Leonardo DiCaprio rose to fame by working alongside veteran actor Robert De Niro and iconic director Martin Scorsese ever since he was 16 years old. Being a mentor to the young actor, DiCaprio navigated his way through Hollywood while picking up great films and meeting new people to work with.
In 2002, the actor starred in the iconic film Gangs of New York. With Leonardo DiCaprio in the lead role, the actor revealed that he admired one other actor on the sets of the 2002 film. Since he was deep into the art of method acting, DiCaprio wasn’t able to talk to him for months while they were shooting the film.
Leonardo DiCaprio Admired Daniel Day-Lewis Beyond Compare
An English retired actor known for his iconic works in movies like There Will Be Blood, Phantom Thread, and, Gangs of New York, Daniel Day-Lewis won three Oscars and numerous other accolades throughout his Hollywood career.
Day-Lewis also seems to be one of the few actors that Leonardo DiCaprio highly praised. While working on the sets of the 2002 film Gangs of New York, DiCaprio, and Day-Lewis faced each other and DiCaprio couldn’t be more awestruck with the way Day-Lewis worked and his penchant for method acting. As per an Instagram post, The Revenant actor had quite the time working alongside Daniel Day-Lewis.
“It was like two days before we started shooting. We’d be saying, ‘Hi, Daniel. Hi, Marty [Scorsese]. Good morning. Stuff like that.’ Then [on the first day of shooting] I said, ‘Morning Danny!’ And then he went, ‘Umph’ [in a derisive tone]. And I said, ‘Oh shit. Game on!”
He further continued,
“I don’t think I said another word to him through that nine months that we were there. You know, he was Bill the Butcher, and that was it. He was just phenomenal and in character all the time. And again, I think that, as an actor, being able to witness that and seeing the sort of heights of commitment like that was another stage of learning for me. There’s commitment, and then there’s Daniel Day-Lewis.”
The actor ended the tale by revealing that on the last day of shooting, they both looked at each other and cracked a little smile signaling the end of the movie.
Leonardo DiCaprio Feels Martin Scorsese Saved Him
Before Scorsese saw the talent in DiCaprio, the actor was going more towards being cast as a romantic actor. Praising the director, the Don’t Look Up actor spoke to Collider about how Scorsese had a particular way of directing that he loved.
“He had a way of immersing you in his filmmaking that just really stood out to me, as a young actor. I remember saying to myself, ‘Someday I want to do something that good.’ I want to be able to be in one scene of his films.”
In a separate interview with Deseret News, the actor recalled that he was headed down a path and the Killers of the Flower Moon director saved him.
“He saved me. I was headed down a path of being one kind of actor, and he helped me become another one. The one I wanted to be.”
With Daniel Day-Lewis and DiCaprio facing off against each other, Gangs of New York received a rating of 7.5/10 and 73% on Rotten Tomatoes. The 2002 film is available to stream on Max in the U.S.
