Leonardo DiCaprio loves “watching old movies”.
Leonardo DiCaprio is a self-confessed cinephile
The 50-year-old actor is a self-confessed “cinephile” and he considers himself fortunate to have worked with some of Hollywood’s best directors.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, DiCaprio credits working with big-name directors to “luck, and I guess the perseverance of just letting them know that you want to work with them, some day when the time is right.
“That’s what I’ve been doing; that’s how I met Marty [Scorsese] when I was young, I just let him know that if he’s ready, I’m ready.”
DiCaprio is a huge film fan and he’s relished the experience of working with the likes of Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino and Paul Thomas Anderson, the director of his new movie, One Battle After Another.
He explained: “I really love film as an art form; I love watching old movies, I’m a cinephile, and it’s like those rare films rise to the top. There’s certain filmmakers that have a multitude of those films — Paul is one of them, Quentin [Tarantino] is one of them, Marty’s one of them. So I just let them know I’m ready and I’m game if they are.”
DiCaprio considers Paul to be “one of the great visionary filmmakers” of the modern generation. And the Hollywood star jumped at the chance to work with the acclaimed filmmaker.
He shared: “Any time that he asks, you work with P.T.A. This guy is like one of the great visionary filmmakers of my generation.
“His films, I’m still intrigued by to this day; I still talk about The Master, Boogie Nights, There Will Be Blood, Magnolia — these films that are going to last for generations to come so you jump at an opportunity to work with Paul.”
DiCaprio recently hailed the director as a “unique filmmaker”.
The movie star told Variety: “He’s such a unique, original visionary, and I know this was a movie he’s been thinking about for the last 20 years.
“And anytime you get somebody that’s really trying to do a massive spectacle odyssey that is such a unique filmmaker like Paul, you have to jump at the opportunity.
“To tell you the truth, I would have done any movie that he proposed, because he’s that unique and interesting of a filmmaker and great.
“But I’m glad I got to do this one.”
DiCaprio portrays ex-revolutionary Bob Ferguson, who “sits home and smokes pot all the time”, in One Battle After Another, and he admitted to taking inspiration from Jeff Bridges’ The Big Lebowski character, The Dude, for the part.
He explained: “I took a lot of inspiration from The Dude.”