Leonardo DiCaprio’s newest character sounds much less like an indestructible new motion film badass and extra like a bathrobe-adjacent bumbler. On the crimson carpet, the Oscar winner defined that his efficiency within the upcoming 2025 film launch leans on a really particular pop-culture north star: Jeff Bridges’ “The Dude” from one of many greatest motion pictures of the ‘90s, The Massive Lebowski. As a substitute of a bulletproof bruiser, the Titanic star and director Paul Thomas Anderson aimed for a man who’s perpetually off steadiness—bodily and emotionally—and that selection immediately makes One Battle After One other really feel completely different from the everyday fall motion showcase.
The feedback come through a video posted to Selection’s X account, which caught DiCaprio discussing how Anderson pushed him towards a looser, failure-forward power for the movie’s set items. Within the clip, you’ll be able to see him grin as he connects the dots between PTA’s sensibility and the Coen Brothers’ all-time slacker, which remains to be resonating after greater than 25 years. Then he spells it out:
Nicely, , my character’s additionally a dude that sits dwelling and smokes pot on a regular basis, what I imply? So it was nice to have that ease of incorporating that into the character and never having to leap and land the stunt. It’s a collection of failures. I took lots of inspiration from the Dude.
That “collection of failures” line is intriguing, for certain. Anderson has lengthy beloved watching shiny film stars transfer like actual individuals. So moderately than stage invincible showdowns, One Battle After One other seems to construct stress round near-misses and wipeouts. It’s comedy and character baked into the motion, which tracks with PTA’s filmmaking candy spots. DiCaprio additionally owned as much as simply how bodily that method turned:
Oh hell yeah [I was sore]. We did lots of loopy stuff on this film. However, , that’s the distinction of what Paul does that’s completely different from all the things else. He desires to see the Dude fall… I fell. [Laughs]
It is a cool shift for the Wolf of Wall Avenue performer. During the last ten years or so, he’s principally gone for these huge, dramatic roles. However a few of his greatest movies let him play smaller, extra relatable characters. With Anderson’s distinctive type and humorousness, I believe audiences can anticipate one thing actually completely different.
One Battle After One other is about to inform the story of Bob (DiCaprio), a washed-up revolutionary marooned in stoned paranoia, who lives off-grid along with his fiercely self-reliant daughter, Willa. When his outdated nemesis resurfaces and Willa disappears, Bob lurches again into the world he tried to flee, stumbling by way of a determined search that forces each father and daughter to face the wreckage of their previous decisions. It is a free book-to-screen adaptation of Thomas Pynchon’s Vineland, and is the second Pynchon novel PTA has tailored after Inherent Vice (2014).
Invoking The Massive Lebowski is a intelligent selection. The movie’s scenes focus much less on good choreography and extra on tone—particularly, how a personality’s perspective interacts with the world round them. If Paul Thomas Anderson’s newest film takes an analogous method, we are able to anticipate moments crammed with chaotic cause-and-effect. This makes good sense, as Anderson’s greatest motion pictures usually revolve round this idea.
Audiences can catch Leonardo DiCaprio calling on “The Dude’s” essence when One Battle After One other lands in theaters on September twenty sixth.