Leonardo DiCaprio has accumulated numerous awards for his contribution to the cinematic realm. However, he is not exempted from one of the bizarre awards that personalities achieve for their worst performances. Unfortunately, his glamorous success is tainted with one such award.
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The talented actor has earned a Golden Raspberry Award nod, commonly known as Razzie for his work in the 2000 movie, The Beach.
Leonardo DiCaprio’s The Beach Earned Him a Razzie Nomination
Leonardo DiCaprio starred as Jack in the 1997 James Cameron movie, Titanic. That movie quickly rose him to stardom, getting the most sought-after actor status. However, deciding the next move for his career was quite significant for him. He eventually returned to the big screen after two years of long break with the project being The Beach.
Danny Boyle’s directed film follows the story of an American backpacker in Thailand whose quest is to find a secret beach utopia to escape the modern world. However, his adventure trip gets quite awry. Given that DiCaprio’s previous movie was a massive blockbuster, many had high expectations from the 2000 film but it surely became a major disappointment.
The Beach received poor reviews and couldn’t come any close to Titanic’s humongous success at the box office. Not just that, he was nominated for a Razzie Award for Worst Actor for starring in the movie. It is quite ironic that he chose the mediocre movie over American Psycho which launched Christian Bale’s career.
Leonardo DiCaprio Left American Psycho for The Beach
American Psycho has cemented itself as a great cinematic piece with Christian Bale starring in the lead role as Patrick Bateman, a New York City investment banker who leads a double life as a serial killer. Given the Titanic fame, Lionsgate wanted the Revenant star in the movie but eventually, The Dark Knight actor secured the hole.
While many wondered what led the actor to walk away from the role, DiCaprio felt that the script did not have the depth he wanted after the mega success of his 1997 movie.
In a 2000 interview with The Morning Call, he revealed,
“I read the script and sort of expressed interest in it. During that whole hot air balloon of ‘Titanic’ media, it became something bigger than what it was. Actors do that all the time. They say, ‘I like this script.’”
He continued,
“Eventually, I realized it ( American Psycho ) didn’t amount to anything and didn’t mean anything in the end. After ‘Titanic,’ I really wanted to take my time and really read through everything and say, ‘OK, I don’t really want to do something that other people tell me is genius. I want to find something that strikes a chord in me.’”
His choice of project surely didn’t reciprocate with the audiences’ perception who gave mixed to negative reviews about his movie. Whereas, Bale’s project gave him a further push in the filmmaking industry.
American Psycho is streaming on Lionsgate Play whereas The Beach is available on Apple TV.
