In February of 2016, Leonardo DiCaprio won his first Academy Award. It was his fifth nomination for acting. The internet would have blown up with memes had he not won. In The Revenant, Leo plays a frontiersman who is mauled by a bear and strives to survive in the wilderness. Leo had lost every other nomination, much to the dismay of his fans. And while Tom Hardy gave the better performance in the movie, Leo walked away with the gold, as he did not have any real competition that year (Michael Fassbender was terrific as Steve Jobs, but the film lacked the campaigning that The Revenant was guilty of). I am here to say that Leonardo DiCaprio is risk adverse and overrated as an actor. I want to be clear that I am not critical of his career choices. He can do whatever movies he wants. I just think his filmography needs to be examined a little more closely if we are saying he deserves an Oscar every time he is in a film.
Post-Titanic Leonardo took a while to find his footing. It wasn’t until 5 years later that he appeared in his first movie with Martin Scorsese, Gangs of New York. This move shifted his career trajectory of heartthrob (Titanic, The Man in the Iron Mask, and The Beach are a few of the movies he starred in before Gangs). From then on, DiCaprio has only acted in big studio movies with big budgets and big directors. Scorsese, Steven Speilberg, Ridley Scott, Edward Zwick, Sam Mendes, Christopher Nolan, Clint Eastwood, Baz Luhrmann, Quentin Tarantino, and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu are the only directors he has made feature length films with since 2002. Leo is talented and can carry a movie, but I think we let him off to easy and just assume he is one of the most talented actors working today.
Leo is in entertaining movies. Inception. Catch Me If You Can. Django Unchained. These are all good movies! But are they good because Leo is in them? Doubtful. When talking about the 2016 Oscars on a podcast, Bill Simmons talked about Leonardo and Matt Damon, who was nominated for The Martian. He wondered what would happen if you switched Damon and Dicaprio in their film roles. Would The Revenant be good if Damon played the lead? Yes. But could DiCaprio carry The Martian and make it as entertaining as Damon does? Simmons argues no. What about with any of their movies? DiCaprio couldn’t have done Good Will Hunting, Ocean’s 11, or Saving Private Ryan. He takes himself too seriously and rarely takes roles where he is the designated lead. On the other hand, it feels like Damon could pull of most of DiCaprio’s roles. Damon has the charisma to float between tones and moods.
Let’s dig a little deeper. How much range does DiCaprio have? Has he done a rom-com? Has he done an indie film since the millennium? Actors like Ryan Gosling, Michael Shannon, and Jake Gyllenhaal work on films with budgets both big and small, directors unknown and known, and show more range in their diversity of genre and roles. Shannon and Gyllenhaal have also had stints on Broadway, an indicator they wish to hone in and improve their craft. Without green screens and multiple takes, actors on Broadway put it all out there.
The first time Leo was nominated for an Oscar was for his work in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape? In my opinion, this is Leo’s best acting job. He was up against Ralph Fiennes and John Malkovich, ultimately losing to Tommy Lee Jones. He was up against some of the best in the game. Not a big surprise he lost, especially because he was a fresh face on the scene. His next Oscar nomination came 11 years later for The Aviator. He lost to Jamie Foxx’s Ray Charles impersonation. Did Leo do a better job than Jamie? No. Let’s move on to the next one. Leo was nominated a few years later for Blood Diamond, losing to Forest Whitaker in The Last King of Scotland. There was no way Leo was taking it over Whitaker, as Whitaker became Idi Amin. Then The Wolf of Wall Street came around, and everyone was hoping Leo would finally take home the gold. He had been nominated so much and apparently “deserved” it by now. Matthew McConaughey would take home the little gold man for Dallas Buyers Club. In all of these losses, Leo lost the award to people who gave better performances that year. Plain and simple.
Leonardo DiCaprio is in good movies. He does a good job. I think, however, there is potential for better work from DiCaprio. We have not seen him tested or pushed. I don’t doubt he works hard, but working with big studios and big directors don’t often supply the friction and tension that can come from diverse projects. So how about it, Leo? Get out of your comfort zone and let’s see what you’re made of.
