Leonardo DiCaprio Reckons He’s Down To Star As Ol’ Mate Vladimir Putin

The fact Leonardo DiCaprio has a thing for playing eminent players in modern history shouldn’t come as a surprise. FBI Director J Edgar Hoover, absolute genius/madman Howard Hughes, even the original troll Frank Abagnale have been DiCaprified in Leo’s long, thus far fruitless slog for an Academy Award statuette.

His fortunes may be changing, ’cause he might have worked out his problem: none of those characters are Russian enough.

Speaking to German paper Welt Am Sonntag, the 41-year-old said he’d be totally down to play Russian PM Vladimir Putin. Leo said “[he] would be very, very, very interesting, I would love to play him,” and while that seems utterly ridiculous, let’s quickly examine why it could work:
  1. He’s prepared. His latest turn in The Revenant is as stereotypically Russian as you can get this side of Vladivostok: snow, misery, fighting off bears, the works. 

  2. The two are actually kinda bros. Both of them are down with protecting the habitat of endangered Siberian tigers, with Vlad the Lad even going so far to say Leo was a “real man” about it.

  3. The internet just found this guy:

    Someone found Leo’s half-brother in the Russian Armed Forces.(Credit: Twitter / @EnglishRussia1).

    Posted by pedestrian.tv on Thursday, 14 January 2016

While we’re absolutely positive that’s enough reason for Leo to play the calendar-aficionado, he went on to say “Russia unites so many stories almost of Shakespearean character. For an actor, it’s extremely exciting.” Damn straight.

He also said playing Vladimir Lenin (who he actually resembles) or the batshit insane warlock Rasputin would also be pretty decent roles too, and we can’t disagree. 

Excuse us while we re-imagine Titanic’s Jack as Boris, who survives the freezing waters out of spite, only to lose the Oscar to that bloody iceberg.

Source: Welt Am Sonntag / International Business Times.
Photo: Franco Origlio / Getty. 

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