted with adaptations of the controversial American Psycho and the celebrated All The Pretty Horses, before opting to gratify Trainspotting director Danny Boyle by lending his considerable star presence to the Briton's movie version of cult novel The Beach. This he filmed in early 1999, becoming the focus of Thai environmentalists' complaints, who were no doubt delighted to have a headline-ready hook for their protests. Indeed, the whole experience was hardly headache-free for the star. A less-than-totally trim Leo had to go on a strict diet after packing on the pounds and work out in preparation for his (many) topless scenes. And he was constantly plagued with press reports alleging all sorts of things: that a beautiful blonde found her way into his room and stripped, thus triggering a security alert; that he nearly passed out when stung by a jellyfish while filming. At least Leo had a luxury yacht at his disposal to keep him happy. In The Beach, DiCaprio plays young backpacker called Richard who is given a map showing the location of an off-limits Thai island containing a secret beach where an alternative community of young travellers have attempted to found their own mini-Utopia. Naturally, he goes there. It is a choice role for DiCaprio. The camera laps up his lithe, often-shirtless body and sunkissed pretty face. The 1 film reconnects him with his penchant for edgier and morally complex roles, such as What's Eating Gilbert Grape? and The Basketball Diaries. And yet, despite its dark subject matter, i The Beach should also be a hit, justifying the $20 million (a significant chunk of the $45 million budget) Fox handed him for his performance. There will also, inevitably, be flak. To increase the commercial appeal of their movie, the film-makers turned the hero from English to American, edging out Ewan McGregor who had thought he'd been promised the part. With sex scenes added and the grisly ending toned down, Boyle & Co (and, by association, DiCaprio) leave themselves open to accusations of Hollywoodising a cult classic. But these concerns appear not to be troubling DiCaprio today. We meet, suitably enough, on the Hawaiian tropical island Maui - although the interview location, the Ritz hotel, is a far cry from the makeshift accommodation enjoyed by the paradise-chasers in The Beach. At last year's Oscars, you opted for a night out clubbing in New York instead of going. Why? I didn't really have that big of a reason to go. It was one of those times when I said "Look, I'm just making this decision and it may not make some people happy but, unfortunately, this is what I want to do." Titanic director James Cameron didn't react very well. [Laughs] Oh well! He got a lot of accolades that night, I'm sure he's fine with it now. Were you thrilled or horrified by Titanic's success? Thrilled or horrified? I'd say both. What was the hardest thing about making that film? Everything. Every day. The hardest thing I've ever had to do is make Titanic. You must have received thousands of scripts - why did you decide to do The Beach? It would be totally boring if I decided to do the same type of film over and over again. Titanic was a departure for me. Thankfully, it was a pretty big success, but I suppose this film is more along the lines of what I was doing before. But I'm still a young actor experimenting with different types of roles that I want to do. And for me, just as far as the character is concerned, he's intriguing in a lot of ways. He's neither a hero nor a villain. What is your idea of paradise? I think people have a false conception of paradise and I don't think there really is a paradise out there. Everything is already discovered and there's not too many places that could exist like that. Paradise would be a place that would solve all your problems, and I think that's a false concept. There is no place out there that's going to rid you of your demons. It's something that you have to find internally in your own life. Do you like the idea of being isolated? Yeah, I think everyone has a part of them that would love to get away from it all, especially what has happened to me in the past couple of years. But I've chosen to face that head-on rather than running away, which could have been a smart or stupid decision. Would you consider going to a deserted island? I would go to a deserted island, but I wouldn't be looking at that as something that would solve all my problems because essentially, no matter where you are, you still have to deal with you. What's the biggest myth about fame? The misconception about fame is that it is paradise! [laughs] But fame has given me unbelievable career opportunities. I'm more in the driver's seat than ever before as far as the types of films I want to do and the direction I want to go in as an actor. How was filming The Beach? I'm actually spoiled from the process. I don't want anything different now. As soon as I met Danny Boyle [director] and Andrew Macdonald [producer] in a hotel room in New York, they told me right away that they wanted me to be really involved with the story process. I really felt a genuine connection with the process - more so than ever before - and that was great. What kind of input did you have? The video-game sequence was partly my idea and I knew Danny would be one of the few directors on earth who would be open to hearing it. That's why he's one of my favourite directors. How different is the book from the film? I think they tried to streamline the story, because the way that it's written is like a journal of this guy's descent into madness and it wasn't very cinematic, even though the book was extremely compelling. What about the added sex scenes between Richard and Francoise [played by Virginie Ledoyen]? It bothered me about the book that he never had any kind of sexual contact with Françoise. This constant foreplay between the two characters that never amounted to anything. And I really wanted something, whether it be complete and uttei rejection or some sort of wild sexual encounter. There were reports of a boating accident and jellyfish stings during filming. Can you put the stories straight? They were actually shellfish which attacked us - crabs and lobsters. The jellyfish was not a serious problem. When you got caught in one, you got stung and you'd put a little vinegar on your leg and it was over. But the boating accident was frightening for a lot of people. Essentially we went out on this little barge which was connected to a small little bamboo boat that we were filming on and it got caught in the currents and the waves started crashing on the boat. It eventually started to sink and the next thing we knew, all the equipment and the whole crew was out in the middle of the ocean. My personal experience with water is that you float, so it wasn't the most terrifying thing for me. I understood that eventually somebody would come out to rescue us. We didn't wait out there for a long time, but a lot of people freaked out. Was that a real marijuana field you guys ran through? It was hemp, but it didn't have the buds. So, you didn't do any reefer research on this? [Laughs] No reefer research, no. What about eating the caterpillar? That was fun. It spun a web in my mouth. And there was a lot more stuff not in the film. I've eaten more gross things in that movie than I could have dreamed of. What do you expect this film will do for your career? I've been asked questions about whether I feel any pressure about it making any money after the enormous success of Titanic and not only do I not have any control over how many people will see this movie, but I have no control over how people will respond to it. It's one of those things where all you can do is be the best that you can be. They say rock bands don't take their girlfriends on the road, but you flew your girlfriend, [model] Kristen Zang, to Thailand to join you. Was that a good idea? [Laughs] Yeah, it was fine. Simply put, people ask me a lot about why I have a big group of people with me when I go on location and why I'm not isolated and stuff like that. I think it has to do with who I am as an actor, that I can disconnect from it. Once they say cut, I'm not still engrossed with my character and I can go off and be me again. And also, if they're going to give me plane tickets and it's written into my contract, I'm going to invite my friends over to visit me. Why not? It would be a waste of plane tickets! [laughs] How much of the "Leo Posse" contributes to your life? [Laughs very loudly] The Leo Posse! I'm sure a lot of my friends would resent being called my posse, because believe it or not, they actually are individuals. It sounds like a cliché and I'm sure it is, but the truth be known that my family and my friends are an environment in a way where I can be myself, and that's not to say that I can't make any friends or talk to other people, but it is to say that they have certainly kept me grounded in the way that they have helped me laugh about all of this. We constantly joke around about this image which is me and which I'm completely detached from. How old were you when you experienced your first love? Boy, I don't even remember. I suppose if I'd found my true love I'd be married right now. And I don't really have anything like that or am close to that now, so I don't know. What kind of girls turn you off? Pretentious women really turn me off, I would say. Vindictive women turn me off. Opportunistic women really turn me off. So, what kind turns you on? I think what turns me on about a girl is what most people find attractive - something genuine about them. Being a good person - you know, funny and all that corny stuff. In all your movies, do you have a favourite line? Oh boy, wow. That's a whopper, isn't it? I can't think of that off the top of my head. But there's a line at the end of this film which really hit me. After all that Richard goes through and his discovery that there is no paradise, he realises the world we live in is inevitable. And what we're turning into is inevitable and he says: "What else can we do? We adapt. We carry on." And that really summed it up for me. You find your own experiences that become your paradise, and you can't help the inevitable. You have to adapt. You have to carry on." |