How Leonardo DiCaprio’s Performance Elevated Inception, According to Christopher Nolan

The Dream Machine by Christopher Nolan

Inception has a special place in Christopher Nolan's filmography. The filmmaker's fourth biggest commercial success, the film grossed more than $800 million at the box office, but was also praised by critics and won four Oscars out of a total of eight nominations. A total success, due in large part to the genius of the filmmaker, who perhaps could not have expressed himself in the best possible way. By his own admission, Christopher Nolan explained that if the film managed to captivate the public so much, it was thanks to the proactive participation of actor Leonardo Dicaprio.

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Christopher Nolan and Leonardo Dicaprio are today among the essential figures of the Seventh Art. So obviously, when the two men collaborate, the result can only be exciting. But rather than just starring in the film, Leonardo DiCaprio decided to become fully involved in the project by advising the filmmaker on the script. In a testimony present in the book “The Nolan Variations“, Christopher Nolan himself admitted that the actor allowed him to change his approach in order to achieve the final result.

I was working on a more superficial version of the project – perhaps the term superficial is an exaggeration because all the elements of the story were there – but I was still trying to approach it from a genre point of view. Leo encouraged me and asked me to push in a more character-centered, more relationship-centered direction. He didn't write it himself, but he would read over the script and bring ideas to me. It made a total difference. It was a heavy and difficult process, the rewrite lasted for months and months because it was very demanding, but it was very productive. I think it gave the film more resonance.

Originally, Christopher Nolan was very keen on the idea of ​​the film's genre. The project was born in the mind of the filmmaker in the early 2000s and then took the form of a horror story, before becoming a thriller inspired by heist films. Inception ended up fully adopting this form, even if it nevertheless distinguishes itself from other feature films in the same vein which, according to the filmmaker, are “deliberately superficial in terms of emotions“. And this distancing from other productions of the genre is therefore the fruit of the involvement of Leonardo DiCaprio, without whom Inception would certainly not be what it is today.