In ,,Gangs of New York" the young American star will be a gangster. His ,,Instructor of fights" tells how he has made a real tough man (?) of him

I've transformed DiCaprio into a hard man. Words of a legionnaire

,,Forget Titanic", reveals Dominique Vandenberg, ex mercenary, payed 900 Millions for training the actor. ,,Leonardo will be a macho, dirty and evil: a merciless avenger" I've taught him the law of the street, where people fight against each other with knives and bottles"

Forget the proletarian Jack with the the sweet glance and the languid words whispered in the icy atlantic water. Forget the romantic star of Titanic. This time people will not speak about DiCaprio for the sweet winces which he can provoke in the female public. The one of Gangs of New York, the latest film of Martin Scorsese, and that has been shooted in the Roman studios of Cinecitta in these months, will be a gangster Leonardo, more dedicated to the knife than to the heart palpitations. Amsterdam Vallon, this is the name of his character, is indeed a young and quarrelsome Irishman determined to revenge the death of his father - played by Liam Neeson - who has been killed by the head of the rival gang.

Based on the book of Herbert Asbury with the same title, the film, which in the United States will be in the cinemas in December and in Italy will come out in the next year, tells about the cruel fights between the first gangsters in New York, between 1840 and 1863, Irish immigrants of the first generation and disembarked compatriots in Manhattan only for a few decades.

The Italians havn't arrived in America yet and in the streets of Five Points, in Paradise Square, the fight in the territory takes place between two opposed factions: on the one side the one lead by Vallon, a merciless macho DiCaprio, dirty hair and ,,easy fists", who leads those who have remained of the gang founded by his father; on the other side that of the hated enemy, called ,,Bill the Butcher", a not advisable guy, who is played by Daniel Day-Lewis (Robert De Niro was chosen, but he has rejected). A hard role as a whole, which DiCaprio hasn't improvised but he has constructed in months of training. ,,More than nine (months)", precises with pride Dominique Vandenberg, and nobody can know it better than him, considering that the 31-year-old of Belgian origin is ex soldier of the foreign legion and expert of martial arts, so that he has been accepted by Martin Scorsese for making of DiCaprio a real tough man (?) of the street.

,,At first, I've asked Leo to make a diet on the base of red meat (a good sacrifice, considering that he tends to being a vegetarian, according to the well informed of Hollywood). Then he has explained day after day how a criminal fights, using feet, teeth, knives, razors, bottles and everything which can safe his skin from people ready for anything to kill you", explains Dominique, somebody who knows it for a long time, and who was a mercenary in Africa, in Asia and in South America.

,,It wasn't an easy preparation because in the DNA of Leo, there's no aggressiveness, he isn't a boy who has the violence in his blood. He has learned it, all which I have taught him, perhaps he's really a good actor and a serious professional who hasn't spared himself the physical effort not even after hours of massacre training", reveals Dominique. ,,We have almost become friends, because spending nine months together has meant several times moving to his house in Los Angeles. A beautiful experience which I'll like to remember", says the instructor. ,,At a certain point my contract had finished, but Leo didn't feel ready, there were some months left before finishing. He has surprised me because he went to Scorsese and said to him: ,,If Dom leaves, I'll go away, too...". And so I've had an extension of another sixty days", tells the trainer who finally has cost the production of the movie 600 dollars per hour, altogether 432000 dollars, almost 900 million liras! A little, however, in contrast to the 90 millions of dollars payed by the five studios of production - lead by Miramax - for making the movie (1200 extras and complete quarters of the New York of the 19th century, masterly recontructed by the Italian production designer Dante Ferretti).