Leonardo DiCaprio thinks his new satirical thriller, which has attracted rave first reactions, eerily holds up a mirror to today’s society ‘where no one gets along’ despite first being written years ago.
The Oscar winner, 50, plays an oft-stoned, washed-up revolutionary living off-grid (and mostly in a dressing gown) in Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest film, One Battle After Another.
But DiCaprio’s Bob is pushed into reuniting with his former colleagues to try and save his spirited but self-reliant daughter (Chase Infiniti) when his arch nemesis (Sean Penn) resurfaces and she goes missing.
‘It deals with extremism on both sides and the polarity of the world that we live in where no one can seem to communicate or get along,’ the star told Metro and other press on the red carpet of the film’s UK premiere in London’s Leicester Square on Tuesday night.
‘But the undercurrent of these characters – not to say there’s a message, but I think Paul creates very flawed human characters that are trying to find the humanity in all of this,’ he continued.
‘I mean, this is a political thriller, but I don’t think he’s imposing his ideology on the audience – he’s holding up a mirror to who we are. And he wrote this 20 years ago, which is absolutely fascinating that it’s coming out at this particular time in our world’s history.’
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DiCaprio teams up with Benicio del Toro as Sergio, Bob’s former colleague, for an onscreen double act that exudes chemistry and chaos in their first movie together.
‘I’ve admired and respected Leo’s career for [years],’ del Toro told Metro of working together with him.
‘We’re both almost from the same class, meaning we both came up at the same time in the movie industry, so having a chance to work with him… Also, the fact that he approaches the work very much like I do, made it easy to trust [him] – the respect was there – but the trust.
‘I know it’s a cliché, but you’re only as good as the actor in front of you. And that’s a fact!’
And del Toro was unsurprisingly delighted for it to be an actor of the calibre of seven-time Academy Award nominee DiCaprio stood opposite him in most scenes.
The esteemed Anderson was also at the helm of this film, which some critics are already predicting will win him his first best picture Oscar after past nominations with There Will Be Blood, Phantom Thread and Licorice Pizza, all of which also bagged him best director nominations too.
But he’s yet to land one of the most coveted gongs in Hollywood after 11 total previous nods – until now, perhaps.
Infiniti, making her film debut as DiCaprio’s character’s daughter Willa, certainly knows her luck for landing in the cast of One Battle After Another too, describing it as ‘a treat and such a rare thing’.
‘I felt so grateful for that opportunity,’ she added of remembering how she felt on her first day on set.
In the film, Teyana Taylor plays her mother, the gloriously named Perfidia Beverly Hills, who is memorably seen in One Battle After Another’s trailer resting a massive rifle on her pregnant belly as she fires off several rounds and compares herself to Al Pacino’s murderous kingpin Tony Montana in Scarface.
‘What I enjoyed the most was playing this character that was unapologetically herself, who was unapologetically a badass, she didn’t care about what anybody felt about her – and I respect that!’ Taylor told Metro of Perfidia.
The 34-year-old actress’s boyfriend Aaron Pierre was also at the premiere in support of the film, alongside Anderson’s wife, Bridesmaids star Maya Rudolph, model Naomi Campbell, actor Joel Edgerton, singer Sam Ryder, Sabrina Elba and British Vogue’s former editor-in-chief Edward Enninful.
Critics have so far praised the film as an ‘engrossing opus’ and for its ‘masterful filmmaking’, calling it ‘one cinematic delight after another’ that adds up to ‘the best film of the year’.
One Battle After Another is out in UK and US cinemas on Friday, September 26.
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