Leonardo DiCaprio picked up his sixth lead actor Oscar nomination Thursday morning for carrying the American masterpiece “One Battle After Another” as the overwhelmed single dad and flustered revolutionary Bob Ferguson.
Ten years after he won best actor for “The Revenant,” it’s a statistic that puts him in a rarefied group that includes Daniel Day-Lewis. Including his supporting nomination for “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape,” he’s now among a group of only eight actors, male or female, to have achieved that milestone. Overall, he has eight nominations to his name, including a best picture credit for “The Wolf of Wall Street.”
But for DiCaprio, a consummate director’s actor who spoke to The Associated Press by phone Thursday morning, the most important thing isn’t even necessarily the accolades but being part of a film that’s as timeless as “One Battle After Another.”
“I love what I do,” DiCaprio said in a phone interview. “At the end of the day it’s about trying to be in films that are memorable. This is a great addition to have your peers sort of recognize it.”
In Bob Ferguson, DiCaprio got one of his greatest roles in an already illustrious career. It’s a performance that’s not easy to define but that spotlighted his grasp on his craft to maximum effect, allowing him to be funny, emotional, intimate and utterly authentic, whether he’s yelling about not remembering a passcode, reading his daughter’s friend the riot act or even just wordlessly looking at Sean Penn’s antagonist Colonel Steven J. Lockjaw with all the fear in the world for his daughter in his eyes.
It’s not often that Oscar nominated performances also become cultural touchstones, but this Halloween there were more than a few men and women donning Bob’s plaid bathrobe, black beanie and blockers on the streets around the country.
“It’s fantastic,” DiCaprio said. “A film like this, a film that had so much thought put into it for 20 plus years in Paul Thomas Anderson’s mind, a film that’s so topical and pertinent, a film that I got to work with so many of my heroes, a director who’s my hero? … It flows freely off the tongue to be able to promote and talk about it. It’s a piece of art that you’re proud of and I couldn’t be more proud to be in this film.”
It’s one he hopes audiences revisit time and time again, finding new interpretations, new ways of looking and their characters and their intentions. The film received 13 nominations overall, second only to “Sinners,” including best picture, best director and supporting actor nominations for Benicio Del Toro and Penn.
One of the bigger snubs of the day, though, was DiCaprio’s co-star Chase Infiniti, an integral part of the film as his daughter Willa who was not nominated for lead actress. DiCaprio said he’d just spoken to her and that she had “an amazing attitude” about it.
“She was the fabric of this movie. She was the heart and soul. There would be no ‘One Battle After Another’ without the performance that she gave,” DiCaprio said. “A young actress coming in to fill a role that was her first film and carrying the entire emotional weight of this movie was a near-impossible task. She should be so proud of herself and we’re all so proud of her.”
Between the “One Battle After Another” and “Sinners” nominations, it was a big morning for Warner Bros., a studio whose future is uncertain, with many wondering if films like “One Battle” would be made under Netflix, or if talent like Anderson or DiCaprio would be part of it. DiCaprio demurred on commenting specifically on the pending acquisition, instead championing original filmmaking and theatrical moviegoing.
“To me what matters is great ideas and original filmmaking. I think there’s this tide of change that is going to happen no matter how we feel about it,” DiCaprio said. “There’s nothing like the theatrical experience to immerse you and have the rest of the world disappear and feel part of something else, something bigger, something different. That’s the magic of movies. That’s why I think it’s our greatest art form and I hope the theatrical experience remains alive, but that’s up to audiences and their appreciation of that art form.”
DiCaprio might have a tendency to be turned into memes sometimes, whether it’s that image of him walking in “Inception” or even animatedly talking to someone at the Golden Globes about “KPop Demon Hunters.” (Laughing, he told the AP that he was talking to a friend who will remain anonymous).
Perhaps it’s because he saves it all for the screen and for great filmmakers, whether it’s Anderson, Martin Scorsese or Christopher Nolan. In a dark theater, 30 feet tall and impossible to look away from, all the noise evaporates.
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