6. Leonardo DiCaprio - The Departed
The Departed, the film that finally won Martin Scorsese his long overdue Best Director Oscar features DiCaprio as William Costigan, a Boston state trooper going undercover to help take down the Irish mafia from within. In his 3rd teaming with director Scorsese, DiCaprio hits it out of the park with a realism and a sense of torment that few actors could achieve. As Costigan gets deeper and more involved in his work, he begins to lean towards the dark side of crime, and his own demons begin to check in, leading him through a maddening journey of guilt and confusion. In a particularly bravura scene, Dicaprio sits down with mob boss Jack Nicholson, who is aware there is an unknown informant amongst his men. DiCaprio plays the scene with so much guilt, fear and paranoia that even the slightest twitch of the hand from Nicholson's character makes him uneasy, which in turn creates that much more of a dilemma for his character. He makes us as an audience feel equally distraught as his character, and DiCaprio's performance challenge us to consider what side of the fence he will stay upon, as he racks himself in turmoil. DiCaprio will team up for the fifth time with Scorsese for this year's The Wolf Of Wall Street.