9 Insane Times Movies Stupidly Hid Actors Behind Prosthetics

8. Leonardo DiCaprio - J. Edgar

J. Edgar Hoover Leondaro DiCaprio
Warner Bros.

If an actor jumps into the makeup chair, undergoes hours of prosthetics and transforms into a historical figure, their chance of nabbing an Academy Award jumps up massively.

That same end result was no doubt what Leonardo DiCaprio and Warner Bros. were expecting when the actor was signed up to play the titular character in Clint Eastwood's rightly-forgotten J. Edgar. Unfortunately, it wasn't to be.

Playing the former head of the FBI across multiple decades of his life, DiCaprio was aged-up for major chunks of the movie, given a receding hairline and a Marlon Brando-esque makeover.

Unfortunately, because these present-day sequences were juxtaposed with flashbacks where the actor looked like his regular old self, they were even more distracting - not least because they also made him look a little like Matt Damon.

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Josh has over 11 years of experience as a published writer, having worked nine of those years as a full-time content producer at WhatCulture. In that period he has created hundreds of articles, videos and podcast episodes for multiple WhatCulture channels, specialising in gaming, horror and film & TV. He now primarily works as a senior content producer and presenter on WhatCulture Gaming where he co-hosts the WhatCulture Gaming Podcast, a top 3 UK most listened to gaming podcast that he co-created in 2018. Over the years he has reviewed several high-profile gaming releases, covered industry events with on-site reporting, opined on breaking news, and even kicked off his interviewing career by chatting to childhood hero, Tommy Wiseau.