Without superheroes and moving on from the networks: Leo DiCaprio's route to becoming the best
At 44 years old, the Californian is a unicorn in the film mecca: the last performer who continues to fill theaters without surrendering to the action franchises or the sequels. We list all the reasons why we will never see a star bigger than him.
They say of him that he is the “Hollywood unicorn”, the last of a kind that for more than a century has starred in the dreams and desires of moviegoers. Leonardo DiCaprio can boast of having all the attributes required of any great seventh art star worth his salt: charismatic but mysterious, inspiration for the greats and box office claim, adored by both critics and the public ... After four years of retirement after raising his long-awaited first statuette, the 44-year-old actor returns to continue adding to an already impressive filmography with Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in… Hollywood, considered the film event of the summer. In a time when that rating only accompanies the great action franchises and in which the influence of digital platforms has forever blurred the limits of the window display system, DiCaprio has insisted on continuing to ride into the twilight of what Tarantino himself describes as "the end of an era." In the Hollywood to come, it seems unlikely that we will again witness a star who complies with the commandments of the quintessential Hollywood star like him. Here we list them:
The admiration is unanimous in critics and public
Since in 1993 he got his first nomination for Who does Gilbert Grape love ?, the interpreter had to wait more than 20 years to raise an Oscar thanks to The Revenant. The persecution of the statuette had become a classic Internet meme - bear attack by means of -, and in the personal crusade of the cinephile mass. Seeing him on stage at the Dolby Theater delivering a speech in favor of the fight for the environment ("don't take the planet for granted, I don't take tonight for granted") was the perfect redemption from an injustice that had taken too much tint epic. His is something like the antithesis of the American dream: to succeed too soon and to have to prove during a long career that success is deserved. Everyone, even those who accused him of being just a folder idol with a childish face, ended up recognizing his generational talent.
It hasn't given in to the phenomenon of superheroes, sequels, and other modern blockbusters
In an industry dominated by action blockbusters, sagas and animation remakes for the whole family, DiCaprio stands as a genre unto itself. Unlike other colleagues on the A-list of the film mecca such as Robert Downey Jr., Jennifer Lawrence, George Clooney or Johnny Depp, the Californian has managed to maintain his star status throughout more than two decades by sticking to film interest of the project as the only precept. Neither red capes nor lightsabers, as Tatiana Segel argues in The Hollywood Reporter, "Leo is the franchise."
It is a locker insurance ... the latest locker insurance?
The last ten film releases of Leonardo DiCaprio have grossed close to three billion euros. While other interpreters who used to be guaranteed to be sold out in theaters such as Will Smith (Collateral Beauty) or Brad Pitt (Allies) have starred in notorious stumbling blocks in recent years, he has proven to be capable of converting a film intended for an auteur public like El reborn in an international box office of 500 million euros. And he's still in shape: Once upon a time in ... Hollywood is already the best premiere in Quentin Tarantino's filmography. For viewers, seeing your name on the poster is a guarantee of quality.
He has managed to turn each of his films into an event
At a time when the premieres of movies or series crowd every Friday on countless platforms and windows, each artist overexposes his life and work on social networks and Spotify shoots us daily with the umpteenth new single from the fashionable singer, the Mystery as a marketing tool is today an unusual and effective practice. Like Adele in music, Bolt on the athletics tracks or José Tomás in the bullrings, DiCaprio spaces his projects as much as possible to be able to dedicate himself body and soul to them and generate great media expectations. “One of the things I like about Leo is that he doesn't commit to making two movies in one year. He's the only one doing it today, like Al Pacino and Robert De Niro did in the seventies. They could shoot whatever they wanted and chose to do 'this' specifically. So that 'this' must have been very good, "said Tarantino in THR.
He is not the highest paid in Hollywood, nor does he need to
Every year Forbes magazine publishes a list of the performers who have made the most money in the last year. Action franchise stars such as Dwayne Johnson, Mark Wahlberg and Robert Downey Jr. regularly top a ranking that DiCaprio has not led since 2011, when he released Shutter Island and Origin. The interpreter has chosen to cut his payroll to be able to work on the projects that interest him. On the new Tarantino, for example, he lowered his cache by as much as five million to meet budget. DiCaprio also refuses, unlike most stars of today, to receive a salary increase in order to put his social networks at the service of promoting the film in question.
There is no one with a better resume in the film mecca
James Cameron, Danny Boyle, Steven Spielberg, Sam Mendes, Ridley Scott, Clint Eastwood, Christopher Nolan, Alejandro González Iñárritu, Baz Luhrmann (twice), Quentin Tarantino (two others) and Martin Scorsese (up to five times) are the filmmakers that have directed the Californian throughout his career and that could perfectly make up the All-Star of Hollywood cinema of the last three decades. Of the active actors, perhaps only seventh art myths like Meryl Streep or a Daniel Day-Lewis who seems closer to final retirement than returning to a set, can boast today such an extraordinary list of projects behind them.
Their social networks keep the star aura alive
One of the essential elements of any self-respecting classic movie star is that aura of mystery and exclusivity that surrounds them. Like the Brandoes, Monroe or Hepburn (both), inaccessible, eccentric and ethereal characters who only exposed themselves to the madding crowd to meet the audience on a ten meter long screen. The rise of social media has put an end to it all. We know what the stars eat, where they travel, what series they are watching and who they have slept with today, yesterday and in the past; vulgarizing, incidentally, his public profile. DiCaprio maintains that enigmatic halo, using only his accounts on Instagram or Twitter to raise awareness about the importance of the environmental fight.
Keeps your private life in the strictest privacy
It may seem redundant, but there are few actors in Hollywood today more opaque than him when it comes to their romantic relationships. And he does it without hiding, since every week we come across images of his daily routine: playing volleyball, witnessing a Lakers game, giving everything at a music festival or taking photos of his girlfriend, the Italian Camila Morrone, with Instagrammable vocation. Despite his famous history of romances with young blondes and under 25s, the truth is that the actor has prevented his intimate life from obscuring his work in the least: he has never spoken in public about any relationship or posed on a red carpet accompanied by the couple in question. The only exception occurred at the 2005 Oscars gala, where he was seen alongside the Brazilian model Gisele Bundchen.
Not only does he not live on the rents of Titanic, he is ignorant of everything that has to do with it
The best proof of DiCaprio's stellar status is that, despite the fact that we are all capable of listing a good number of unforgettable characters played by him, no role has managed to overshadow his own figure. Not even the intrepid and romantic Jack, the protagonist of one of the five most watched films in the history of cinema and the greatest controversy of the seventh art. More than two decades after its premiere, it seems logical that the actor refuses outright to comment on whether or not his character fit into the happy table. As the video shows, the official “no comment” is not taken by Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie themselves.
He has proven to be true to his lifelong friends
Actors Tobey Maguire, Lukas Haas and Kevin Connolly, magician David Blaine, director Harmony Korine and the recent addition of Orlando Bloom. The gang known as The Pussy Pose, formed in the early 1990s when DiCaprio and Maguire met as teenagers at a casting, has maintained their friendship for more than 30 years. After burning every nightclub in Hollywood and Manhattan, now, with several parents among its members, they continue to meet to go see the school play of one of their son. We know that this does not imply any professional merit, but why would being a good guy not score points when assessing your profile as a star? Well done, Leo.
