[IMG:L]Hollywood A-lister and environmental activist Leonardo DiCaprio has always been vocal when it comes to spreading word about the dangers of global warming. And now he’s literally lending his voice to the cause.
DiCaprio is taking his passionate cause and celebrity role one step further by encouraging others to go green as the narrator of the new documentary The 11th Hour which illustrates the dangerous toll the current industrial culture has taken on the planet, as well as offering immediate solutions everyone can implement to halt and hopefully reverse the damage.
The Oscar-nominated actor produces the film as well, and Hollywood.com recently talked to the star about why he’s so ardent about being eco conscious.
Hollywood.com: Why was it so important to you to make The 11th Hour?
Leonardo DiCaprio: It really was a homemade movie in a lot of ways. Out of discussions that we had about the environment and media, and the want and the need to hear some of the great experts and visionaries in the environmental field of our time be able to speak in an open form uninterrupted about a subject matter that they’ve devoted their life to. That was really the basis of wanting to make this movie: wanting to hear some great thinkers really give us some insight as investigators on this issue.
HW: When you develop such a passion for the issues at the heart of this film?
LD: I became a actor at a very young age, but I also had a deep respect for nature, and I think I was a little biologist when I was younger. I watched documentaries on green forest depletion and the loss of species and habitats for animals around the world, and it affected me in a very hardcore emotional way when I was younger. So later in life I wanted to continue that path more and investigate and learn more about ecological issues. That sent me eventually into a room with Al Gore about 10 years ago who explained to me what climate change was, and global warming, and the science behind that and the decades of research that he’d done on the subject matter, and it really propelled me to want to be more vocal about the issue…[With] the change of weather that we’d been having, the weather patterns, the flooding, the hurricanes, all these things, there wasn’t enough of a connection being made in mainstream media. So it made me want to become more vocal about it, and it led me to work with organizations like Global Green and NRDC [Natural Resources Defense Council], and made me more pro-active in the environmental movement. And it seems now, more so than ever, we’re at a real tipping point, and certainly in the public’s eye global warming is at the forefront of a lot of people’s minds, and it’s been talked about more so than ever. So it’s just an exciting movement to be a part of, I think it is the movement of certainly my generation and the next generation, I think it’s galvanized the younger generation more than any other movement in years because it’s so universal, and it’s just exciting to be a part of it all.
[IMG:R]HW: This film illustrates the connection between consumerism and the environment. Younger people are big consumers and they’re the consumers of tomorrow – In what way can they make a difference?
LD: It’s a very difficult problem, because in reality how are we going to actually make people stop consuming? That’s not the point of the movie, the point in essence is, wouldn’t it be great to live in a world where we wouldn’t have to think about these kinds of things, where the powers that be, the corporations that manufacture these items, our government, were powered by solar and wind and we had alternate energy resources, and this was just integrated into our every day lives. And in that sense when we talk about voting with your dollar, yes, every time you do buy something you’re advocating the way that company does business, and by buying a hybrid car or buying something organic, you’re essentially making them create more for the marketplace out there. That will eventually grow, and I think that’s the point of the whole situation. We’d all love to live in a world where we wouldn’t have to think about these things, that the powers that be thought of that for us.
HW: With the amount of footage you have was there any consideration of doing a miniseries on something like the Discovery Channel?
LD: We don’t know yet as far as that’s concerned… This is a quote that I keep saying, because it was my first experience making a documentary and actually sitting for many, many hours in an editing room with them was that: “When you make a film with a narrative the director is God; when you make a documentary God is the director.” And that’s really what happened. The experts in this movie and what they said, really dictated the shape of this movie and the emotional content and the structure of this entire film, and they really gave us the tools. It was the stark realities of what’s going on in the world we live in. And for us, I think it was very much about realizing that with all these profound ideas and scientific statements that we were given, we had to make something emotional for an audience to engage in, we wanted the audience to leave there feeling slightly transformed, or slightly motivated to actually do something about it, and that was the biggest difficulty. How do you take these profound ideas and thoughts and condense them into this hour and a half format, and hopefully inspire people. So that was the filmmaking side of it all. But we were basically given the plot by these people.
HW: You’ve spoken a lot about personal responsibility: what do you do to live green?
LD: I’ve been driving a hybrid car for five, six years now. My house is built green, I have solar panels on my house, I do most of the stuff that [the film’s directors do] except walk to work, and I don’t have a compost pile on my house, no, I don’t have that, But I try to live by example as well. At the end of the day I keep urging this — and I think this is the new thing that I’m trying to get across here: I don’t think the environmentalists, or the environmental movement, is about telling people how to live, no matter what financial background they come from, because not everyone can put solar panels on their house. It’s just not a reality. But it is about just being aware of these global forces that are out there, and being aware in the next election, asking the right questions about what the next candidate’s environmental policy is, and voting with your dollar, and being aware of these issues, I think that’s the main thing. And, of course, personal action is very important. It’s important to lead by example, but until the powers that be truly infuse this into our daily way of living, I don’t think anything is really going to change on a massive level.
HW: Have you encountered any personal opposition or criticism in regard to promoting your environmental beliefs? There were some quarters who went after you for taking a private jet to the Cannes Film Festival.
LD: I’m sure it’s bound to happen, and if this movie is a success by any standard it will happen to more of an extreme. It seems to systematically happen, and it’s a way of twisting the argument, and it’s a way of deflecting the argument from the bigger picture. And that’s what has traditionally happened. Like we say in the film, you look at movements that have happened. It takes many, many years for transformation: the civil rights movements, the peace movements – these things have taken a long time. Unfortunately with this movement we have to start right now, according to the experts out there, we need to start implementing these technologies today…Everything has to come from the will of the people.
[IMG:L]HW: The movie gives a pretty unblinking critique of our society’s disposable culture. In making this film did you ever step back and question your own world, did you ever think about giving up being an actor?
LD: You know, I think that if I wasn’t an actor I don’t think a film like this would be possible in the same sense. I’m very committed to being an environmentalist and I’ve devoted a lot of time to doing that and getting the message out there, but one hand sort of feeds the other here. I know that hopefully with the amount of people that have seen past works of mine, and the younger generation, will possibly go to see this movie because I’m in it, and that’s the role that I’ve played in this film. And this has been a multi-year process, and one that we put a tremendous amount of thought into. I think ultimately I’m going to continue to be an actor and hopefully do more work like this, more projects like this that will garner a bigger audience. The interesting thing about that word “environmentalists” – there was a certain stigma with what an environmentalist was years ago: this tree-hugging, granola-eating hippie that goes around and flashes the peace sign all the time. And that’s a negative connotation, I think in some ways, because not all of us can live that lifestyle. This is a gigantic, worldwide movement that crosses cultural boundaries, religious boundaries – it needs to be far reaching and it needs to unify all of us. And I think even with skeptics out there, even with people that don’t even believe in issues like global warming, it is such a unifying issue in the sense that – certainly for the United States – how can you argue with not wanting oil from foreign countries? How can you argue with not wanting to be energy independent? How can you argue with wanting cleaner air, cleaner water? These are fundamental human rights issues at the end of the day, and that’s why it is such a universal issue and a movement that we all should be a part of at the end of the day.
The 11th Hour opens in New York and Los Angeles on August 17th.
