What the director of Total Eclipse said about Leo
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Total Eclipse
archer6749 — 10 years ago(September 25, 2015 03:38 PM)
I figured you guys would like this since we don't hardly know anything about what went on behind the scenes of Total Eclipse
The British actor (David Thewlis), himself an award winner for Naked, found it a joy working with DiCaprio. Director Agnie Holland was complimentary as well: He was willing to take chances and you have to challenge yourself and the audience. Otherwise, whats the point? Leo was always willing to go for it. She was aware of the bad boy comparisons being made during the shooting of the film between DiCaprio, his character, and also River Phoenix: Look, Leo is the best actor of his generation but its sadistic building someone up and then waiting for them to fall. I was with River Phoenix for a couple of months before he died and I see him as a victim of this attitude. Its awful, just awful. So was Rimbauds behavior. He lived in a time before rock stars but nevertheless had a rock star attitude and his writing remains admired by artists like Bob Dylan and Patti Smith. That other bad boy legend, the late Jim Morrison, was also a fan. For DiCaprio this was part of the attraction. I wanted to do the part because Rimbaud was such a badass. But he was a genius so he had the goods to back it up. I think the people who liked the movie liked Rimbaud. We made it in France and he is still a god there. He shrugs off the films detractors, I think people expect me to go a certain way with my career.