3) What’s Eating Gilbert Grape
DiCaprio was just 19 when he received his first Oscar nomination for What’s Eating Gilbert Grape. This was before Romeo + Juliet and Titanic made him one of the biggest names on the planet. It’s hard to imagine him taking on a role like his one in Gilbert Grape now: it’s a part that totally eschews vanity and asks the actor to take an enormous risk.
We should be thankful we have this one at all, then, as DiCaprio’s performance as Arnie Grape is one of the defining cinematic portrayals of developmental disability.
It’s difficult to believe DiCaprio spent only “a few days” in the company of mentally handicapped teens as research: Arnie’s screeches of excitement, outbursts and involuntary hoots and hollers seem absolutely genuine, in a way that DiCaprio never makes patronizing or offensive.