Only in Hollywood
Leo reunites with pal Kate
By Ruben V. Nepales
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 23:39:00 01/08/2009
Filed Under: Entertainment (general), Celebrities
LOS ANGELES—Leonardo DiCaprio is reunited with Kate Winslet in “Revolutionary Road” but it is definitely not the kind of movie where, on a ship’s bow, he holds her by the waist while she—arms spread wide open— wails like Celine Dion about how her heart will “go on and on.”
Love will not go on and on in “Revolutionary Road,” an absorbing yet grim chronicle of a married couple struggling with a shattered American Dream in the 1950s. Come to think of it, the story could also be seen as an epilogue to “Titanic.” What if Leonardo and Kate’s characters survived the ship tragedy and got married, and now the union has gone sour?
Some discomforts
Amid the savage quarrels between Leonardo and Kate as doomed suburbanites in “Revolutionary…,” there are some intimate scenes between the two, who are close pals in real life. In our recent interview, Leonardo was asked what it was like to do those scenes with his friend Kate, especially since these were under the direction of her husband, Sam Mendes (“American Beauty”).
“There were slight uncomfortable moments here and there,” admitted Leonardo, who was nursing a cold. The actor’s face was flushed red and he was sniffling, but he managed to look dapper in a gray shirt and dark pants, his hair neatly combed. “But I have to be honest. It wasn’t that weird. It wasn’t that strange. Sam backed away and let us be our own little couple on the set. At the end of the day, Sam and Kate were still the real couple, went home together and discussed the movie in their own little world. On the set, Sam created this environment for us that really made it comfortable—for me, anyway.”
As for portraying the bickering couple in this adaptation of Richard Yates’ 1961 book of dashed hopes and a disintegrating marriage, Leonardo quipped, “As soon as I read the script, I told Kate, ‘I can’t wait to do some of these fight scenes with you. I can’t wait to go at you.’ She was like, ‘I can’t wait, either. It’s going to be fantastic.’ Because when you have that comfort level with somebody — Kate and I have been the best of friends for over a decade now — there are almost no boundaries. It becomes a fearless endeavor in that regard. Of course, she is the most talented actress of her generation. So that helps, too.”
Kate’s even more gripping performance in her other new film, “The Reader,” supports Leonardo’s high regard of her as an actress. His assessment was bolstered by Kate’s double nomination in the Golden Globe Awards (to be handed out this Sunday)—for Best Actress-Drama (“Revolutionary…”) and Best Supporting Actress (“The Reader”). Leonardo himself is in the running for Best Actor-Drama for “Revolutionary…”
The 34-year-old star reflected on how he and his co-star in the highest-grossing film of all time have kept their friendship: “Kate and I have been very busy. She’s been off to multiple locations, as have I, since ‘Titanic.’ There were periods when we didn’t see each other for over a year. Or lost contact for a little while. But what we had in ‘Titanic’ was that we forged a bond at a very young age. It was very much like a brother-sister relationship. It’s so strong that it’s like with those friends for life—you don’t see them often but the second you see them, you’re completely comfortable. You’re the same people that you were when you initially met. There’s no need to work on anything. It’s just there. It is what it is.”
Asked for an update about his other passion, raising awareness of environmental issues, Leonardo answered, “I’ve been very attuned to environmental conservation practices. It’s interesting to know and endorse these technologies, whether it’s driving a hybrid car, which I’ve done for the last 10 years, or getting solar panels for the house. But I’m trying to back away from preaching to people and telling them how to live their lives. I think that’s a fundamental mistake. People resent that. I would resent it, too. Not everyone has the opportunity to do some of these things like put solar panels in their houses.”
Global awareness
The actor, who narrated and produced “The 11th Hour,” a documentary concerning the environmental crises, added, “To me, it’s more about global awareness. Ultimately, it’s a publicity game for the issue of climate change. That’s why I speak about it. Hopefully, one day the corporations and the powers that be will make fundamental changes, where we don’t need to think about things like where the bottle that we drink from comes. Or we don’t need to think about the fuel that we put into our cars. That it’s automatically integrated into our daily life— that’s the real challenge.
He continued: “You bring up the question of whether I change the light bulbs to energy efficient ones in my house. We all know that at the end of the day, that’s a bunch of BS. Barack Obama said something on the issue which was very interesting. That if anything is really going to happen, it’s going to be about something collective. It’s going to be about a massive worldwide change. Making these tiny little changes that we can do is fundamentally important. If you want to do it in your life, that’s fantastic. But it’s going to have to come from the top and trickle its way down for anything to really fundamentally change.”
Since “Revolutionary…” deals with stifled dreams, Leonardo was queried about his own hopes that are yet to be fulfilled.
Living the life
The star, who will also be seen this year in “Shutter Island,” his fourth film with director Martin Scorsese, said, “I am living the life, the dream that I’ve always wanted. When somebody knows, at 4 or 5 years old, and tells his parents, ‘I want to be an actor’ (laughter) and then you get to be an actor, do so for such a long period of time and get to work with talented people, I feel very blessed and lucky. I have no forlorn dream that is unfulfilled. I am very content and very happy.”
E-mail the columnist at rvnepales_5585@yahoo.com and read his blog, “The Nepales Report,” on http://blogs.inquirer.net/nepalesreport.
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