Leonardo DiCapriomade quite an impression onRobert De Nirowhen their paths first crossed more than three decades ago.
De Niro, 80, was already a two-time Oscar winner when he went to work on the 1993 movieThis Boy’s Life, a coming of age story set in the 1950s and based on Tobias Wolff’s 1989 memoir of the same name.
DiCaprio, 49, who then was best known for his role on the ABC sitcomGrowing Pains, came in to read for a role, but not the lead part of Tobias that he eventually landed.
“I said to Art Linson, the producer, I said, ‘Art, that kid was really, it was interesting.’ I didn’t push it. I just said, ‘That kid had something special,’ and then they turned around and wound up using Leo,” De Niro says in the new issue of PEOPLE.
Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio in 1993.Eric Weiss/WWD/Penske Media via Getty
Eric Weiss/WWD/Penske Media via Getty
Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE’s free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
In the film, DiCaprio plays the 15-year-old Tobias, whose single mother Caroline (Ellen Barkin) whisks them away to Washington state and gets involved with Dwight Hansen (De Niro), a man who offers the family some stability.
Three years afterThis Boy’s Lifewas released, De Niro and DiCaprio both appeared in the 1996 dramaMarvin’s Roomwith Diane Keaton and Meryl Streep.
Their third and latest film,Killers of the Flower Moon, tells the heartbreaking true story of the Osage Reign of Terror. In 1920s Oklahoma, a seemingly-benevolent White man named William Hale (De Niro) orchestrates the murders of many Indigenous people in order to steal their land, which is rich with oil deposits.
Robert De Niro, Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio in 2010.Steve Granitz/WireImage
Steve Granitz/WireImage
DiCaprio plays Hale’s simple-minded nephew Ernest, who marries Mollie (Lily Gladstone) an Osage woman. Hale, of course, has Mollie in his crosshairs.
Asked where Hale ranks on the spectrum of all the bad guys he’s played in his career, De Niro says he’s up there.
“He’s pretty bad. But again, it’s what’s called the banality of evil, and the way I interpret that is that…these evil things that he does, he doesn’t think are evil. So it’s one of the most insidious, I guess, characters,” he says.
“[He’s] a pillar of the community, and then doing these other underhanded things,” he continues. “It’s baffling to me because I don’t understand it.”
Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio in ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’.Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures
Killers of the Flower Moonisnominated for 10 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director (forMartin Scorsese), Best Actress (for Gladstone) and Best Supporting Actor (for De Niro).
De Niro’s latest nod is his eighth acting Oscar nomination (he has one more for producing Best Picture nomineeThe Irishman), putting him in elite company with just 17 performers in all of Hollywood history who have eight or more acting nominations.
For more on Robert De Niro, pick up the new issue ofPEOPLE.
source: people.com
