Журнал Andy Warhol's Interview Россия Interview № 1 | Page 270

LEONARDO
DICAPRIO
p. 202
The 1990’s teen idol has transformed into
both a serious actor and a box-office star.
Aliona Doletskaya and Clint Eastwood spoke
with DiCaprio before the premiere of the film
J. Edgar.
by ALIONA DOLETSKAYA
This autumn while working for the first time
with director Clint Eastwood and playing one
of his most controversial roles (the film will open
in Russia on March 1st, 2012) J. Edgar Hoover,
the legendary head of the FBI, Leonardo DiCaprio
agreed to be shot for the first issue of Interview
Russia.
Leonardo appeared on the cover of the Inter-
view in America once in 1994. The 20-year old,
mop-headed dreamboat thrusts out his chin
and huge thick red lips with the signature “Kiss
Me”, not knowing that within a couple
of years he would be Romeo, or Jack, the hero
of Titanic, driving a million girls crazy from
the small town of Pensacola to the city of Khanti-
Mansiisk.
DiCaprio did a photo session for us in
Los Angeles and immediately flew to Australia to
shoot his next film, The Great Gatsby. Filming is
sacred for movie stars, and they do not like to be
distracted from it. And going to Australia is not
like taking the 4-hour trip on Sapsan. Thus we ar-
ranged to speak by telephone or Skype—the court-
yard of the 21st century. And so it began.
LEO: Hello, sorry for all the changes in time.
I wanted to say, “Good morning”, but it is night-
time for you!
ALIONA (with sincere gratitude): Oh don’t wor-
ry, no problem! Thank you for finding time while
filming. First, before I forget: a big thank you for
convincing us all to watch the film Collapse with
Michael Ruppert. I made half of Moscow watch it
after that.
LEO: No, thank you for watching. You know
what’s nice? Earlier there was only fear for the
future of the planet, but now after a couple of
years it has become obvious that some immense
changes have happened. Protests and activity
on the Internet are resulting in changes to the
world order—faster than can be seen. Social net-
works are uniting hundreds of thousands of peo-
ple, they are turning into a serious force that now
must be considered. The Occupy Wall Street dem-
onstrations and what is happening with the re-
gimes in the Middle East. I think that in a few
years time governments and corporations will have
to face facts: they will really have to give up the
“oil curse” and the consumptive attitude toward
natural resources.
ALIONA: Do you have a kitchen garden?
LEO: I do. However, I work so much that
I am rarely there.
ALIONA: Did you know that after your visit
to Russia Vladimir Putin called you a “real man.”
Do you have an idea of what that means?
LEO: I know that if they consider you a “real
man” in Russia that it is a serious compliment.
My grandmother was Russian (Smirnova), and for
me she is the embodiment of internal strength
and integrity. She went through poverty, war and
emigration. My grandmother, grandfather and
my other relatives on their side are real tough Rus-
sians that were not broken by hard lives. I can’t
comment on whether I’m a “real man” (laughs),
but if there’s something like that in me, then it’s
from them. The more I get to know people’s lives,
the more I understand that my Russian grand-
mother and grandfather were themselves “real”.
Even in times of desolate poverty and desperation
they had a core in them and a sense of dignity, that
I now see little of in others.
ALIONA: In 1998 you established your foun-
dation for environmental protection, the Leonardo
DiCaprio Foundation. You help the Natural Re-
sources Defense Council, Global Green USA, Na-
tional Geographic Kids, and you put huge money
into the WWF. Last year you came to the Tiger
Conservation Forum in St Petersburg. Where does
this interest in the protection of nature and ani-
mals come from?
LEO: I’ve been captivated by this subject since
childhood: I dreamed of saving whales and rain
forests in the Amazon. If I hadn’t become an actor,
then I would probably be a marine biologist now,
or working in environmental protection. It pays
less, of course, than the film industry. Do you
know that there are only 3200 Amur tigers left
in the whole world? People are still hunting them,
and not only for their hides, people are eating
them! Can you imagine? There is a Chinese deli-
cacy: tiger in wine sauce. In short, environmental
protection for me—this is exactly the thing that
I am happy to devote all my effort and free time
to. This activity has taken me to amazing places
like Nepal and Bhutan. From there you see
things in a completely different light.
ALIONA: You’ve been in movies almost
20 years. What advice would you give a beginning
actor?
LEO: Oh, I would advise them to approach
the profession as seriously as possible. There are
so many acting techniques! There’s Strasbourg,
Stanislavsky. When I take on a role, I always
feel like a detective. You must find the motivation
for every phrase that the character says, study
the entire story behind his words. It doesn’t work
if you’re emotionally detached. Another piece
of advice: if you’re not in Los Angeles, you need
to go there. My family was poor, and my mother
could never have found the money to send
me to casting after school. I would never have be-
come an actor if the auditions had not been
right next door.
ALIONA: I know that you collect art. Do you
have any of Andy Warhol’s pieces by chance?
LEO: I can only say that I have long been an
art connoisseur. I admire Warhol, Jean-Michel
Basquiat and generally the period from the late
70s to early 80s. I think Warhol’s greatness was
in that he changed the rules. He constantly
changed people’s conception of what is art. If
I were to name two geniuses of the 20th century,
I would say Picasso and Warhol.
ALIONA: Last summer, I found out that you
are a great DJ: you kept us dancing till dawn!
What’s your favorite song?
LEO: Let me think...I have a million favorite
songs. If you were to ask what is my favorite com-
position for piano, I can answer immediately
The Entertainer by Scott Joplin.
ALIONA: Do you play piano?
LEO: No. Well, I had piano lessons as a kid but
I hated it.
ALIONA: Me too.
LEO: Too many rules.
by CLINT EASTWOOD
In November, the biographical drama J. Edgar
was released in America. It was filmed by director
Clint Eastwood with Leonardo DiCaprio playing
the leading role. Clint Eastwood asked DiCaprio
what it was like getting into Hoover’s skin.
CLINT: So, why did you agree to do this role?
LEO: You know, I wanted to play this person
whose life was veiled in mystery due to the nature
of his work and position. And I would not say that
Hoover is a singularly negative character.
Yes, he played a lot of dirty tricks and led a double
life. But he also did a lot for his country: he
headed the FBI for almost 40 years, and this was
a difficult time for America—Pearl Harbor, World
War II, espionage, the “red threat”, the Vietnam
War. This person lived through an enormous
transformation over several decades. A unique
task for an actor.
CLINT: But Hoover didn’t just live a double
life. He persecuted dissenters, engaged in black-
mail and espionage. Surely it was very difficult
to find even one positive trait in him?
LEO: Well, this was the most interesting part!
How did he get there? How does devotion to one’s
job lead a crime fighter to turn to using criminal
methods? You certainly couldn’t call him an as-
cetic, but he was obsessed with his mission
24 hours a day, thanks to which the FBI turned
into a powerful machine for neutralizing America’s
enemies. And since his personal papers disap-
peared after his death, much of what we know
about him is unsubstantiated conjecture.
CLINT: What kind of difficulties did you en-
counter in preparing for the role? It seems to me
that you didn’t have any kind of difficulties.
(Laughs.) But I’d like to hear about it from you.
LEO: Well, first of all, I’m rarely proposed
a role as a bald, over-50 villian. (Laughs.) There-
fore the main difficulty was the physical change.
And as you know, there was no time before the
film to gain weight. So the resemblance was done
with make-up...
CLINT: ...which took six hours a day!
LEO: Yeah. Besides that, I studied his record-
ings, walk, gestures. I visited his hometown to un-
derstand what kind of childhood he had, talked
with FBI colleagues who are still alive.
CLINT: I understand now how enthusiastic
you are about your work. It’s the perfect job for
you! I heard, by the way, that you have a big col-
lection of old movie posters. Did you find that rare
Casablanca poster you were looking for?
LEO: Not yet. But I have original, vintage post-
ers for Battleship Potemkin and Dziga Vertov’s
Man with a Movie Camera. Russian posters from
the 1920s are the best. I really admire all Russian
constructivism. At that time very talented people
were making many very original things. I also have
movie posters from old American, German and
Japanese films. It’s important that they be real
vintage pieces; this is what makes them valu-
able. Who would have thought to save movie post-
ers? At that time they couldn’t imagine that
a few decades later they would be worth a lot
of money.
CLINT: Now I know what to give you on your
birthday.
LEO: Clint, that poster for Casablanca is hard
to find, it wouldn’t be worth the effort. (Laughs.)
CLINT: How’s the shoot in Australia going?
How is The Great Gatsby?
LEO: Great! Baz Luhrmann is the first here
to use 3D for something other than stunts or ac-
tion. This will allow the audience to really feel
like they’re inside the performance. The Great
Gatsby is a very voyeuristic novel; it pulls you
into the action, you constantly feel like you’re par-
ticipating in the events. When you see one charac-
ter in focus in the foreground and another in fo-
cus in the background, you can get two layers si-
multaneously, something you can’t get in a regular
2D film.
CLINT: When is the film coming out?
LEO: In about a year, at the end of 2012.
CLINT: We’re looking forward to it.
OLACELLO
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