At the door again, as ‘the big bad wolf’

Decadence is what fuelled Wolf, a film that has gained him two Oscar nominations for acting and producing. DiCaprio has been nominated thrice earlier for Academy Awards, starting with a supporting actor nod for playing a teen with autism in the 1993 drama What’s Eating Gilbert Grape. He’s been overlooked each time.

This could be his year. Is he frustrated he hasn’t won? “Here, I’ll show you the card they gave me today (at the luncheon),” he says, setting aside the electronic cigarette he says he puffs to “relieve the stress of life”. He retrieves a small white card he calls “that little football chalk-up” listing his film stats. Leaning in, he points to the portion that reads: five nominations, zero wins. With a heavy chuckle he looks up and says, “Zip!”

He stares at the ground, collecting his thoughts. “Anyone wants to be accepted by their peers, but the truth is every year is unique and everyone is just going to vote for who they think is worthy.”

Nominated for lead actor for The Aviator and Blood Diamond, DiCaprio lost to Jamie Foxx and Forest Whitaker. This year, he’s up against Christian Bale, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Bruce Dern and Matthew McConaughey, who is considered DiCaprio’s biggest threat for his portrayal of a rodeo-loving Texan with HIV in Dallas Buyers Club.

“We haven’t seen Leo and McConaughey paired off in any award show,” says Tom O’Neil, editor of the awards prediction site goldderby.com. DiCaprio, whose first big film role was opposite Robert De Niro in 1993’s This Boy’s Life, has starred in a number of films that gained Oscar attention, including two best picture winners: Titanic and The Departed. Gangs of New York, Catch Me if You Can, Revolutionary Road, Inception, Django Unchained and last year’s The Great Gatsby have also earned Academy attention.
“It’s as if the old men in the Academy look at someone like Leo and say, ‘You have the money, the fame, the babes, but here’s one thing you can’t have’,” adds O’Neil. “We’ve seen a history of it. Paul Newman didn’t win until he was past the age of 60.”
Many major Hollywood talents have endured Oscar snubs. Neither Alfred Hitchcock nor Stanley Kubrick ever received directing trophies. At the risk of gaining comparisons to the late actor Peter O’Toole, who was nominated eight times without a win, DiCaprio could go home empty-handed again.

“No matter what film he’s in, you leave the theatre and go, ‘That guy just never misses’,” says DiCaprio’s co-star Jonah Hill, who is nominated for a best supporting actor Oscar. “Watching Leo work on Wolf, I understand how brilliant he is at what he does.”
He’s been particularly dedicated to the Oscar campaign for Wolf — DiCaprio even appeared on Saturday Night Live with Hill. Wolf marks the actor’s fifth collaboration with Martin Scorsese. It’s a project he takes extreme pride in, largely because he was part of its development.

His hunch proved spot-on. Wolf, costing $100 million to make, has earned over $230 million worldwide. “I’ve had the same mentality ever since I got my first movie,” he says. “I got my foot in this door and I am going to continue to jam it in there and grind.”