The legendary director Leonardo DiCaprio fully expected to dislike

(Credits: Far Out / The Weinstein Company / YouTube Still)

In some ways, Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg represent two sides of the American film industry – stories known for their bittersweet pangs of nostalgia and ode to simpler times and those that show the gritty underbelly of people on the fringes of society and the harsh reality of modern life.

The pair have always co-existed on both sides of the same coin, continuously building on their catalogue of films and collaborating with some of the best and brightest actors alive today. However, there is one actor who was lucky enough to work with both directors, but he wasn’t quite sure if he liked one of the directors at first. 

After decades in the film industry, Leonardo DiCaprio is the kind of actor who needs no introduction, whipping global audiences into a frenzy through his boyish charm in Titanic and sleek machismo in Inception. There are few actors who have had such a long string of hits, collecting a number of iconic projects under their belt that have made them inseparable from the cinematic landscape. Working with directors like Martin Scorsese, Sam Mendes, Quentin Tarantino and James Cameron, DiCaprio has built creative partnerships that have lasted the length of his career. However, the actor only worked with Steven Spielberg on one film, saying that he was initially unconvinced as to whether he would like the director. 

DiCaprio had heard rumours that Spielberg was “difficult and power-trippy”, and when preparing for his role in Catch Me If You Can alongside Tom Hanks, the actor had expected to dislike the director. The film follows the drawn-out chase between a con artist and an FBI agent, with a lengthy pursuit as one, evades capture and the other is determined to put him behind bars. It marked the only collaboration of DiCaprio’s with Spielberg, however, the actor has only spoken highly of the director since the production.

The movie stands out within his work given the fact that he didn’t work with DiCaprio again, with the director frequently collaborating with the likes of Harrison Ford and Tom Hanks. Given the fact that the project was also pivotal in DiCaprio’s early career, marking a significant era in which he began to star alongside heavy-weight actors and establish himself as a serious performer, it’s interesting that the pair have not since worked together.  

However, many other actors have had one-off collaborations with Spielberg, such as Robin Williams, Julia Roberts, Tom Cruise, and Ralph Fiennes. Julia Roberts was also famously rumoured to have disliked Spielberg, with the actor being nicknamed ‘Tinker Hell’ after the disagreements that occurred between her and the director on the set of Hook. That said, there are many speculations as to why the production was so tumultuous, and perhaps it wasn’t at all personal. 

Spielberg is allegedly working on a new film titled The Dish that is set to be released during the spring of 2026. While the details of the cast and plot are being kept under wraps, maybe we can hope for a reunion between Leonardo DiCaprio and the director.

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