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.