Leonardo DiCaprio has finally fulfilled his dream of starring in a Paul Thomas Anderson film with One Battle After Another. But his fictional alter-ego might not be as gallant or grandiose as DiCaprio’s usual starry blockbuster roles. In an interview with Entertainment Tonight, the actor revealed:
It’s like the opposite of Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible. [Bob] does everything wrong. And he doesn’t land or stick any of his stunts.
Undoubtedly, this is an interesting digression from the solemn, larger-than-life characters that DiCaprio usually portrays in films. A blundering, nutty fool in over his head will either be a comically iconic performance or fail to impress the audience entirely. Like his movie alter-ego, it all depends on how DiCaprio sticks his landing with this one.
Leonardo DiCaprio on How He Shaped His Role in One Battle After Another
With the wealth of talent at Leonardo DiCaprio’s disposal, it is surprising how long it has taken for the actor to receive an Academy Award. Now, the actor has yet again crafted a delightful character in Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another, one that is surely worthy of some award recognition.
DiCaprio is at his comic best in this film, portraying a fumbling, goofy, and shambolic man who is everything that Ethan Hunt is not. Throughout the movie, the paranoid Bob is seen running around in a placid bathrobe and beanie, occasionally sporting Terminator shades, and teaming up with his daughter’s reluctant karate sensei.
Speaking of the ideology that shapes his character, DiCaprio claims:
He’s trying to raise a daughter, and he doesn’t know how to do it right. When his daughter gets captured… Why take the bathrobe off? You gotta go. You gotta go get your girl.
Rather than taking a beat and gathering himself, DiCaprio’s ex-revolutionary Bob is ready to tear the town apart in his bathrobe and beanie out of an overbearing sense of fatherly duty and the fierce love he has for his daughter.
Co-stars Shower Praise on Leonardo DiCaprio’s Role in PTA Film
Leonardo DiCaprio is always amazing in every role he inhabits, but seeing him work in his element up close was a different experience for Benicio Del Toro. In their first on-screen collaboration, Del Toro experienced the sheer scope of talent within which DiCaprio operates, and revealed to People:
With Leo, you just let him bring the character, and… he’s the story. With Leo, it’s like, work around him and just [make] sure that we fed the story with my character in it.
Leo is one of those actors that I‘ve been admiring for decades, and I never had a chance to work with. So getting this chance to work with him was a great experience and a great opportunity for me, and I hope he feels the same way.
Regina Hall was all praise for One Battle After Another writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson in a separate People interview, saying that it is the “genius” ability of Anderson to write a script where “there’s no part that’s insignificant. Even if they have one line, he’s so deliberate in his filmmaking.”
One Battle After Another is Anderson’s 10th film and the first since his 2021 coming-of-age drama, Licorice Pizza, which earned 3 Oscar nominations and featured the debut of Philip Seymour Hoffman‘s son, Cooper Hoffman.
Below is a table listing the cast of PTA’s latest epic:
Which of Leonardo DiCaprio’s roles ranks as your personal favorite? Let us know in the comments below.
One Battle After Another will premiere worldwide on 26 September 2025.