Catch DiCaprio If You Can
Before the age of 21, Frank Abagnale Jr. passed himself off as an airline pilot, doctor, and lawyer -- all while cashing millions of dollars in counterfeit checks. For Leonardo DiCaprio, it was a case where fact was much stranger than fiction.
"If I read this as a submission from a writer as something that they came up with off the top of their head, I wouldn't have believed it in a million years," he says on The Early Show.
But when DiCaprio read Abagnale's autobiography, he found it too good to resist and became involved in the production process of the film very early on. When he compiled a list of directors he wanted to work with, he left off one notable exception, Steven Spielberg.
"Because I never thought it was the type of movie that he was drawn to do. And I was, you know, blown away when I heard that Steven wanted to be involved. It was truly astonishing how open he was to a young actor's ideas. And what I thought Frank should be like. That's what I was most blown away with," DiCaprio says.
As for his character, DiCaprio says he did not quite identify with Abagnale as a person. "I don't think I have the balls of Frank Abagnale whatsoever," he says with a laugh. "I mean, the most I've ever done in my life was con myself out of, you know, math homework or something like that."
But DiCaprio says the scams that Abagnale pulled off 30 years ago could never be pulled off today.
"It was a different time. It was a different code of ethics back then. Different society that people lived in. People were much less skeptical and people trusted you when you gave them a firm handshake, looked them in the eye and said 'I'm a lawyer, I'm a doctor,' you know?"
When Abagnale first appears in the film, he is only 16; DiCaprio transforms even physically as his character grows.
"The ironic thing is that I have always viewed myself as this sort of young actor. Now, well, I still am a young actor. But I'm 28 playing a 16 year old. So I'm 12 years this guy's senior. I essentially had to get back to an innocent state of mind and trying to feel like what it would truly be like for this young man out in this world with no one to really answer for, creating situations as he went along," explains DiCaprio.
His work was to get into a different state of mind, he says. "And try to get rid of all these things that we learn as we get older and these ways of conducting yourselves and meeting people. And really try to be somebody that's experimenting constantly and with freshness and innocence."
In the five years since "Titanic" thrust DiCaprio to the top of Hollywood's A-list, he has remained very picky, starring in only 2000's "The Beach", so it is ironic that he has "Catch Me If You Can" opening just five days after "Gangs Of New York"
"For me, it is such a tremendous amount of effort. People often don't think it is. But it is a lot of your focus and a lot of your energy and a lot of your heart that you put into making a movie. And I don't want those experiences to be in vain. I want them to be something that will resonate throughout time with me," DiCaprio says.
"And to me, it is really hard not to work. Because, you know, on the off- season, as much as you have different interests and you enrich your life in other different ways, it's truly what I love to do. It really is. But I need to have enough experience in my own life to change me as a person. The truth of the matter is that when you do movie after movie after movie, they all sort of melt into one thing. And you never can really single them out as unique experiences. And on that same token, there's just a lot of terrible scripts out there," DiCaprio adds with a laugh.
As for his personal life, it is well known that he loves his privacy. So how does the actor maintain it when he is starring in two films? And the public wants to know all about him?
"I think it's important not to let everyone know everything about you. I think that's one of the most important things you have to do as an actor. I really do," DiCaprio says. "I want only people to believe me when I'm up there on screen. To know every little detail about what I'm doing, I think, works against you. And yeah, you know, I'm out there in the media world again. But it's part of the job. It's a part of promoting your work and your art and getting people to go and see the work that you put into something. So that's what my intent for publicity is. This is what I'm showing up on screen. And that's what I wanna speak for who I am. You know?"
DiCaprio has already been nominated for a Best Actor In A Drama Golden Globe award for his performance in "Catch Me If You Can."