When I was in high school, my theatre teacher would bash his acting abilities all the time. I always found that appalling. I know a bad actor when I see one, and Leonardo in my opinion, definitely isn't one of them. He's one of my favorite actors. I think my theatre teacher was trippin.
shareIMO the guy is just never bad. and often great. Wolf of wall street, Django unchained, the revenant. the guy just always delivers and is always good to amazing
shareHe doesn't have a wide acting range, despite acting in a somewhat wide range of different roles. What he does well is he brings his charisma, his presence, and his debonair to every role. I don't think he could ever portray, say, a drug-addicted homeless loser in a supporting role
He doesn't do character work because he was anointed as a movie star since he was very young and when all you do is high-profile lead roles you won't get much of an opportunity to expand your chops. Guys like Daniel Day-Lewis had the "fortune" of not being megastars, so they could be more experimental in lower-profile roles
He has natural talent, that's for sure. But he's always had to balance his acting with his stardom. Very few other movie megastars have walked that line. Maybe Tom Hanks. Maybe Clint Eastwood. Not that their "types" are anything like DiCaprio's though. The only person who I can compare him to is maybe James Dean, except Dean died so young that we never got to see what he could have become as a veteran
Ultimately, my judgment is that your theatre teacher was a burnout who prematurely judged an actor without being able to place his career in its proper context
'Theatre Teacher' is code for failed actor who gets a lunch break and Summers off and doesn't do shit otherwise
If DiCaprio was a baseball player he'd make Ty Cobb a bit nervous about his performances
He has a particular style that he was taught. Matt Damon must have been taught the same way. Their performances in The Departed aren't that different, versus Mark Walburgh (s.p.?), who is much more natural in that movie.
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