Interview
with Leo Di Caprio
Was
Christopher Walken the first choice you wanted for to play your
father, Frank Abagnale, Sr. for this film?
 Leo:
I believe so, yeah. I've always wanted him to play my father.
Cause that man picks up on cosmic messages, and it's shown through
his acting. He's unlike anyone else, and I thought he was so well
suited for this character. I think it was a unique character for
him to play. He was very much like you know, Willy Loman in Death
of a Salesman or something like that. He's a broken man and his
spirit was broken. I'm so glad that he [Christopher Walken] did
this movie. I actually had a scene with him where, you know, it
was one of my most memorable experiences making films. I remember…I
don't know if you remember the scene, but the scene where I come
back to see my dad and he's talking about my mom and all of the
sudden he...he like kind of hyperventilates. And I was sitting
there across the table from him while he was doing this, and it
was completely unexpected and it wasn't in the script. It was
his own... completely his own doing. I thought the man was having
a heart attack in front of me. I honestly was about two seconds
away from saying, "Cut, Cut! There's something wrong with
Chris!" But it's a testament how he is as an actor. I was
blown away. It's very rare where you have a cinematic experience
like that, where you are so forced into the world where you think
that it's actual reality you know.
That was a particular improvisation
that he [Walken] had?
Leo: Yes.
 What
about this role for you because you have to go back in age at
a time, where obviously it seemed like you wanted to move on cause
you're an adult and you have to go back to teenage years…
Leo: Yes, but fundamentally it's just such a great character.
And I've never, you know… contrary to what some people may
think about the way I choose movies, It's completely been character-driven
as to whether I've been compelled to be a part of the film. I've
never tried to, you know, reach a certain demographic of an audience
or try to say "OK, now I'm gonna to do this type of film
to transition myself into more adult roles." Or a romantic
hero. Or whatever it may be, you know what I mean?
So what's the seduction
of this particular character?
Leo: This particular guy?
I was playing a great actor. I was an actor getting to play a
great actor. But his stage was the real world. At first I was
a little bit skeptical about meeting the real Frank Abagnale.
I talked to Steven [Spielberg], he thought maybe it wouldn't be
a good idea. But I secretly kind of called him [Frank] and said
that I wanted to have a couple meetings with him and I spent like
two days with him and followed him around with a tape recorder.
He [Frank] told us you invited
him to your house.
 Leo:
Yeah. Because I really wanted to get to the underlying mechanics
of what made this guy so engaging. And what made people in his
surrounding environment immediately trust him. And the more and
more I talked to him the more I realize that, much like any great
actor, it comes from instinct. He was an instinctual actor. He
is somebody that for whatever reason puts people at ease and makes
you completely comfortable with him and he seems as innocent as
a schoolteacher. And he is now. I mean he's a transformed man
but you know, throughout my talking to him I just realized...
particularly there was one moment on the set where it was a true
testament to that. I went to a couple of the seminars and listened
to him speak, but it wasn't until he actually came on set when
I realized like the true magnetic force of the real Frank Abagnale.
He walked on the set. I remember coming out of makeup, and I said,
"Hey Frank how are you? Great that you're on the set!"
He was talking to two or three people and they were listening
to some of his stories. I came back five minutes later, and all
of the sudden, the entire cast and crew had taken an impromptu
lunch break. You know, right after coming out of lunch. And they're
just listening to him retell these stories of the past. He was
engaging and getting eye contact with everyone in his audience,
you know. It was like his little theater.
What do think was most disarming
about him [Frank] as you were playing him at 16? Was it his charm?
Or his body language?
Leo: He was like a magician,
you know? He mastered the art of misdirection. And it all comes
from that one key line: why do the Yankees always win? Because
the other team is too fascinated with pinstripes. And he understood
that. He understood that. even though he was passing these really
archaic looking checks that if anyone in their right mind took
one detailed glance at, they would've never have cashed. But he
concentrated on the steak dinners as opposed to the bad check
that he was forging. He almost seemed like at times like he was
playing with his audience, like he was testing his boundaries.
Some of his cons seem even too good to be true. They seem even
obvious at times.
Too easy.
Leo: Yeah. And that's how
magicians work.
The pacing [In Catch Me
If You Can] was great. In fact, there's a scene with Jennifer
Garner, where the camera just stops in the hallway, and focuses
on you guys.... can you talk about working with Jennifer Garner?
 Leo:
Jennifer was so sweet and so well cast for this part. It was actually
a scene that... (He explains where the idea for the scene came
from) I'd listen to some of… [these tapes]. Frank had these
seminars, or these, I don't know what they were... They were basically
kind of like books on tape, where he would be talking about what
happened in his real life. And this was one scene in particular
in the book, and from these tapes, that made me laugh, you know,
made me laugh out loud! Because it was just a true... I don't
know... it was such a great, unique segment in his [Frank's] story
and in his life that I told Steven that I would love it to be
back in the movie, and I wanted him to put it back in the script.
And it made it! It ended up being in the movie and not on the
cutting room floor. But Jennifer was fantastic. And that was a
day where I really saw Steven's skills.
This was the scene with
Jennifer?
Leo: Yeah, I remember the
scene didn't work at first. And I remember him [Steven] taking
like two puffs on the cigar, and then sort of sitting back, looking
up in the air. He flipped the whole entire arrangement of the
set, changed our lines, changed where we were. And all the sudden
(Leo snaps his finger): the scene worked perfectly. That's a testament
to him as a master filmmaker.
Walter Parkes [Producer of Catch Me If You Can] thinks this
is an extraordinary time for you. And not just because you're
competing with yourself with two films that had been separated
with their opening dates. He's really pleased because he thinks
it's going to reflect the state of being of your career, as you
could do such disparate things. How do you look on it? Do you
feel like you're competing with yourself? Or is this a crazy coincidence?
 Leo:
Well, competing is such a hard thing because, yeah, of course
I would like for the films [Catch Me If You Can and The Gangs
of New York] to have a little bit more separation, but that's
the studios' decision - hitting where the demographic is, or whatever,
for whatever time or whatever season…
Oscar Sesaon?
Leo: Whatever that may
be [Laughs]. But the truth of the matter is that both of these
movies I've put a lot of work and a lot of effort into. More so
than I can remember in the past. It's truly a coincidence that
they're coming out at the same time, because Gangs of New York
was something that I started almost three years ago. And Catch
Me If You Can was like, you know, a road movie, like an independent
road movie that I did this year. So, they seem worlds apart to
me. But maybe it will be a good thing. Maybe will be. All I can
say is that I'm just really proud to have both of them out.
You're working with Baz
Luhrmann and Martin Scorsese again on feature films. Do you have
anything in mind of kind of creating or building for yourself
a set of set of directors that you're comfortable working with?
 Leo:
Like a compound (laughs). No. I wouldn't be as presumptuous as
to think that…I would control these guys, and tell them what
movies to do. These are, you know, some pretty unbelievable directors
that have their own vision in their own voice. For example, Martin
Scorsese has been wanting to tell the story of Gangs of New York
for thirty years. It's not just any director that you attach to
a project like that. It just comes from the fact that we had great
working experiences together. I suppose we bring out things in
each other that we like, that's all.
One of the reasons Daniel
Day-Lewis obviously takes years between roles is because he said
it's a physically difficult process... emotionally. It's like
getting burned, and you have to wait until you forget the pain
to work again. Is it physically or emotionally difficult for you?
Leo: It is. Very much so.
I am not of the vein of actors and I will not pretend to be one
that takes my character home with me. I don't. It's simply a mechanism
of survival for me, because I give everything I possibly can when
I'm in that environment. I give every ounce of energy when I'm
there. But, when its time to go home for me, it's time to go home.
And it's time to shred all that and take the costume off and not
be that character anymore because, simply because, I think I would
go crazy. (laughs) I think I would go crazy. My mind is not set
up for that. The more I work with people like Daniel, the more
I work with people like Tom Hanks, the more I slowly starting
to develop my own process for whatever that is. I'm still discovering
things constantly as I go along and I still don't have a set system
for how do things. I think each character has different challenges
and different rules and different criteria.
Given the opportunity,
would you work with James Cameron again?
Leo: Given an opportunity,
on the right project, sure.
What's next for you?
Leo: The Aviator, the Howard
Hughes story.
When do you start filming
that?
Leo: Mid next year.
How about Alexander the
Great? Is that happening?
Leo: Looks like that's
going to happen, too.
Another period piece?
Leo: Yeah. Sorry (laughs).
And, of course, La Boheme,
the musical. Did you enjoy it?
Leo: I love La Boheme!
I mean, that's what Baz does. I saw La Boheme at the London Opera
House, and I fell asleep after the first act (laughs). You know,
I'm not familiar with opera. But that's what he [Baz] does so
well, is make it accessible to an entirely different audience
is.
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