Martin Scorsese collaborator Paul Schrader shares his controversial opinion about Leonardo DiCaprio’s acting in Killers of the Flower Moon. DiCaprio is receiving Oscar buzz for his performance as Ernest Burkhart in Scorsese’s acclaimed epic, an adaptation of David Grann’s book about real-life murders in Osage country in the 1920s. In the film, DiCaprio’s seemingly dull-witted WWI veteran marries an Osage woman named Mollie (Lily Gladstone) as part of his uncle William Hale’s (Robert De Niro) plot to gain the rights to rich oil land owned by the Osage Nation, but viewers are left with ambiguous feelings about Ernest and Mollie’s relationship, which seems founded on real love despite Ernest’s evil motives.
Critically lauded as DiCaprio’s Killers of the Flower Moon performance may be, long-time Scorsese collaborator Schrader found the actor’s work excruciating to endure, thanks both to the movie’s epic length and the nature of DiCaprio’s character. Speaking to France’s Le Monde, Schrader first praised Scorsese, before admitting his reservations about the casting of DiCaprio as Burkhart. Check out what he said below (via Variety):
“Marty compares me to a Flemish miniaturist. He would be more the type who paints Renaissance frescoes. Give him $200 million, a good film will inevitably come out of it. That said, I would have preferred Leonardo DiCaprio to play the role of the cop in ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ rather than the role of the idiot. Spending three-and-a-half hours in the company of an idiot is a long time.”
Why DiCaprio Switched Roles With Jesse Plemons In Killers of the Flower Moon
The role of FBI agent Tom White, a key figure in Grann’s original book, was played in Scorsese’s film by Jesse Plemons, but the original plan was for DiCaprio to play that role and not the morally ambiguous Ernest. However, when the original Killers of the Flower Moon script was re-written to focus more on the Osage people and less on the FBI investigation of the crimes against them, DiCaprio elected to switch roles, finding the relationship between Ernest and Mollie fascinating. As the star told British Vogue back in September:
“It just didn’t feel like it got to the heart of it. We weren’t immersed in the Osage story. There was this tiny, small scene between Mollie and Ernest that provoked such emotion in us at the reading, and we just started to penetrate into what that relationship was, because it was so twisted and bizarre and unlike anything I’ve ever experienced before.”
It’s hard to argue with DiCaprio’s decision to switch roles, given all the acclaim his performance as Ernest has received (notwithstanding the annoyance DiCaprio’s Method acting reportedly caused De Niro and Scorsese). Schrader, however, does argue with the decision, believing that the film’s focus was shifted too much onto DiCaprio, a character whose odd mannerisms and apparent slow-wittedness were too much for Schrader to take over a 3 ½ hour span. The Oscars may have the last say on DiCaprio’s Killers of the Flower Moon performance, as the actor is a favorite to be nominated for Best Actor.
Killers of the Flower Moon
Killers of the Flower Moon is the next film from director Martin Scorsese, based on the non-fiction book Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI, initially captured by David Grann. When members of the Osage tribe are murdered in the 1920s via mysterious circumstances shortly after the discovery of oil on Native-American soil, the FBI is established to uncover the true reason behind them.
- Director
- Martin Scorsese
- Cast
- Leonardo DiCaprio , Louis Cancelmi , Jillian Dion , Scott Shepherd , Jesse Plemons , JaNae Collins , Robert De Niro , Jason Isbell , Cara Jade Myers , Lily Gladstone
- Runtime
- 200minutes
- Genres
- History , Drama , Crime
- Writers
- Eric Roth , Martin Scorsese
- Budget
- $200 million
- Studio(s)
- Paramount Pictures
- Distributor(s)
- Apple , Paramount Pictures
