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Journalism of Courage
BROOKS BARNES
To transform himself into an aging J. Edgar Hoover,Leonardo DiCaprio sat for hours at a time while makeup artists gave him liver spots,yellow teeth and big,bulbous love handles. He spends a good chunk of Clint Eastwoods film J. Edgar that way,sweating and sneering in the unforgiving lighting of F.B.I. headquarters.
The part also meant memorising endless monologues that needed to be delivered with Hoovers own breakneck cadence. Additionally,DiCaprio had to wrestle aggressively with a man and then kiss him.
Oh,and wear a dress.
Look unhandsome and unheroic? Too big a risk,even with Eastwood at the wheel. But DiCaprio,at least the post-Titanic one,has made a career of highly risky choices,and somehow it keeps paying offhe has been nominated for three Academy Awardsand at the box office as well.
When I cant immediately define the character,and theres an element of mystery to it and still a lot to be explored,thats when I say yes, the 36-year-old DiCaprio said. I like those kinds of complicated characters.
Hollywood typically doesnt like that answer: American actors are supposed to be more steady persona,less shape shifter. The apparatus likes to box actors up, said Brian Grazer,a producer of J. Edgar. Once they become successful in one role,get them into picture after picture where they can do exactly the same thing.
DiCaprio has managed to retain a mystique about his personal life in the celebrity blogger era. He likes his privacy,but this game also makes his performances more successful; people are more likely to accept him as a larger-than-life character if they dont have a very clear idea of who he is off screen.
DiCaprios choices may be unusual,but he does have his own version of sticking with what works. The characters are mostly tortured,unsympathetic,larger-than-life guys created by A-list directors,most notably Martin Scorsese. A urine-collecting Howard Hughes in The Aviator,a Zimbabwean smuggler in Blood Diamond. A mental patient in Shutter Island. A dream extractor in Inception.
Leonardo could make a lot of money making mechanical genre pictures,but he wants to be challenged, Eastwood said. And its much more of a challenge to play someone who doesnt have the slightest thing in common with you.
Next on DiCaprios docket is the title role in Baz Luhrmanns remake of The Great Gatsby,and hes ready to play Frank Sinatra in another Scorsese biopic. That is in Scorseses hands, he said. Im always incredibly game for anything that he decides to do.
J. Edgar fits snuggly into this canon. Hoover is depicted as a brilliant patriot who invented modern forensics and stopped at nothing to protect America through eight presidents and three wars. But the omnipowerful F.B.I. director was an impediment,to put it mildly,to the civil rights movement and worked as hard to distort the truth as he did to collect it and file it away to secure his power.
The treacherous part of J. Edgar,written by Dustin Lance Black,involves the gray. Was Hoover homosexual? He certainly had an unusually close relationship with his F.B.I. colleague Clyde Tolson,played by Armie Hammer The Social Network. Even less clear is whether Hoover liked to wear womens clothes,but Eastwood and DiCaprio decided to retain Blacks artful nod to the rumour.
Obviously theres a love story here, Eastwood said. Whether it is a gay love story or something elsewell,the audience can interpret it.
Will J. Edgar be a hit? Also unclear.
DiCaprio will be quick to note that he does have some important things in common with Hoover,at least on the surface. Hoover,for instance,was very close to his mother,played by Judi Dench in the film. DiCaprio has a tight relationship with his own mom,Irmelin DiCaprio.
The difference is that Hoovers mother told him what to do,and my mother listened to me, he said. She just listened to this arrogant little kid saying he wanted to be an actor and didnt laugh in my face.
Hoover was also a man who lost himself in his own ego and his need to be the centre of attentionsomething that DiCaprio,as a student of Hollywood,has to see as a potential fate for himself if hes not careful. Then again,maybe not. Its not something that I actively worry about, he said. Im fully aware that every career is fleeting in some respects.
