It’s one thing for an actor to do a physical transformation to become a historical figure, it’s another thing entirely if the actor can embody that figure despite not being a mirror image. Joaquin Phoenix pulled this off with Walk the Line when he played Johnny Cash. Now it’s DiCaprio’s turn. Like he did in The Aviator, where he played Howard Hughes, DiCaprio’s next big role is that of first director of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover. And while his looks may not match those of Edgar, you can bet that DiCaprio will do his best to get inside the head of J. Edgar and hit all the right beats, including mannerisms and emotional state.
The film, simply titled J. Edgar, is the latest from Clint Eastwood and was penned by Dustin Lance Black (Milk). Among DiCaprio’s co-stars are Armie Hammer (The Social Network) as Clyde Tolson, Hoover’s assistant/lover; Josh Lucas as famed aviator Charles Lindbergh; Judi Dench as Hoover’s mother; Naomi Watts as Helen Gandy, a Justice Department file clerk who ended up being Hoover’s personal secretary; Ken Howard as lawyer and jurist Harlan F. Stone; Jeffrey Donovan as Robert F. Kennedy; and Stephen Root as Arthur Koehler, a wood specialist at Forest Product Laboratories who uses his expertise to help Hoover investigate the kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby by tracing the origins of the ladder used by the perpetrator.
Whew, that’s an impressive looking cast to be sure. J. Edgar spans his five decades with the Bureau and will drop in theaters on November 9th.
