Translation of a French Interview - Studio HS 97
Please take a moment to read what follows...
This interview was made by a french journalist, Juliette Michaud, working for Studio Magazine (a monthly review, one of the four/five most important film magazines in France.) The text that follows remains J. Michaud’s property but she is not responsible for the mistranslations that may occur.
I have translated from French to English. Remember this interview was, of course, already a translation from English to French. So I imagine that for you, American or English readers, the syntax, the vocabulary I used, would probably sound too academic or too Frenchy and sometimes surprising from a young American actor. Unfortunately I am neither a translator nor a teacher, and I have tried to remain as true as possible with the original text.
Please be lenient with my English and the way I make Leo talk... and if you want to have fun, imagine him answering the questions with a FRRRRRRRRRRRRENCH accent !
STUDIO - HORS SERIE (December) 1997. pp. 98-105
INTERVIEW
Romeo & Juliet made a star of him. And we’re going to meet him again, from January 7th, starring in the most expensive movie of the whole film history : Titanic by James Cameron. We were the only French inteerviewers who had the chance to meet him in New York. Since our meeting last March, he has matured and... smokes the cigar!
Interview by Juliette Michaud.... Photos Greg Gorman
LEONARDO DICAPRIO
The magnificent winner.
- You’re on the cover of this special issue because, according to us, you’re the great winner of this year, the 1997’s actor...
LDC - (He stubs out the cigar he’s smoking, and apologizes for this new “ vice ”, but adds that during whole days interviews, “ it’s relaxing ”.) Ouah, really ? That’s pretty cool!
- Since our last interview, for Romeo & Juliet release (see Studio N°121), you’ve been very busy.
LDC - Yes, I was rather busy. (Laughs.) Right after the end of the shooting of Titanic in Mexico, in late march, I moved on to Paris, for the shooting of The Man in the Iron Mask by Randall Wallace.
- What did you feel, working with Gerard Depardieu, John Malkovich, Jeremy Irons, Gabriel Byrne...
LDC - It was fantastic. They’re so cool, it’s amazing ! Those outstanding actors are of course self-confident and, so they may behave... like real kids. On the set, they were fooling around all the time, joking... Really, it was funny.
- How did you find your place among them ? Were you intimidated?
LDC - No, starting in the business with Robert De Niro (for This Boy’s Life) removed that kind of shyness. (Laughs.) I found my place as usual. I watch, even unconsciously, and I learn. I “ steal ” from right to left, I learn from all actors I work with.
- On this movie, the choice was difficult!
LDC - Exactly, they were so different ! Gerard (Depardieu) acts on instinct and takes up the character he plays . Jeremy (Irons), it’s the opposite, everything is internalized, detailed and finely shaded, he’s like a computer. John (Malkovich) is also very bright and methodic in the approach of his part. And Gabriel (Byrne), who is the leader in the movie, he plays Dartagnan, took this responsibility seriously. He’s impressive. Lots of their acting methods, of their approach to their parts have made their way in my mind.
- Then, you moved on to the Woody Allen’s movie. How did he cast you ?
LDC - I’ve just a small part in this movie, just a five-day shooting in New York. I’m a very famous you, I don’t have time for love stories, I’m just concentrating on my work.
- Exactly, you’ve been working hard since your adolescence. Isn’t it too difficult for a young man?
LDC - That’s why, after Titanic’s release, I have decided to take a year off.
- A year ! How are you going to manage that ? Your manager will pester you !
LDC - (dogmatic.) No, people around me knows I need it. I’ve neglected too much things since I’am 16. (He yawns and stretches.) Sorry, you see, I’m physically exhausted. (Laughs.) I need to think about what’s happening to me, to analyze it, take some distance. Acting is connected with the person you are. I can’t be a work addict like that, without, in the same time, knowing exactly who I am. I also want to think about my career and the way I want to lead it.
-- What are you going to do during this year off?
LDC - Traveling, reading, diving, maybe in Australia with Baz Luhrmann (Romeo & Juliet director), discovering civilisations wilder than ours, meeting people close to nature... I’m not very fan of human beings, actually. (Laughs.) We live on this planet forgetting that we are rats who have envaded, overpopulated the earth, and that we are spenting all its ressources...
- Are you concerned about the future of our planet ?
LDC - Yes, because human beings are ruining it. We named ourselves “ an intelligent race ”, but we’re still arrogant and selfish. It’s depressing, isn’t it?
- Isn’t it the kind of reasoning you have when you feel a little lost...
LDC - I don’t feel lost at all. I feel like I’m at the end of a road, and something different is waiting for me.
- Are you thinking of writing, producing or directing your own movie ?
LDC - No, I’m still learning to act. And I have not yet reached the level I wanted to reach.
- Anyway, for the general public, you’re already a “ cult actor ” and adulated by girls. For Titanic’s release in Tokyo, people say that young japanese girls were hysterical...
LDC - Yes, but it was nearly unreal. I don’t want to be unpleasant when I’m saying that, because the crowd shows its affection towards me and it’s very flattering. But in that case, I become somebody else.
- Do you have time to read your fans’ mail?
LDC - Not really. From now on, a friend of mine, who is 16 and a kind of little brother to me, takes care of that. The letters I received may be very strange. Sometimes very funny, sometimes surrealistic when people are convinced they know me intimately, which is obviously impossible.
- This mail is mainly sent by girls?
LDC - Almost, yes. But most of the time, letters are very friendly. They just want to be in touch with me, getting a pic, knowing if we have something in common...
- And you, which qualities are you looking for in people ?
LDC - I like honest, natural and open-minded people. Cool people actually !
- Now that you‘re famous, can you still live a normal life ?
LDC - It’s difficult for me to go out as I did before, it’s true... And when I’m travelling, I have a bodyguard... But I try to stay cool and keep going out alone like a big boy (Laughs).
If I couldn’t do that anymore I would leave this job, honestly. I want to stay normal, but I don’t worry about that : I had a poor and difficult childhood and it gave me stability and lucidity.
- Do you live in L.A.?
LDC - In Loz Feliz (The new switched-on area in L.A.). I live there with my mother. During two years, I’ve spent a lot of time in hotels and it would have been silly to buy an appartment but, now, I’m thinking it over. I love life in L.A., I grew in a quite shady area in Hollywood (on the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Western Avenue, a risky place at night), but I’m really nostalgic of that time.
- Are your close friends also actors ?
LDC - Some of them, yes. My close friends have started in the films with me at the same time, when we were 15. Such as Toby Macguire (The Ice Storm), with whom I auditioned for This Boy’s Life. After The Ice Storm, a movie I like very much, he’s gonna shoot the newt Ang Lee. I’m so happy he succeeds in his work too. We help each other. But we don’t often talk about our job and that’s one of the thing I appreciate.
- How do your friends see your celebrity?
LDC - They make fun of it. They say it’s funny the way people treats me now, because I am a so-called star. I often tell them about details and they keep laughing at me. For example, when I showed them the dance steps I learned for Titanic, they were smiling ! And even, when we go out together and have some troubles with the fans, we take it easy, celebrity gives you more advantages than inconviniences : we can go in any restaurant, everywhere we want to...
- What is the most extravagant thing you have done since you’re famous ?
LDC - When I was shooting The Man in the Iron Mask in Paris, I invited about 10 friends in the apartment I was living in. It was really cool.
- What do you do with your friends when you don’t work?
LDC - We hang around from a place to another as we always did.
- Do you go to public concerts ? Rock music, pop...
LDC - I try to avoid public appearances for I know there will be cameras... But I listen to a lot of music : Stevie Wonder, Bill Whither, Marvin Gaye, Al Green, all the soul and funk music of the 70s’. And, different kinds of rap music.
- What did you like during your stay in Paris ?
LDC - Museums. Rather the Musée d’Orsay than the Louvre actually. Painting is one of my passions. I could spend an entire day in a museum.
- What is your favorite painter ?
LDC - -I have lots ! I love the Impressionists. Monet of course, and also Seurat, and obviously Van Gogh. But my preference goes to less institutionnel painters, more primitive. I like specially Le Douanier Rousseau for his so bizarre, not academic style. Among the contemporary painters I like Robert Williams and Alexis Rockland... But there are so many...
- Do you like literature as much as painting?
LDC - Yes, but I have still so much to discover.
- Do you have a bedside book ?
LDC – A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole (a young writer who commited suicide just before his book was published).
- A favorite movie ?
LDC - Let’s say The King of Comedy by Martin Scorsese and A Woman Under the Influence by John Cassavetes.
- Who are your models ?
LDC - My father is my first hero. He’s a sort of bohemian (His father worked in underground comic-books publishing) who has always done what he wanted to do and has always encouraged me. He’s an eccentric, very clever and not materialist at all. My father is just happy to put his pants on every morning. To me is a kind of Buddha ! And... my favorite actor has always been Robert De Niro, for long!
- Is there an actor you dream to meet in Hollywood?
LDC - Marlon Brando, and I think this dream will come true. But what would I say to him ? I’ll probably be paralyzed in front of him, as an idiot. (Laughs.)
- Could you tell me what’s your main quality as an actor ?
LDC - No, it’s difficult ! Maybe, I’m able to stand back and do things seriously without being too serious neither.
- And your main fault?
LDC - I’d like to improve my concentration, increasing it. My concentration is always focused on me, I feel limited. That is the reason why I’m gonna stop working during a year. I’m 23 and I want to know what means becoming an adult.
- What do you expect from Titanic ?
LDC - If the movie is a big hit, it deserves it, and according to the reviews it could be one, there will be some consequences for me and I will probably have more opportunities to play good parts in good movies. Obviously, the choice will increase...
- Some people already talk about an oscar for your performance...
LDC - My wish is that the public likes Titanic. It’s one of the few Hollywood big productions which has also a worthwhile contents, and whic, despite the special effects, doesn’t use actors as puppets.
- What is the best award for an actor ?
LDC - It is certainly not the awards you may receive. The greatest award I think, is that very rare moment, on a shooting, when you feel you really became the character. It’s a tremendous satisfaction, I can’t explain how great it is.
- Do you feel yourself involved in the future of the film industry ?
LDC - There were different times in the history of films. The first time, with the pioneers, the fifties, a time which gave birth to fantastic actors, a time of daring ideas, the french New Wave, the seventies - my favorites for the american films. I wish that, in the next century, we go on searching, experimenting, amazing, enriching the films. It’s possible with the actual new generation of actors, directors. I’d like to be a part of this new age.
From Lou..with thanks! Translation well done!!