Culture Crash: The Evolution Of Leonardo Dicaprio & His Latest Film Role

Leonardo DiCaprio is one of the biggest movie stars to ever live. He proved his dramatic chops immediately with his tender performance in 1993’s What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, before becoming one of the most charming romantic leads of the 90s with Romeo + Juliet and of course Titanic. He’s teamed up with many of the greatest living directors for all-timer roles like Billy Costigan in Martin Scorsese’s The Departed and Frank Abagnale Jr. in Steven Spielberg’s Catch Me If You Can.

He held the center in Christopher Nolan’s Inception, turned villain in Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained, and gave a performance for the ages in Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street. He won an Oscar for pushing himself to the physical limit in Alejandro Inaritu’s The Revenant, and then in 2019, he turned in what is one of my favorite performances of all time as Rick Dalton in Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Far from the young charmer of his early career, Dalton forced Leo into new territory: He played an aging actor, full of nervy energy and a hectic desperation. In 2023’s towering Killers of the Flower Moon, DiCaprio played Ernest Burkhart, a real-life figure, as so dumb and confused you’d have to pity him if he weren’t also such a malicious force of evil. And this year, DiCaprio stars in the new film from Paul Thomas Anderson, called One Battle After Another as Pat Calhoun aka Bob Ferguson. Calhoun is a revolutionary who turns into Ferguson when all that youthful exuberance leads to tragedy, and he is forced into hiding. 16 years later, Ferguson is a burnout loser trying his best to be a loving father. He’s back to the nervy desperation of past roles like Dalton and Costigan, but this time DiCaprio is more aged and weathered than ever before. Gone is the young boy who made America swoon back in ‘97. In his place is a bonafide character actor, likely the best of his generation. This man once played Jay Gatsby, toasting champagne as fireworks exploded behind him. And now, he’s Bob Ferguson, a paranoid isolationist stuck in his pajamas as he scrambles to remember secret codes and pounds his chest in defeated frustration.

Leo has run the gamut of roles for the past 30-odd years. His personal life has become the stuff of tabloid fodder and social media snark, but every time he shows up on screen, you can’t help but be captivated. Always exploring, always relating, and often helping create masterpieces with master directors.

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