12 Actors Who Won Oscars For Completely The Wrong Role
6. Leonardo DiCaprio
Won For... The Revenant
Should Have Won For... The Wolf Of Wall Street OR Django Unchained
...Or maybe What's Eating Gilbert Grape. Or possibly The Aviator. Any of those four would have been a more worthy winner than The Revenant, which was definitely a lesser shade of brilliance.
It still feels like The Revenant was a mender of a win - an acknowledgment of DiCaprio's career, rather than a worthy winner in its own right, even if there is something quite poetic about the ridiculous lengths he went to for his method in that movie.
It's a haunting performance, certainly, and you have to admire how impressively he puts himself through the ringer to make his performance feel authentic, but it's just not as impressive as some of his other work.
His turn in The Wolf Of Wall Street probably didn't win because it wasn't in an Academy-friendly film, and Django Unchained is probably of the same ilk, but both grotesques would have rightfully been awarded Oscars in a just world. They're stunning, muscular performances that captivate and scene steal like only DiCaprio in full flow can manage, and while there's less adversity in them, there's more theatre and more pure transformation. And that deserves just as much credit.