He’s been on the big screen since the early 1990s, playing the roles that range from an intellectually challenged boy to a pauper, a pilot, Romeo, Gatsby, and an undercover cop, to name a few.
He got his first Oscar nomination at the age of 19 for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his portrayal of a mentally challenged boy in the 1993 film “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape.” He received three more nominations after that, but he hasn’t yet won an Oscar.
DiCaprio started out in the business at the age of 13, had no formal training in theater or film, and learned acting on the job. In a recent interview on CBS, he said it’s been his goal to focus on his career.
“It’s an honor to be able to be a working actor, period. I’m not going to squander this opportunity,” he said.
To date, DiCaprio played lead roles in Oscar-winning movies like “Django Unchained,” “Inception,” and “Titanic” and garnered nomination for lead roles in “The Aviator” and “Blood Diamond.” But as he’s entering his 40s this year, DiCaprio is still a name on the nominee list.
Many talented people have received numerous nominations before finally landing the golden statue. Film composer Victor Young was nominated 21 times before he received his first and only Oscar, posthumously, in 1957.
This March, DiCaprio will walk into the Hollywood Dolby Theatre with his fourth and fifth Oscar nominations, both for “The Wolf of Wall Street,” which DiCaprio starred in and helped produce.
Fans of the star and entertainment buffs have started to question the matter, as websites sprouted posts and discussions about how DiCaprio is getting left out. All kinds of memes and posts and GIFs about him with a “photoshopped” Oscar have circulated the social media sphere, all in hopes that DiCaprio will finally be called up onto the stage.
Some fans got excited when, shooting the factory where the statuettes get made, CNN showed the Oscar nameplate for DiCaprio as the best actor. Never mind that the Academy creates nameplates for all nominees and recycles the unused ones after the big night.
‘The Wolf of Wall Street’
DiCaprio already picked up a Golden Globe for his role as lead actor in the “The Wolf of Wall Street” earlier this January. He was going up against Oscar Isaac, Joaquin Phoenix, Bruce Dern, and Christian Bale, three of whom are also his contenders for the same Oscar.
The idea for “The Wolf of Wall Street” came from DiCaprio, who became interested in the story after he read the memoir of Wall Street banker Jordan Belfort. DiCaprio started pursuing director Martin Scorsese over the years with the idea for the film, he said during his acceptance speech at the recent Golden Globes Awards.
“I waited until I got the right financing, the right people that would allow us to make the movie that we wanted to make,” DiCaprio said in the same CBS interview.
But it wasn’t until the stars aligned that the Oscar-winning director picked up the script and set out to direct the film.
This was the fifth collaboration between DiCaprio and Scorsese. Their relationship dates back to 2002, when DiCaprio starred in “Gangs of New York.”
This award season, “The Wolf of Wall Street” raked in five Oscar nominations, including best leading actor, best supporting actor, best directing, best writing, and Motion Picture of the Year.
“On this picture, it’s the role of a lifetime, really. And he’s just taken it to another level,” Scorsese said in the same interview about DiCaprio’s performance in “The Wolf of Wall Street.”
We shall see if the Academy shares Scorsese’s high estimation. The 2014 Oscars will air on ABC on March 2, at 7 p.m., EST.
