Leonardo DiCapro's Oscar Snub: 5 Reasons The Academy Hates Him

4. King Of The World

After Romeo and Juliet (1996), despite flexing some serious acting muscles, DiCaprio was facing down the dreaded possibility of pretty boy typecasting. Without exception, James Cameron cast him as generically named Jack Dawson in his historical fiction cluster fuck 'Titanic'. Opposite an archetypal English Rose in Kate Winslet as, erm, Rose DeWitt Bukater, DiCaprio was doomed from the beginning in both character and actor. Big Jimmy C has commanded a lot of respect in Hollywood, mainly for pushing the technology of its time to its very limits with 'Terminator 2' and more recently 'Avatar', something of course he can't be faulted for. He has never really pushed his actors or bent any rules in storytelling however, his films often full of plot holes (Terminator 1 & 2) or borderline plagiarism (Avatar; see 'FernGully' for an almost identical story) and his actors often suffer as a result by being fairly one dimensional. Titanic is no exception, the film exploded in 1997 and was hotly tipped for Oscar glory. Much like the Titanic, Cameron's King of the World speech simply sealed his fate as a sinking ship of embarrassment, but overlooked during all of this hubris was the our boy Leo. It might be fair to say that maybe he didn't deserve an Oscar nod (although personally, I think he was pushed quite far for someone who has no edge), but apart from the technological ones, neither did any of the rest of the film. Even Kate Winslet got a nomination, but her struggle with the Academy is for another article. Meanwhile, Leo would have to wait another eight years before he would get his second nomination, this time though, it was for the big one: Best Actor...