Leonardo DiCaprio always brings out his best when he collaborates with Martin Scorsese. Even though everyone knows he’s a great actor, his collaborations with Scorsese always feel special. They have together churned out some of the best works in their careers. Scorsese won the Oscar for Best Director for the DiCaprio-led The Departed.
The duo recently collaborated on their 6th project together with 2023’s Killers of the Flower Moon. He played the lead role of Ernest Burkhart in the film. While many people lauded his performance in the film, another frequent collaborator of Scorsese had some criticism for DiCaprio’s role in the film.
Paul Schrader Slams Slams Leonardo DiCaprio’s ‘Idiotic’ Role in His Latest Film
Acclaimed writer-director Paul Schrader has collaborated with Martin Scorsese many times back in the day. He wrote four of Scorsese’s films including Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, The Last Temptation of Christ, and Bringing Out the Dead. He has a close relationship with the director and he recently made a rather dismissive remark on Scorsese’s latest film Killers of the Flower Moon.
Scorsese reunited with Leonardo DiCaprio in the film and the latter played Ernest Burkhart, the husband of Lily Gladstone’s character, Mollie, who secretly takes part in the murder of all members of her Osage family, under the orders of Robert De Niro’s character, William Hale. Schrader recently talked about his feelings about the film and one pet peeve he had about it.
In an interview with France’s Le Monde, he claimed that he would have liked DiCaprio to have played the cop role played by Jesse Plemons. He called DiCaprio’s character an idiot and for Schrader to spend three and a half hours with such a person was a tiring experience. He said,
“Marty compares me to a Flemish miniaturist. He would be more the type who paints Renaissance frescoes. Give him $200 million, a good film will inevitably come out of it. That said, I would have preferred Leonardo DiCaprio to play the role of the cop in ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ rather than the role of the idiot. Spending three-and-a-half hours in the company of an idiot is a long time.”
Interestingly, DiCaprio was supposed to play the role of the cop, and the film as a whole was supposed to be told from the eyes of the FBI. However, Scorsese changed the script later and made it from the point of view of the Osage people (via The Irish Times). It seems Schrader was not a fan of this change and would have preferred the initial pitch instead.
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Lily Gladstone Is A Big Fan of Leonardo DiCaprio’s Career
Lily Gladstone starred alongside Leonardo DiCaprio in Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon. In an interview with People, the actress revealed that she is a big fan of DiCaprio’s career and admired him as a performer long before starring in their film together.
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Gladstone pointed out several films that she loved in DiCaprio’s early years including What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, Romeo + Juliet, and Titanic. She pointed out his performance in 1998’s The Man in the Iron Mask as her favorite in the actor’s career. She said,
“I loved that movie. Titanic was one of the first things I spent my allowance on. I had been a fan of Leo long before that. My first film that I watched him in was, I can’t remember which one came first, but it was either What’s Eating Gilbert Grape or This Boy’s Life. I loved Romeo + Juliet.
I already knew at that point I wanted to be an actor, and getting to see one actor play that kind of duality (in The Man in the Iron Mask), it was really cool.”
DiCaprio’s career has certainly been a glorious one as he impressed audiences from his early days with his natural talent and versatility as an actor. He arguably has the best films in any actor’s career and is undoubtedly one of the greatest actors of his generation.
