Leonardo DiCAPRIO didn't realize he was in over his head until it was too late. "I was constantly fueled with adrenaline," DiCaprio remembers of filming his new espionage thriller, "Body of Lies." "There were certainly moments of sheer anxiety."
He wasn't talking about the physical hardships he endured for director Ridley Scott's homage to such '70s political potboilers as "The Parallax View" and "Three Days of the Condor" -- although the 33-year-old Los Feliz native did endure plenty.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Monday, September 29, 2008 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 26 words Type of Material: Correction
"Body of Lies": An article in Sunday's Calendar section about actor Leonardo DiCaprio said that his film "Body of Lies" opens Friday. It opens Oct. 10.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Sunday, October 05, 2008 Home Edition Sunday Calendar Part E Page 2 Calendar Desk 1 inches; 28 words Type of Material: Correction
'Body of Lies': An article last Sunday about actor Leonardo DiCaprio said that his new film, "Body of Lies," was to open Oct. 3. It opens Oct. 10.
DiCaprio's character, undercover CIA operative Roger Ferris, is treated like a human pinata. He narrowly outruns terrorist bombs, gets torn up by shrapnel in a helicopter missile strike and attacked by a rabid dog while on a covert mission to take down a Middle Eastern terrorist cell. In addition, Ferris must navigate the treacherous shoals of his own government's convoluted agenda in the region, his progress undercut at every step by a ruthless agency station chief played by Russell Crowe.
Worse, in actuality, DiCaprio was stricken by a respiratory illness after filming a harrowing, emotionally exhausting torture sequence in an ancient Moroccan prison -- the actor's latest movie war wound; he sustained a minor knee injury while filming 2006's "Blood Diamond" in Mozambique. "If you're going to put something like that on film, we all had an understanding that it had to be as realistic and frightening as it could possibly be," DiCaprio said of the torture scene, while seated across from Scott on a leafy patio atop the director's West Hollywood production company complex.
Based on Washington Post political columnist David Ignatius' novel of the same name, "Body of Lies" makes the harshest appraisal of American foreign policy of any big-budget studio film produced during the second Bush administration. The movie posits that our country has lost its direction in the Middle East, portraying frontline operatives as working without strategy or the necessary willingness to cooperate with foreign governments to achieve peace. "We're waging war in a place we don't entirely understand," said DiCaprio, who consulted with a former head of the CIA in preparation for the role.
