How you start is how it goes on... I know that if you start well it will go well, if you start badly it will go badly. That's why I have always thought that beginnings are always important.
There are many words of praise for Leonardo DiCaprio. I know he deserves most of them. He is just one of the actors who deserves to be where he is, but I am sure it was not easy to get to this stage.
When he thought that acting was the best way out of poverty, he was not wrong... but there were streams, mountains and hills to cross to prove it. First of all, he has to find a starting point and be supported by someone.
I think one of the starting points was the film This Boy's Life, released in 1993. Leonardo was on the same stage with Robert De Niro, whose acting he admired, and the film was completely focused on the character Toby. Toby was none other than Leonardo DiCaprio.
The role of being supported by someone was undertaken by his family. He left school at a young age to become an actor and received the full support of his family. In fact, these developments could have been the birth of a star as well as its disappearance. You are given a chance and it is entirely up to you to use it or not. Or a pistol with a single bullet is handed to you and you are asked to shoot accurately. Failure to make a hit is a big possibility, hitting a bullet is a low probability.
I don't remember watching Leonardo DiCaprio's previous films, so This Boy's Life is his birth film for me. There are definitely reasons why he is the lead in the film and his name is written ahead of Robert De Niro... but the biggest reason is that the names in the background trust him.
There are advantages and disadvantages of starring with a master like Robert De Niro at the beginning of the road. The advantage is that you can make your name known more easily, the disadvantage is that you can fall behind the master name and cause the focus to shift. Leonardo DiCaprio as Toby did not stay behind Robert De Niro throughout the film... and the focus was always on Toby.
Toby, a rebellious, lying and unpredictable boy who becomes a problematic child because of his mother's affairs, gets into trouble after his mother's marriage to Dwight. He has to deal with Robert De Niro, who plays the character of Dwight, because the stepfather does not treat Toby well.
At first, Toby does not object and tries to get along with Dwight because he wants his mother to be happy. But Dwight is troubled and arrogant. No matter what Toby does, Toby is always at fault in his eyes. Despite being a troubled child, Toby behaves with a maturity not expected from him and wants to complete school and win a scholarship as the only salvation.
Although watching Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro bickering and fighting throughout the film caused some nerves, I was always on Toby's side.
I think there are children who start life defeated from birth. Life is much more difficult for them. Leonardo DiCaprio with his character Toby made me remember this fact once again... and Toby hit the bull's eye with a single bullet from a pistol!
I wonder how many people who saw This Boy's Life in 1993 when it was released in the cinema the same year could see Leonardo DiCaprio today. How many people could have guessed that we would move from the rebellious and lying Toby character to new dimensions of love with Romeo + Juliet. Or he knew that we would swim in the oceans with the film Titanic. Did anyone know that with the film Inception, we will be a guest in dreams and go to the lower layers, creating a dream within a dream and watching an idea placed in the subconscious grow like a sapling? Who knew that we would fight a grizzly bear with the film The Revanant?
I think This Boy's Life is the beginning of all this and the success Leonardo DiCaprio will achieve in acting, which he sees as the easiest way to make money. I don't know who contributed to his journey and how, but as a cinema viewer, I know that Leonardo turns every opportunity given to him into success because I watch his films with great pleasure.