“We always lost to this one guy”: That’s how hard it was for Joaquin Phoenix to stand up for himself against Leonardo DiCaprio

It is certainly not easy to assert yourself as an actor in Hollywood: even if you already have a number of top projects in your portfolio, you have to assert yourself for each role against a large number of competitors – including many superstar Oscar winners who have already been in the disadvantage.

Since his Academy Award win for ‘Joker’ (2019), Joaquin Phoenix has become one of the few actors who can actually choose his role – and who is being courted by the most renowned filmmakers instead of laboriously moving from casting to drag. The 49-year-old was last seen in theaters as “Napoleon” under the direction of Ridley Scott; the sequel to “Joker” is expected to hit theaters on October 4, 2024.

But that wasn’t always the case, as Phoenix himself admitted. In the past, he too had to have coveted roles snatched from under his nose – usually by a colleague who went on to become one of Hollywood’s biggest stars at a very young age. and who, even decades later, is still one of the absolute top performers. Of course we’re talking about Leonardo DiCaprio!

Joaquin Phoenix on Leonardo DiCaprio: “No actor would ever say his name”

During his acceptance speech at the 26th SAG Awards (where he also won for “Joker”), Phoenix talked about how he – and many of his colleagues – had to back down more than once when confronted by the “Titanic” actor and later Oscar winner. winner (“The Revenant”) had to compete (through ).

“When I first started acting and going to auditions, I would always show up until the last deadline, and I think a lot of people know what that’s like,” the ‘Gladiator’ star said. “There were always two other guys I was competing against. And we always lost to that one guy. No actor would ever say his name because it would be too much, but every casting director would whisper his name, “It’s Leonardo, it’s Leonardo!”

In fact, the 49-year-old was considered hugely influential in the industry early on, with even Christian Bale only getting his iconic role in American Psycho because DiCaprio turned it down. Although Phoenix has long been able to step out of the shadow of her colleague of the same age, the two stars have never appeared in front of the camera together.