Leonardo DiCaprio

DiCaprio made his film debut later that year as the stepson of an unscrupulous landlord in the low-budget horror sequel Critters 3 – a part he later described as "your average, no-depth, standard kid with blond hair".[34] DiCaprio has stated that he prefers not to remember Critters 3, viewing it as "possibly one of the worst films of all time" and the kind of role he wanted to avoid in the future.[35] Later in 1991, he became a recurring cast member on the sitcom Growing Pains, playing Luke Brower, a homeless boy who is taken in by the show's central family.[36] Co-star Joanna Kerns recalls DiCaprio being "especially intelligent and disarming for his age" but she noted that he was also mischievous and jocular on set, and often made fun of his co-stars.[37] DiCaprio was cast by the producers to appeal to young female audience, but his arrival did not improve the show's ratings and he left before the end of its run.[38] He was nominated for a Young Artist Award for Best Young Actor Co-starring in a Television Series.[39] DiCaprio also had an uncredited role in 1991 in one episode of Roseanne.[40]

Lasse Hallström directed DiCaprio in What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993), for which he earned his first Academy Award nomination.

In 1992, DiCaprio had a brief role in the first installment of the Poison Ivy film series,[41] and was handpicked by Robert De Niro from a shortlist of 400 young actors to co-star with him in This Boy's Life. Adapted from the memoir by Tobias Wolff, the film focuses on the relationship between a rebellious teenager, Toby (DiCaprio), and his mother (Ellen Barkin) and abusive stepfather (De Niro).[23][42][43] Director Michael Caton-Jones said that DiCaprio did not know how to behave on set; accordingly, Caton-Jones used a strict mentoring style, after which DiCaprio's behavior began to improve.[37] Bilge Ebiri of Rolling Stone found that the powerful bond between Barkin and DiCaprio elevated the film, praising DiCaprio's portrayal of his character's complex growth from a rebellious teen to an independent young man.[41] This Boy's Life was the first film that gained him recognition.[44]

DiCaprio played the developmentally disabled brother of Johnny Depp's character in What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993), a comedy-drama about a dysfunctional Iowa family. Caton-Jones recommended DiCaprio to director Lasse Hallström, but he was initially skeptical, as he considered DiCaprio too good-looking for the part. Hallström cast DiCaprio after he emerged as "the most observant" auditionee.[34][37] To ensure authenticity in his portrayal, DiCaprio studied similarly impaired children and their mannerisms, and Hallström allowed him to create the character using his own researched attributes.[45] The film became a critical success.[46] At 19, DiCaprio earned a National Board of Review Award, as well as nominations for a Golden Globe Award and an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, making him the seventh-youngest Oscar nominee in the category.[47][48] "The film's real show-stopping turn comes from Mr. DiCaprio," wrote New York Times critic Janet Maslin, "who makes Arnie's many tics so startling and vivid that at first he is difficult to watch. The performance has a sharp, desperate intensity from beginning to end."[49] Caryn James, also writing for The New York Times, said of his performances in This Boy's Life and What's Eating Gilbert Grape: "He made the raw, emotional neediness of those boys completely natural and powerful."[50]

DiCaprio's first role of 1995 was in Sam Raimi's Western The Quick and the Dead. When Sony Pictures became dubious over DiCaprio's casting, co-star Sharon Stone paid his salary herself.[51] The film was released to dismal box office performance and mixed reviews from critics.[52][53] DiCaprio next starred as a teenage Jim Carroll, a drug-addicted high school basketball player and budding writer, in the biopic The Basketball Diaries.[54] He starred in the erotic drama Total Eclipse (1995), driven by the desire to showcase an exceptional performance, which would focus on his acting talent rather than his much-discussed physical appeal.[55] Directed by Agnieszka Holland, it is a fictionalized account of the same-sex relationship between Arthur Rimbaud (DiCaprio) and Paul Verlaine (David Thewlis). DiCaprio was cast when River Phoenix died before filming began.[10] Although the film failed commercially,[56] it has been included in the catalog of the Warner Archive Collection, which releases classic and cult films from Warner Bros.' library on home video.[57] A review in the San Francisco Chronicle called DiCaprio "his generation's great acting promise" but criticized the mismatch between Thewlis's "cultivated" British accent and DiCaprio's "Southern California twang".[58]

DiCaprio next starred opposite Claire Danes in Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet (1996), an abridged modernization of William Shakespeare's romantic tragedy, which retained the original Shakespearean dialogue. DiCaprio was initially unsure about another Romeo and Juliet adaptation, but at his father's suggestion, he agreed to examine Luhrmann's work more closely. DiCaprio and Luhrmann then spent a two-week workshop exchanging ideas, which led to the collaboration.[59] Romeo + Juliet established DiCaprio as a leading Hollywood actor; according to film scholar Murray Pomerance, DiCaprio's newfound popularity helped the film become profitable only days after its release.[60][61] Reviewing DiCaprio's early works, David Thomson of The Guardian called DiCaprio "a revelation" in What's Eating Gilbert Grape, "very moving" in This Boy's Life, "suitably desperate" in The Basketball Diaries and "a vital spark" in Romeo + Juliet.[62] The latter earned DiCaprio a Silver Bear for Best Actor at the 1997 Berlin International Film Festival.[63] He then portrayed a young man who has been committed to a mental asylum in Marvin's Room (1996), a family drama about two estranged sisters, played by Meryl Streep and Diane Keaton, who are reunited through tragedy. He played Hank, the troubled son of Streep's character.[64] Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly praised "the deeply gifted DiCaprio" for holding his own against veteran actresses Keaton and Streep, describing the three as "full-bodied and so powerfully affecting that you're carried along on the pleasure of being in the presence of their extraordinary talent".[65]

DiCaprio rejected a role in Boogie Nights (1997) to star opposite Kate Winslet in James Cameron's Titanic as members of different social classes who fall in love aboard RMS Titanic during its ill-fated maiden voyage.[66] DiCaprio initially had doubts, but was eventually encouraged by Cameron to pursue the part.[67] With a production budget of more than $200 million, including DiCaprio's $40 million salary,[68] the film was the most expensive in history at the time, and was shot at Rosarito, Baja California where a replica of the ship was created.[69] Titanic became the highest-grossing film at the time, eventually earning more than $2.1 billion in box-office receipts worldwide.[lower-alpha 1] The role of Jack Dawson transformed DiCaprio into a superstar, resulting in intense adoration among teenage girls and young women that became known as "Leo-mania".[72][73] The film won 11 Academy Awards—the most wins for any film – including Best Picture, but DiCaprio's failure to gain a nomination led to a protest against the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) by more than 200 fans.[74][75] He was nominated for other high-profile awards, including a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor.[76]

DiCaprio at a press conference for The Beach in 2000

DiCaprio stated in 2000: "I have no connection with me during that whole Titanic phenomenon and what my face became around the world [...] I'll never reach that state of popularity again, and I don't expect to [...] It's not something I'm going to try to achieve either."[77] In his 2015 Rolling Stone article, Ebiri called the role DiCaprio's best, writing that he and Winslet "infuse their earnest back-and-forth with so much genuine emotion that it's hard not to get swept up in their doomed love affair."[41] A writer for Vanity Fair in 2008 similarly labeled them "Hollywood's most iconic screen couple" since Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman.[78] Essaying her first viewing of the film in 2017, Vox contributor Alissa Wilkinson took note of DiCaprio's "boyish charm" and found his performance "natural and unaffected".[79] The success of Titanic intensified DiCaprio's standing as a teen idol and romantic lead, an image from which he sought to dissociate himself.[73] He reduced his workload "to learn to hear [his] own voice in choosing the roles" that he wanted to pursue.[80]

DiCaprio had a brief featured role in Woody Allen's 1998 satire of fame, Celebrity. Ebiri labeled DiCaprio "the best thing in the film".[41][81] That year, he also took on the dual roles of villainous King Louis XIV and his secret, sympathetic twin brother Philippe in Randall Wallace's The Man in the Iron Mask, with common elements from the 1939 film of the same name and a 1929 film with Douglas Fairbanks.[82] It received mixed to negative reviews,[83] but grossed $180 million against a budget of $35 million.[84][85] Entertainment Weekly critic Owen Gleiberman wrote that DiCaprio did not look old enough to play the part, but praised him as "a fluid and instinctive actor, with the face of a mischievous angel".[86] The Guardian's Alex von Tunzelmann was similarly impressed with the actor's performance but found his talent wasted in the film.[87] DiCaprio won a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Screen Couple for the dual roles in 1999.[88]

Also in 1998, DiCaprio was cast to star in American Psycho (2000) for a reported salary of $20 million; after disagreements with Oliver Stone on the film's direction, DiCaprio left the project, taking the lead role in The Beach instead.[89] Adapted from Alex Garland's 1996 novel, the film saw him play a backpacking American tourist who ends up in a secret island commune in the Gulf of Thailand.[90] Budgeted at $50 million, the film earned almost three times that at the box office,[91] but was negatively reviewed by critics, and earned him a nomination for the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actor.[92][93] Todd McCarthy of Variety thought DiCaprio gave a compelling performance but his character lacked defining qualities.[94] The film received criticism for damaging the filming location in Thailand, after which DiCaprio worked to restore the area.[95]

In the mid-1990s, DiCaprio agreed to be in the mostly improvised black-and-white short film Don's Plum as a favor to aspiring director R. D. Robb.[23] When Robb expanded it to a full-length film, DiCaprio and co-star Tobey Maguire had its release blocked in the US and Canada by court order, arguing they never intended to make a feature film. The film premiered at the 2001 Berlin International Film Festival but remains obscure.[96]

DiCaprio attending an event for Gangs of New York with Martin Scorsese and Cameron Diaz at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival

DiCaprio turned down the role of Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones (2002), feeling unprepared to "take that dive" at the time.[97] His first film that year was the biopic Catch Me If You Can, based on the life of Frank Abagnale Jr., who before his 19th birthday committed check fraud to make millions in the 1960s.[98] Directed by Steven Spielberg, the film was shot across 147 different locations in 52 days, making it "the most adventurous, super-charged movie-making" DiCaprio had experienced yet.[99] The film received critical acclaim and grossed $355 million against a budget of $52 million, becoming his second highest-grossing release after Titanic.[100][101] Roger Ebert praised his departure from dark and troubled characters,[98] and two Entertainment Weekly critics in 2018 called it DiCaprio's best role, labeling him "delightfully persuasive, deceptive, flirtatious, and sometimes tragic—and we dare you to find a better role, if you can".[102] DiCaprio received his third Golden Globe nomination for his performance in the film.[103]

Also in 2002, DiCaprio starred in Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York, a historical drama set in the mid-19th century in the Five Points district of New York City. Scorsese initially struggled selling his idea of realizing the film until DiCaprio became interested in starring in the film, and thus Miramax Films got involved with financing the project. Nonetheless, production on the film was plagued by overshooting of budgets and producer-director disagreements, resulting in an eight-month shoot. With a budget of $103 million, the film was the most expensive Scorsese had ever made. DiCaprio was drawn to playing Amsterdam Vallon, the young leader of an Irish-American street gang, as it marked a shift from "boyish" roles to a mature leading man.[104] Gangs of New York earned $193 million worldwide and received positive critical response.[105][106] Anne Thompson of The Observer took note of DiCaprio's "low-key, sturdy performance", but felt that co-star Daniel Day-Lewis overshadowed him.[107]

In 2004, DiCaprio founded the production company Appian Way Productions, a namesake of the Italian road.[108] He was interested in finding unique source material and preserving its essence during development, citing previous experiences where the involvement of too many people influenced the final product in a negative way.[109] DiCaprio first executive-produced The Assassination of Richard Nixon, which starred Sean Penn as Samuel Byck,[40] and was screened at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival.[110] DiCaprio and Scorsese reunited for a biopic of Howard Hughes, an American film director and aviation pioneer suffering from obsessive–compulsive disorder, in The Aviator (2004), which DiCaprio also co-produced under Appian Way. He initially developed the project with Michael Mann who was eventually replaced by Scorsese.[111][112] The Aviator became a critical and financial success, grossing $213 million against its budget of $110 million.[113][114] Simond Braund of Empire thought DiCaprio convincingly played a complex role and highlighted the scenes depicting Hughes's paranoia and obsession.[115] He received his first Golden Globe Award for Best Actor — Motion Picture Drama and nominations for an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award.[116]

In 2006, DiCaprio starred in the crime film The Departed and the political war thriller Blood Diamond. In Scorsese's The Departed, DiCaprio played the role of Billy Costigan, a state trooper working undercover in the Irish Mob in Boston, someone he characterizes as being in a "constant 24-hour panic attack". DiCaprio especially liked the experience of working with co-star Jack Nicholson, describing a scene with him as "one of the most memorable moments" of his life as an actor.[117] In preparation, he visited Boston to interact with people associated with the Irish Mob and gained 15 pounds (6.8 kg) of muscle.[118] Critically acclaimed,[119] the film grossed $291 million against a budget of $90 million, becoming DiCaprio and Scorsese's highest-grossing collaboration to that point.[120][101] Peter Travers of Rolling Stone praised DiCaprio's and co-star Matt Damon's performances as "explosive, emotionally complex", but felt that Nicholson overshadowed the two.[121] Despite DiCaprio's leading role in The Departed, the film's distributor Warner Bros. Pictures submitted his performance for a Best Supporting Actor nomination at the AMPAS to avoid internal conflict with his part in Blood Diamond.[122] Instead, his co-star Mark Wahlberg was nominated, though DiCaprio earned other accolades for The Departed, including a Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor and Best Actor nominations at the Golden Globes and BAFTA Awards.[123]

DiCaprio at the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival

In Blood Diamond, DiCaprio starred as a diamond smuggler from Rhodesia who is involved in the Sierra Leone Civil War. While filming, he worked with 24 orphaned children from the SOS Children's Village in Maputo, Mozambique, and said he was touched by his interactions with them.[124] To prepare, he spent six months in Africa, learned about camouflage from people in South African military and interviewed and recorded people in the country to improve his accent.[125] The film received generally favorable reviews,[126] and DiCaprio was noted for his South African accent, which is generally known as difficult to imitate.[127] Claudia Puig of the USA Today approvingly highlighted DiCaprio's transition from a boy to a man on screen,[128] and Ann Hornaday of The Washington Post similarly noted his growth as an actor since The Departed.[129] DiCaprio received nominations for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe for Blood Diamond.[123]

In 2007, DiCaprio produced the comedy drama Gardener of Eden, which according to The Hollywood Reporter's Frank Scheck "lack[ed] the necessary dramatic urgency or black humor to connect with audiences".[130] Later that year, he produced, co-wrote and narrated The 11th Hour, a documentary on the state of the natural environment that won the Earthwatch Environmental Film Award in 2008.[131] DiCaprio's Appian Way produced Planet Green's Greensburg (2008–2010), which ran for three seasons. Set in Greensburg, Kansas, it is about rebuilding the town in a sustainable way after being hit by the May 2007 EF5 tornado.[132] Also in 2008, DiCaprio starred in Body of Lies, a spy film based on the novel of the same name. He played one of three agents battling a terrorist organization in the Middle East.[133] Considering the film to be a throwback to political features of the 1970s like The Parallax View (1974) and Three Days of the Condor (1975), DiCaprio dyed his hair brown and wore brown contacts for the role.[133] The film received mixed reviews from critics,[134] and grossed $118 million against a budget of $67.5 million.[135]

Later in 2008, DiCaprio collaborated with Kate Winslet for the drama Revolutionary Road, directed by her then-husband Sam Mendes. As both actors had been reluctant to make romantic films similar to Titanic, it was Winslet who suggested that they both work with her on a film adaptation of the 1961 eponymous novel by Richard Yates. She found that the script, by Justin Haythe, had little in common with the 1997 blockbuster.[136] Playing a couple in a failing marriage in the 1950s, DiCaprio and Winslet spent some time together in preparation, and DiCaprio felt claustrophobic on the small set they used.[78][137] He saw his character as "unheroic", "slightly cowardly" and someone "willing to be just a product of his environment".[138] Peter Travers liked DiCaprio's pairing with Winslet and his multi-layered portrayal of an overwhelmed character,[139] and Marshall Sella of GQ called it the "most mature and memorable performance of his lifetime".[137] DiCaprio earned his seventh Golden Globes nomination for the film.[140] Revolutionary Road grossed $75.9 million against its budget of $35 million.[141] He ended the 2000s by producing director Jaume Collet-Serra's psychological horror thriller film Orphan (2009), starring Vera Farmiga, Peter Sarsgaard and Isabelle Fuhrman. Although the film received mixed reviews, it was a commercial success.[142]

DiCaprio continued to collaborate with Scorsese in the 2010 psychological thriller film Shutter Island, based on the 2003 novel of the same name by Dennis Lehane. He played Edward "Teddy" Daniels, a U.S. Marshal investigating a psychiatric facility located on an island, who comes to question his own sanity. DiCaprio and Scorsese became interested in the project in 2007, and the former co-produced the film under Appian Way with Phoenix Pictures.[143] Because of the film's disturbing scenes, DiCaprio had nightmares of mass murder during production and considered relaxing with his friends a form of therapy.[144] The film was released to mixed reviews;[145] Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian praised Scorsese's direction and the acting but criticized its twist ending.[146] Peter Travers called it DiCaprio's "most haunting and emotionally complex performance yet", and particularly liked his cave scene with co-star Patricia Clarkson.[147] The film was a commercial success, grossing $294 million worldwide against a budget of $80 million.[148]

DiCaprio (first from the right) with the cast of Inception at the film's premiere in 2010

DiCaprio's second role in 2010 was in Christopher Nolan's critically acclaimed ensemble science-fiction film Inception.[149] Inspired by the experience of lucid dreaming and dream incubation,[150] the film features Dom Cobb (DiCaprio), an "extractor" who enters the dreams of others to obtain information that is otherwise inaccessible. Cobb is promised a chance to regain his old life in exchange for planting an idea in a corporate target's mind.[151] DiCaprio was fascinated with the idea of a "dream-heist" and the potential for his character to manipulate his dreamworld and impact his real life.[152] Made on a budget of $160 million, the film grossed $836 million worldwide to become DiCaprio's second highest-grossing film.[101][153] To star in this film, DiCaprio agreed to a pay cut from his $20 million fee and opted for a share in first-dollar gross points, which entitled him to a percentage of the cinema ticket sales. The risk proved fruitful, as DiCaprio earned $50 million from the film, becoming his highest payday yet.[154]

DiCaprio starred as J. Edgar Hoover in Clint Eastwood's J. Edgar (2011). A biopic about Hoover, the film focuses on his career as an FBI director, including an examination of his private life as an alleged closeted homosexual.[155] Critics felt that the film lacked coherence overall but commended DiCaprio's performance.[156][157] Roger Ebert praised DiCaprio's ability to bring depth and nuance to the character, suggesting that his performance conveyed aspects of Hoover's personality that were possibly even unknown to the man himself.[158] Also in 2011, he produced Catherine Hardwicke's romantic horror film Red Riding Hood. Though it was named one of the ten worst films of 2011 by Time magazine,[159] it had moderate box-office returns.[160] Also that year, DiCaprio's Appian Way produced George Clooney's political drama The Ides of March, an adaptation of Beau Willimon's 2008 play Farragut North.[161]

In 2012, DiCaprio starred as plantation owner Calvin Candie in Quentin Tarantino's Spaghetti Western, Django Unchained. After reading the script, DiCaprio felt uncomfortable with the extent of racism portrayed in the film, but his co-stars and Tarantino convinced him not to sugarcoat it.[162] While filming, DiCaprio accidentally cut his hand on glass, but continued filming, and Tarantino elected to use the take in the final product.[163] The film received critical acclaim;[164] a writer for Wired magazine commended him for playing a villainous role and found his performance "blood-chilling".[165] The film earned DiCaprio a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.[166] Django Unchained grossed $425 million worldwide on a production budget of $100 million.[167]

In January 2013, DiCaprio said he would take a long break from acting to "fly around the world doing good for the environment".[168] That year, he had four releases as an actor and a producer. His first was in the role of millionaire Jay Gatsby in Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby, an adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 novel of the same name, co-starring Carey Mulligan and Tobey Maguire.[169] The film received mixed reviews from critics, but DiCaprio's performance was praised and earned him the AACTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role.[170][171] Critic Rafer Guzman of Newsday wrote that DiCaprio was not only "tough [...] but also vulnerable, touching, funny, a faker, a human. It's a tremendous, hard-won performance."[172] Matt Zoller Seitz of Roger Ebert's website described his performance as "the movie's greatest and simplest special effect," and "iconic—maybe his career best".[173] The film grossed $353 million worldwide, more than three times its budget.[174] Three films were produced by DiCaprio under Appian Way in 2013—the ensemble crime thriller Runner Runner, which The Guardian's Xan Brooks described as "a lazy, trashy film that barely goes through the motions";[175] the commercially failed thriller Out of the Furnace; and the black comedy-drama The Wolf of Wall Street.[176][177]

DiCaprio reunited with Scorsese for the fifth time in The Wolf of the Wall Street, a film based on the life of stockbroker Jordan Belfort (played by DiCaprio), who was arrested in the late 1990s for securities fraud and money laundering.[178][179] DiCaprio wanted to play Belfort ever since he had read his autobiography and won a bidding war with Warner Bros. against Brad Pitt and Paramount Pictures for the rights to Belfort's memoir in 2007.[180][181] He was fond of Belfort's honest and unapologetic portrayal of his actual experiences in the book, and was inspired by the financial crisis of 2007–2008 to make the film.[109] The Wolf of Wall Street received positive reviews for Scorsese's and DiCaprio's work together.[182] The Hollywood Reporter's Todd McCarthy lauded DiCaprio for fully realizing his character's potential with a carefree performance.[183] Jonathan Romney of Film Comment wrote that DiCaprio displays a great deal of comedic talent, excelling in "rubber-limbed slapstick" humor.[184] The film earned him the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy and nominations for a BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, as well as Academy Awards for Best Actor and Best Picture.[185][186]

DiCaprio was an executive producer on Virunga, a 2014 British documentary film about four people fighting to protect the world's last mountain gorillas from war and poaching.[187] The film premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in April 2014,[188] and DiCaprio was nominated for the 2015 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special.[189] Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret was another documentary film that year for which he was an executive producer—he took part in the new cut released exclusively on Netflix that September.[190] It explores the impact of animal agriculture on the environment.[191]

DiCaprio at the French premiere of The Revenant in 2016

In 2015, DiCaprio produced and played fur trapper Hugh Glass in Alejandro G. Iñárritu's survival drama The Revenant. DiCaprio found his role in the film difficult; he had to eat a raw slab of bison's liver and sleep in animal carcasses.[192][193] He also learned to shoot a musket, build a fire, speak two Native American languages (Pawnee and Arikara) and apply ancient healing techniques.[192] Built on a budget of $135 million, the film earned $533 million worldwide.[194] The film received positive reviews with particular praise for DiCaprio's acting.[195] Mark Kermode of The Guardian wrote that DiCaprio shone with a performance that prioritizes physicality over speech,[196] and Nick De Semlyen of Empire noted that he uplifted the film.[197] The film earned him numerous awards, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe, a BAFTA, a Screen Actors Guild Award and a Critic's Choice Award for Best Actor.[198][199][200] For the next three years, DiCaprio narrated documentaries and served as a producer for films. In 2016, he was an executive producer for The Ivory Game and Catching the Sun;[177] he also produced, hosted and narrated the documentary Before the Flood about climate change.[201] He produced the crime drama Live by Night (2016), which received unenthusiastic reviews and failed to recoup its $65 million production budget.[177][202] His next production ventures were in 2018—the psychological horror Delirium and the commercially failed action–adventure Robin Hood.[203][204]

After producing and narrating the 2019 global warming documentary Ice on Fire,[205] DiCaprio returned to acting following a four-year break in Quentin Tarantino's comedy-drama Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, which traces the relationship between Rick Dalton (DiCaprio), an aging television actor and his stuntman, Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt).[206] To help the film's financing, DiCaprio and Pitt agreed to take a pay cut, and they each received $10 million.[207] DiCaprio liked working with Pitt, and Tarantino described the pair as the most exciting since Robert Redford and Paul Newman.[208][209] DiCaprio was fascinated with the film's homage to Hollywood and focus on the friendship between his and Pitt's characters. He drew from real-life experience of witnessing the struggles and rejections of his actor friends in the industry.[209] The film premiered at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, where critics praised his and Pitt's performances.[210] A writer for Business Insider called it one of the best performances of DiCaprio's career,[211] and Ian Sandwell of Digital Spy particularly liked the duo's chemistry, believing their scenes together to be some of the film's strongest parts.[212] DiCaprio received nominations for an Oscar, a Golden Globe, a BAFTA Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actor.[213] The film earned $374 million against a budget of $90 million.[214]

In 2020, DiCaprio served as an executive producer for The Right Stuff, a television series adaption of the 1973 namesake book. After being in development at National Geographic, it was released on Disney+.[215] That May, DiCaprio briefly featured in the finale of the miniseries The Last Dance.[216] In 2021, DiCaprio appeared in Adam McKay's satirical comedy Don't Look Up. He spent five months changing the film's script with McKay before agreeing to the part.[217] Starring alongside Jennifer Lawrence as two astronomers attempting to warn humanity about an extinction-level comet, DiCaprio saw this film as an analogy of the world's indifference to the climate crisis. As a frequent supporter of environmentalism, DiCaprio said he has often looked to star in and make films tackling issues related to it, something he found hard due to people's inability to listen. He praised McKay for envisioning a project on how humans would react to a serious issue from a political, social and scientific standpoint.[218] While reviews for the film were mixed, most critics praised DiCaprio's and Lawrence's performances;[219] journalists from Digital Spy and NDTV lauded their pairing.[220][221] DiCaprio earned nominations for a Golden Globe and a BAFTA Award for the film.[222][223] It broke the record for the most views (152 million hours) in a single week in Netflix history.[224]

DiCaprio next starred in Scorsese's crime drama Killers of the Flower Moon (2023) based on the book of the same name by David Grann,[225] for which he was paid $30 million.[226] Initially signed for the heroic part of FBI agent Tom White, DiCaprio insisted on playing the morally complex role of Ernest Burkhart, the nephew of murderer William Hale, leading to extensive script rewrites.[227][228] Terming it the best performance of DiCaprio's career, IndieWire's David Ehrlich wrote that "his nuanced and uncompromising turn as the cretinous Ernest Burkhart mines new wonders from the actor's long-standing lack of vanity".[229]

An active celebrity in the climate change movement,[262] DiCaprio believes global warming is the world's "number-one environmental challenge".[263] Eager to learn about ecology from an early age, he would watch documentaries on rainforest depletion and the loss of species and habitats.[264] In 1998, he established the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, a non-profit organization devoted to promoting environmental awareness.[265] It supports organizations and campaigns committed to ensuring a viable future for planet Earth, and produced the short web documentaries Water Planet and Global Warning.[266] The foundation has also funded debt-for-nature swaps.[267] By 2018, the foundation had funded more than 200 projects, providing $100 million in support.[268] He has been an active supporter of numerous environmental organizations and sat on the board of the World Wildlife Fund and International Fund for Animal Welfare.[266][269]

DiCaprio has owned environment-friendly electric-hybrid vehicles.[270] His use of private jets and large yachts have been criticized as hypocritical due to their large carbon footprints.[271][272] DiCaprio chaired the national Earth Day celebration in 2000 where he interviewed Bill Clinton and they discussed plans to deal with global warming and the environment.[273] He presented at the 2007 American leg of Live Earth.[274] DiCaprio donated $1 million to the Wildlife Conservation Society at Russia's Tiger Summit. DiCaprio's persistence in reaching the event after encountering two plane delays caused then Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to describe him as a "muzhik" or "real man".[275][276] In 2013, he organized a benefit fine art auction, "11th Hour", which raised nearly $38.8 million for his foundation.[277] In September 2014, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon designated DiCaprio as a United Nations Messenger of Peace with a focus on climate change.[278][279] Later that month, he made an opening statement to members of the UN Climate Summit; his speech reached an estimated one billion people worldwide.[280][281] In 2015, he announced his intention to divest from fossil fuels.[282] He again spoke at the UN in April 2016 prior to the signing of the Paris Climate Change Agreement.[283]

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and DiCaprio at the Our Ocean Conference in 2016

At a 2016 meeting with Pope Francis, DiCaprio donated to charity and discussed environmental issues with him. A few days later, possibly influenced by this meeting, the Pope said he would act in a charity film.[lower-alpha 3] DiCaprio traveled to Indonesia in early 2016 where he criticized the government's palm oil industry's slash-and-burn forest clearing methods.[285] In July 2016, his foundation donated $15.6 million to help protect wildlife and the rights of Native Americans, along with mitigating climate change.[286] That October, DiCaprio joined Mark Ruffalo in support of the Standing Rock tribe's opposition to the Dakota Access Pipeline.[287]

In April 2017, DiCaprio protested against President Donald Trump's inaction on climate change by attending the People's Climate March.[288] In July, a charity auction and celebrity concert arranged by DiCaprio's foundation had raised over $30 million in one night.[289] The DiCaprio foundation donated $100 million in December 2018 to fight climate change.[290] In May 2021, DiCaprio pledged $43 million to enact conservation operations across the Galápagos Islands.[291]

DiCaprio endorsed Hillary Clinton for the 2016 presidential election.[292] In March 2020, DiCaprio attended a fundraiser for Joe Biden at the home of Paramount Pictures executive Sherry Lansing.[293] Prior to the 2020 election, DiCaprio narrated a Netflix documentary series about voting rights, stating, "All of us may have been created equal. But we'll never actually be equal until we all vote. So don't wait."[294] On social media, DiCaprio urged voters to make a plan to cast their ballots[295] and to draw attention to voter suppression[296] and restrictive voter ID laws, citing VoteRiders as a source of information and assistance.[297]

In 2023, DiCaprio testified during the trial against Prakazrel Michel, who is being accused of participating in a foreign influence campaign that was aimed at the Obama and Trump administrations.[298]

In 1998, DiCaprio and his mother donated $35,000 for a "Leonardo DiCaprio Computer Center" at a library in Los Feliz.[299] In May 2009, DiCaprio joined Kate Winslet, director James Cameron and Canadian singer Celine Dion, in a campaign to raise money to financially support the fees of the nursing home where Millvina Dean, a survivor of the RMS Titanic, was residing. DiCaprio and Winslet donated $20,000 to support Dean.[300] In 2010, he donated $1 million to relief efforts in Haiti after the earthquake.[301] In 2011, DiCaprio joined the Animal Legal Defense Fund's campaign to release Tony, a tiger that had spent the last decade at a truck stop in Grosse Tête, Louisiana.[302] DiCaprio donated $61,000 to the gay rights group GLAAD in 2013.[303]

In 2016, DiCaprio donated $65,000 to the annual fundraising gala for the Children of Armenia Fund, where he was a special guest of his friend and honorary chair, Tony Shafrazi.[304] Supporting Hurricane Harvey (2017) relief efforts, DiCaprio provided $1 million through his foundation.[305] In 2020, DiCaprio's foundation donated $3 million to Australia bushfire relief efforts.[306] Amidst the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the media announced DiCaprio donated $10 million to support Ukraine,[lower-alpha 4][308] although the news agency Associated Press suggested this amount was inaccurate.[307]