Leonardo DiCaprio Interview

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Leonardo DiCaprio

'Inception' is all about dreams. Have you ever been fascinated by your own?
Leonardo DiCaprio: It was interesting being a part of this film because I'm not a big dreamer and never have been; I remember fragments of my dreams. I tried to take a traditional approach to researching this project and doing preparation for it. I read books on dream analysis, Freud's book on the analysis of dreams, and tried to research it in that sort of formula. But I realise that this is Chris Nolan's [director] dream world. It has its own structure and its own set of rules that's he's created.

What did you love about your character, Dom Cobb?
LDC: For me it was a matter of sitting down with Chris and being able to really form the backbone of a character that had a real, cathartic journey. And at the end of the day, these different layers of the dream do represent a psychoanalysis - him getting deeper and closer to the truth and what he needs to understand about himself.

It was a matter of sitting down with Chris and being able to really form the backbone of a character that had a real, cathartic journey. So, as we were talking more and more about the character, it all became more and more exciting and I think all of us felt like this was a journey that we had to be a part of.

In shooting 'Inception', were there ever any moments where it was so complex and involved for the actors that you became disoriented and had to regroup to find out where your characters were?
LDC: What was very interesting for me was reading the original screenplay and, obviously, this story structure was extremely ambitious. What Chris talked about very early on with us was being able to go to these six different locations around the world, and it was startling to see the screenplay in a visual format. That's the magic of movie-making. You clearly identify one scenario with the other and each [dream state in the film] is a completely different experience.

What were the toughest action sequences for you?
LDC: I think the sequence in Morocco was pretty tough because I had to run through a crowd of people and I felt like a pinball because I was bouncing from Moroccan to Moroccan and falling into various vending machines. That was a little bit tough, but at the end of the day you'd be surprised. We pulled off a lot of stuff in a day's work that was pretty spectacular. It was a very professional team that took care of us.

In terms of acting, when you're playing a character in an imaginary world, how does that change the rules of acting?
LDC: If there's something you need to be aware of or do different, I would say absolutely not and that's what was exciting about even attempting it.

This is my first science fiction film. One of the earliest conversations I had with Chris was about how both of us have a hard time with science fiction. We have a little bit of an aversion to it because it's hard for us to emotionally invest in worlds that are too far detached from what we know.

But emotionally, as far as a character's journey, I took everything as if it was entirely real. You have to; otherwise, you're not invested in the character and not invested in the character's journey. You're not going to make it believable to an audience. Everything is real, in essence.

Dom Cobb is another character that's very chameleon-like, who has a lot of secrets, a lot of mysteries. Are those the kind of roles that you're naturally attracted to?
LDC: I don't really question when I read a script. If I feel like I could be of service to that role, if I feel like it emotionally engages me, it's something that interests me and, obviously, if the director is somebody that has the capacity to pull off the ambitious nature of whatever they're trying to do in the screenplay, I never question that. So, I guess a lot of my films have been more serious in tone, but that's something that I don't try to deny.

Look, I'm a very fortunate person. I get to choose the movies that I want to do. I've a lot of friends in this industry that don't get to do that.

'Inception' is in cinemas now.