News

Leonardo DiCaprio has come a long way from his teeny-bopper heartthrob days. Nearly 11 years after starring in Titanic - not just the biggest movie of all time, but the dreamiest date movie as well - he has earned respect in a string of ultra-challenging, primarily guy films such as Gangs of New York, The Aviator, Blood Diamond, The Departed and the new Body of Lies, which opens today. DiCaprio's Roger Ferris in Body of Lies is the (marginally) most ethical undercover agent in an utterly amoral cat-and-mouse game with Middle East terrorists.

Word got out that he got sick while filming Body of Lies's harrowing climactic scene in Morocco. The lanky, 33-year-old actor, creases definitely starting to form at the corners of his eyes, would like to tell you that it was because he once again gave all he had for his art and not for the wimpy sounding reason that was reported in the press.

"I know that the headline is that I got sick from dust or whatever - doesn't sound too heroic" DiCaprio says. "We did it in a tomb and it was very intensely emotional. It was a pivotal scene, when my character is kind of captured by the enemy. There was a lot of thought and preparation and anxiety about how this scene was going to turn out because we knew this was kind of a make-or-break scene for the movie. If it wasn't as realistic and as hardcore as it needed to be, I don't think the movie would quite work.

"So, it's one of those scenes that you kind of just get sick doing, that's all," he concludes with a smile.

If intensity is what got to him, it looks like he should have dropped dead in just about every scene of Body of Lies, which was directed at a lightning pace by Ridley Scott and co-stars Russell Crowe, who worked with DiCaprio in the wacky western The Quick and the Dead before they both became superstars. Crowe plays Ferris's constantly undermining, Washington-based CIA handler while the field agent's life and honour constantly get put on the line in Iraq, Jordan, Syria and other places where friends are hard to come by.

And since Ferris sometimes disguises himself as a local, DiCaprio not only had to study Arabic for the job, but correctly pronounce different regional dialects.

"It's one thing to do an accent, but to speak an entirely different language that comes from a different centre in the throat, it was really difficult," he confirms. "But I had this great coach named Sam Sako who guided me through all the different dialects of Arabic. And, of course, there would be extras on set who were from Iraq or Jordan and said, 'No no no, you sound like you're from a different region.' The film had its own intense pace, but everything kind of needed to slow down when it was time to speak Arabic, because I needed as much prep as I could get."

Hopefully, all of that work and worry weren't for naught. As noted, Body of Lies is no date movie (though there is a chaste romance between Ferris and a woman played by Iranian actress Golshifteh Farahani). And while it unfolds like a slam-bang espionage thriller, it's still about the war on terror, a subject that's been toxic at the box-office for more than a year.

DiCaprio says they tried to avoid mistakes made in Rendition, In the Valley of Elah, the just-released flop The Lucky Ones and numerous other films.

"What interested me about this the second I read it was that it didn't take a political road," DiCaprio says about the script, which was adapted from David Ignatius's novel by screenwriter William Monahan. "It didn't tell the audience what to think, or have an agenda. And we tried to check our agendas and attitudes about this war at the door while making this movie. We didn't just try to make an entertaining movie, though, but one with themes that are very prevalent on people's minds."

That required some discipline from DiCaprio, who has lots of political views. Though he's not overtly backing a candidate in the current U.S. presidential election, as he did John Kerry in 2004, he's often involved in progressive politics. And he's one of Hollywood's biggest green activists, having produced, written and narrated last year's environmental documentary The 11th Hour. He also makes a point to drive hybrid cars and fly on commercial airlines (hey, not every pro-Earth celebrity walks the walk).

So we asked DiCaprio how he thought the current economic crisis might affect the environment, what with the U.S. Congress permitting offshore oil drilling to start again and all. "To me, if we would have been investing in alternative energy resources like solar or wind power eight years ago, during this administration, then we would have the significant advantage of not being as reliant as we are on foreign oil and not be this deep in debt," he says. "It's an unfortunate occurrence, but hopefully the next administration will not just think in short-term solutions but long-term solutions for the country."

Next up: He reteams with Titanic co-star Kate Winslet at year's end in Revolutionary Road. But don't expect teenage girls to be swooning over this one. Directed by Winslet's husband Sam Mendes and adapted from the 1950s-set novel by Richard Yates, it sounds a lot more like Mendes's American Beauty than that other nineties Oscar-winner with the big boat.

"It's about the disintegration of a relationship," DiCaprio explains. "It's about the meltdown of two people who are trying desperately to stay in love and stay together but felt like they have lived their lives as clichés."

Something the actor, obviously, never wants to happen to him.