Warning: SPOILERS for Do not look up is ahead!
The end of 2021 brought us some serious buzz in terms of movies, both in the movies and in the world of streaming. Spider-Man: No Way Home May have crumpled it at the checkout, but the all-star cast of screenwriter / director Adam McKay’s Do not look up made some serious numbers on Netflix. Do not look up he had little comic gold throughout the film, but it was also home to some insightful moments. It turns out that the last line of the film was obviously almost cut, and fortunately the protagonist Leonardo DiCaprio created the line and pushed to keep it in the film.
In an interview with Knowledgeable, Adam McKay was asked to collaborate on the script with so many big names and it seems that Leonardo DiCaprio had some influence on the script and views on the creative direction of the film, ESPECIALLY its end Do not look up. McKay said that due to DiCaprio’s involvement, even the last series of the film was shot. Define in his own words:
I’m going to give him a huge amount of credit: Believe it or not, this line at the end of the movie where he says, “We really had it all,” was not in the script. He came with this the day we were returning.
It is safe to say that Leonardo DiCaprio has an abundant experience in cinema and has presented some very hard lines in his 30+ years in front of the camera. Not only is he a big name in Hollywood, but he takes his job very seriously as well has taken some creative freedom with well-known directors in the past. This heavy involvement in the portrayal and development of his characters can be one of the keys to how amazingly consistent he is and how he has become such a special actor.
In fact, he obviously had the idea for his final Do not look up The line was only the beginning of how far he would go in his creative direction. In the same interview, Adam McKay revealed that Leonardo DiCaprio was quite persistent that the line was not cut from the film as it almost was. See how McKay explained it:
And Leo was there and he said, ‘Shouldn’t you try this line? “It was really possible when we did.” I was afraid to use it and we put it on just before a test and it just landed. So I thanked Leo for pushing me into it. This is really the line of the movie.
While Leonardo DiCaprio has no authorial value Do not look up, it seems that he definitely put some work that went through his role as an actor. His ability to know which lines will work and where they should go makes me wonder how much creativity he had in some of his previous works, even though he is considered mainly an actor or producer in works.
You can see Leonardo DiCaprio’s interpretation at Do not look up, starring Jennifer Lawrence, Jonah Hill and Meryl Streep (among others), streaming on Netflix. DiCaprio’s next film appearance will be with Martin Scorsese Killers of the Flower Moon, is going to be released sometime this year.
