With the release of Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained just around the corner - marking Leonardo Dicaprio's first return to the big screen since J Edgar (which didn't exactly blow us away) - we've been busy reading up on Leo's thoughts on his first time playing the bad guy. Not one redeeming quality has this Calvin Candie fella. An awful bastard, to say the least.
In an interview with Playlist, the actor who stole our hearts after he rescued Rose Dewitt Bukater from the stern of the Titanic (only to die a few days later in the icy waters days later when she wouldn't shove over on that piece of wood to make some room for him; yes, I've held a grudge) opened up about his disdain for the character. "This was my first attempt at playing a character that I had this much disdain for. It was an incredibly uncomfortable environment to be in... I've seen racism growing up but the degree I had to treat other people in this film was disturbing. It was a very uncomfortable situation... One of the pivotal moments for me and this character, was this initial readthrough, and I brought up, 'Do we need to push it this far? Does it need to be this violent?'... And [the actors and Quentin] said, 'If you sugar-coat this people are going to resent the hell out of you.' By holding the character back you're going to do an injustice to the film. That was the thing that ignited me into going where I did with the character. Once I did even more research, read about the sugar plantations, we're just scratching the surface. It's a subject matter that should be looked at more often. I commend Quentin for combining so many different genres and making the subject matter entertaining for an audience. At the core of it what was great was a group of actors who were all there for one another to support and drive each other. Honestly it felt like we were cheerleaders for each other.".