DiCaprio in Blood Diamond
Interview: Leonardo DiCaprio Talks Blood Diamond
"I didn’t anticipate it, but when you approach situations like this, these are things that are based on real events," said DiCaprio. "We are depicting a time in recent history where diamonds resulted in a lot of civil unrest in these countries. I had never anticipated that it would be this intense, by any means."
DiCaprio plays Danny Archer, a South African smuggler who tries to follow Solomon Vandy (Djimon Hounsou) to a hidden jewel. Under the guise of helping him find his kidnapped family, Archer walks a fine moral line to achieve both ends. Just being in Africa opened up DiCaprio's world.
"Certainly paying a character like this who was taking advantage of the poverty around him and taking advantage of the continent, it posed for a lot of [introspection]. It was uncomfortable as an actor to portray this man in front of an African crew in locations like Mozambique where there was a tremendous amount of poverty. Mozambique is a country that is having an economic resurgence, but four out of 10 people supposedly have HIV or AIDS. What I was left with after spending time with Africa, and this is not at all to sound trivial, but it really was the power of the human spirit there. The fact that these people have been through so much, they have been in a civil war for 30 years, the poverty rate, but literally, people were still dancing in the streets. The joy, the energy, the happiness they exuded to everyone was unbelievable and it made me come back home and sort of not want to listen to anyone’s problems. I don’t want to hear what we as Americans have to deal with. When you are immersed in a place like that for six months and you see the extreme levels of what people have to deal with there. Yet they are able to keep a positive attitude. You just don’t want to hear people’s problems out here anymore."
Don't worry, ladies, the film isn't telling anyone to stop supporting the diamond industry altogether. There are ways consumers can be sure they only buy bloodless diamonds.
"Consumers should just use their best judgment and ask the right questions, because ultimately diamonds are a source of economic stability in Africa. But what they are specifically trying to target are these conflict diamonds that have funded these sort of warlords and civil strife in Africa. It’s about stopping those specific diamonds."
Blood Diamond opens to theatres this Friday, December 8th.
For the trailers, movie stills, posters, full synopsis and more movie info,
go to the Blood
Diamond Movie Page.
Stay tuned for updates.
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