Ever since he got his first Oscar nomination for What’s Eating Gilbert Grape? way back in 1994, Leonardo DiCaprio has been trying to let the world know that he’s a serious actor, despite his teen-idol friendly looks. The industry has rewarded him several times with meaty roles in films like Martin Scorsese’s Gangs of New York, The Aviator and The Departed, Stephen Spielberg’s Catch Me If You Can, and Sam Mendes’ Revolutionary Road—for which he’s catching some Oscar buzz again.
That’s not all that Leonardo’s up to, though. MTV’s Splashpage blog caught up with DiCaprio in the U.K. and asked him questions about his production house Appian Way’s progress on two of the biggest geek horses in its stable, the Akira movie and the Ninja Scroll movie (as previously noted here at Geeking Out About).
“We’re waiting for the final draft of the script [for Akira],” DiCaprio told MTV. “I’m a big fan of Japanese anime — that and another project called Ninja Scroll we’re trying to get developed and made into a movie, and I know there a lot of loyal fans out there of the project and die-hard fans, so we’re going to try to do the best job we possibly can and we’re not going to make the movie until the script is in the right shape.”
Add that those two facts to the previously reported mention that DiCaprio is willing to give up his teen idol crown to Zac Efron, and I think you can see the questions that are starting to form in my mind.
Will the mainstream media stop referring to him as a teen idol or former teen idol? Can he successfully escape his image as the baby-faced boy from “Growing Pains” and Titanic, to finally get the part that wins him that Best Actor award? Does being able to choose (or get chosen for) good productions by great directors automatically mean you’ll be a great producer yourself?
This is a new corner for the actor’s life to turn, and I cannot wait to see the results.
Caolan says:
This is an incredibly nerdy and nitpicky thing to point out, but if he were really a fan of anime he wouldn’t have said “Japanese” before it. No one calls it that.
It leads me to believe that he’s trying to calm down the mass of Akira fanboys that are already a little pissed off about his potential role in the movie.
Me? I couldn’t care less.
Gordon McAlpin says:
Yes, that’s a very nerdy thing to point out, Caolan. 😉 But you’re right; it’s kind of redundant to call anime “Japanese anime.”
Me, I insist on calling it “Japanese animation” (and manga “Japanese comics”) because I think calling them by the Japanese word when we’re speaking in English is dumb.
BJ says:
Gordon, you are completely right. I love those Mexican fried flatbread ground meat sandwiches and those black and white, stylized crime dramas, but goddammit I refuse to pollute the purity of the lofty English language by calling them by those dirty foreign names.
Trisha Lynn says:
@BJ: You have earned the “Make Trisha Smile Her Cheeks Off” award. Go forth, and multiply.
Sabine Griffin says:
GO BJ!!!!!!!
MaskedVigilante says:
Wow, Gordon. You really did set yourself up for that one. BJ gave me the giggles.
But I also get what you’re saying and I agree. Quite frankly, I’m tired of trying to pronounce Magna or Manga or whatever the hell it is, and always getting it wrong.
Hilarious. And let’s not forget Caolan for asking what is, indeed, the nerdiest question ever.
nate says:
I agree with Gordon. They’re comics. No matter how you slice it. We don’t call French comics by the French word for comic.
I swear, it’s all because of those diehard nerds. They always have to have their way on the internet. (See: the fact that Wikipedia has two different articles. One on ‘voice actor’, another on ‘seiyuu’.)