There is no shortage of variety in Leonardo DiCaprio’s filmography but when he signed up to play the role of FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, he left fans and critics in awe. The film faced a few setbacks before it was finally set in motion. Luckily, Leonardo DiCaprio was ready to slash his fee down by a whopping ninety percent.
The film’s producer, Dustin Graze, had to rope in the help of renowned director Clint Eastwood to get a green light for his film. Clint Eastwood always gives his hundred percent to his films, no matter what the project might be. J. Edgar was no exception to the rule either as it saw the filmmaker get his hands dirty in order to give Leonardo DiCaprio and co-star Armie Hammer a lesson in violence.
Clint Eastwood Becomes a Mentor for Leonardo DiCaprio and Armie Hammer
As Leonardo DiCaprio played the lead role in J. Edgar, he was joined by Armie Hammer, who played Clyde Tolson, J. Edgar Hoover’s longtime partner. The film featured a fight scene between the two after Tolson confessed his romantic feelings for Hoover and he lied about wanting to marry actress Dorothy Lamour.
In order to make the fight seem as realistic as ever, Clint Eastwood decided to become DiCaprio and Hammer’s tutor. Along with one of his friends, who was also the stunt-man on the film, Eastwood showed his actors exactly what he wanted from them.
In an interview for The Hollywood Reporter, Hammer recalled,
Clint was there with one of his stunt-guy friends, Buddy Van Horn, and they put on an impromptu fight scene for us. There’s Buddy standing in the middle of the room and Clint says, ‘I think it should be something like this’ — and he explodes into Clint Eastwood the fighter and they start smacking each other around and rolling on the floor. And then Clint just gets up and says, ‘OK, something like that.’
While it may be difficult to believe that the presentation of the brawl was spontaneous, it is important to note that this is Eastwood we are talking about. The man who would go to lengths to make sure his films are pitch perfect.
J. Edgar Was Almost Cancelled
Released in 2011, there was a time when the biographical drama almost didn’t make it out of the industry alive. Even though it was backed by producer Brian Grazer and had the script of phenomenal Oscar-winner, Dustin Lance Black, Universal did not want to go ahead with the film.
Grazer had to think of something and he had to think fast. In a “Eureka” moment, he decided to get Eastwood on the project as director and Warner Bros. just couldn’t say no.
Grazer said,
With Clint, it’s a really unique thing. They don’t use the two-letter word; they don’t say no. What they say is, ‘Yeah, let’s do it but let’s try to do it at a good price.’
The film had a small budget of $35 million dollars despite the fact that the script was 128 pages long since it had to depict events spanning over 50 years.
DiCaprio was of immense help to the film as he brought down his fee from $20 million to just $2 million. Eastwood praised the actor for wanting to have a colorful career, just like him.
He could have made a lot of money just doing spectacle movies with all kinds of CGI. But he wants to vary his career, like I’ve always looked to vary mine as a director.
Eventually, things fell perfectly into place and J. Edgar was ready to launch. While the film received mixed reviews from critics, DiCaprio was widely praised for his performance. It made $84 million at the box office.