Leonardo DiCaprio has collaborated with some of the most acclaimed filmmakers of the modern era — and that’s not by coincidence.
The star — who is teaming up with Paul Thomas Anderson for the first time as the lead of thriller One Battle After Another — told The Hollywood Reporter at the film’s Los Angeles premiere on Monday that he credits working with top directors to “luck, and I guess the perseverance of just letting them know that you want to work with them, some day when the time is right.
“That’s what I’ve been doing; that’s how I met Marty [Scorsese] when I was young, I just let him know that if he’s ready, I’m ready,” DiCaprio continued. “I really love film as an art form; I love watching old movies, I’m a cinephile, and it’s like those rare films rise to the top. There’s certain filmmakers that have a multitude of those films — Paul is one of them, Quentin [Tarantino] is one of them, Marty’s one of them. So I just let them know I’m ready and I’m game if they are.”
Working with Anderson has been decades in the making, after DiCaprio famously turned down 1997’s Boogie Nights because he was already signed on to star in Titanic. The actor recently called passing on the film his “biggest regret,” but almost 30 years later the two finally got around to collaborating.
“Any time that he asks, you work with P.T.A. This guy is like one of the great visionary filmmakers of my generation,” DiCaprio raved. “His films, I’m still intrigued by to this day; I still talk about The Master, Boogie Nights, There Will Be Blood, Magnolia — these films that are going to last for generations to come so you jump at an opportunity to work with Paul.”
One Battle After Another follows DiCaprio as a washed-up revolutionary living off the grid who must spring into action when his daughter goes missing, with the help of his fellow former radicals. It’s an adaptation of Thomas Pynchon’s anarchic 1990 novel Vineland and also stars Sean Penn, Benicio Del Toro, Regina Hall, Teyana Taylor and Chase Infiniti.
Hall — who is also neighbors with Anderson — said getting a call from the filmmaker, “was a dream, he’s one of my favorite directors. It’s nice enough when you’re a big fan of someone and you meet them and they’re nice, that’s already a win. But then to be able to actually experience his process, work with him and be a part of something that’s a part of his legacy is wonderful.”
One Battle After Another hits theaters Sept. 26.
Ryan Fish contributed to this report.