ROMEO RISING
THOUGH HE PLAYS THE TRAGIC HERO IN SHAKESPEARE'S "ROMEO AND JUIET", LEONARDO DICAPRIO IS ANYTHING BUT TRAGIC!WITH HIS BROODING GOOD LOOKS AND HUGE TALENT, THIS YOUNG ACTOR IS THE BEST OF HIS GENERATION!
Playing Romeo in the modern-day hit version of Shakespeare's Romeo And Juliet was not an easy time for Leonardo DiCaprio. The film, shot on location in Mexico City was cursed by bad luck.
Everybody got violently ill, we were surrounded by violence in the streets, and one of our crew members got kidnapped and held for ransom."recalls the baby-faced 22 year-old actor.
"It was misery but in a funny way, I think it helped the movie. After all, it deals with violence and suffering, and I was getting a real-life taste out of it."And there certainly is a lot of crying going on in the film.
"Yes," agrees Leo (as he is called by pals). "In the second half everything goes wrong for Romeo and I'm crying all the time. It was draining to go through Romeo's emotions.I got sick because of it.
Initially, Leo had doubts about taking the role because he didn't want to another traditional version of the play and "run around in tights".
"It had been done a million times before, and I wasn't up to reciting Shakespeare in an affected English accent." It was Australian director Baz Luhrmann (Strictly Ballroom) who persuaded Leo to accept the part. Together, the director and his star found a new vision for the classic story. Set in the 1990s with guns instead of swords, the story has been updated with cool cars and a futuristic grunge look."The only thing I objected to was Baz' idea of having everybody on Rollerblades at the beginning of the film," laughs Leo."I couldn't see myself spouting Shakespeare on skates."
But he thinks Shakespeare would had liked the film.""He was a genius and would have wanted his work to live on and become timeless.We've tapped a new audience by giving it a new spin."
Regarded as the finest actor of his generation, Leo has worked non-stop since his impressive debut opposite Robert DeNiro in "This Boy's Life".In 1993, he was nominated for best supporting actor for his portrayal of "What's Eating Gilbert Grape?"(also starring Johnny Depp).Then there was the western "The Quick And The Dead" opposite superbabe Sharon Stone; the "Basketball Diaries" in which he played a destructive drug poet and "Total Eclipse", where he acted as an unhappy gay poet.
Although many of Leo's female fans are eager to find out about his love life, the actor prefers to keep things private."I've loved and lost, but you are not getting into my love life."That's something I don't talk about.Okay.But what kind of girls does he like?
"Anyone with a certain something,"he says."And somebody who will look at me for my personality and not my pocket-book."
Was he popular among the girls in school?
"I wasn't exactly the stud," he giggles, fidgeting and squirming. "I tried to make girls laugh. They thought I was cute but nothing serious like the cool guy who was wearing a leather jacket.
In "Romeo And Juliet", Leo and co-star Claire Danes made a winning pair. Did you know Leo helped the director pick the 17 year-old actress for the role?
"I'd seen her act and I knew that she could be very intense and emotional That's exactly what Juliet should be like, not somebody who's flowery and fluttery."
At the audition, Claire came in and grabbed Leo around the neck and kissed him real hard. "I was a little taken aback," he admits," and then I realised this was exactly the kind of take-charge attitude we wanted in Juliet. Afetr all, she was laying down the law to Romeo:'Marry me and defy everything and everybody.'"
And was the death scene difficult to do?
"Yes. In the last scene, Juliet is lying there, and I make this big speech. I was crying, and I guess I got to Claire because she started crying too. Then she sat up and said, "Don't make me cry! I'm supposed to be comatose!"
In person, Leo comes across sane, intelligent and fun-loving. None of that Brat-pack attitude. It's his mother's doing,he claims."She keeps herself very separated from all the glitz and glamour of the business. She gives me advice, but she keeps reminding me that acting is just a job. She'll have about the same enthusiasm for what I do even if I worked in a drugstore. It's refreshing."
Up next, audiences can expect to see Leo in "Titanic". "It's such a huge movie with special effects and a 6 month shoot,"he says of the film in which he co-stars with "Sense and Sensiblity's" Kate Winslet. Is he excited by the prospect that a potential blockbuster like "Titanic" might make him an international superstar?
"No, I have no interest in becoming a big superstar who does commercial films," he says,"Commercial movies tend to play it safe and are familliar. And I'm not interested in obtaining hunk status.Magazines make out to be pieces of meat, and there's a new side of beef each month. No thanks, that's not for me."
