I know Leo is a leftist.
As an actor, he has grown on me.
The two are not necessarily tied together.
Same here. I have followed his career when he started with Growing Pains. When he did “What’s been eating Gilbert Grape?” his performance was just so magnificent. For being a young kid he knocked it out of the ballpark. I then knew Leo was someone to watch. Now on his politics, that is separate. His father is a full fledge liberal whose friends happen to be Allen Ginsberg. I recall an article that Leo did an interview. The reporter asked Leo about Allen Ginsberg, Leo responds...”I don’t want to talk about him can we go on to the next”. I can only speculate why Leo made that statement.
Leo’s funny, sometimes I like him, sometimes I hate him. In his younger work, like “Basketball Diaries”, “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape”, “This Boy’s Life”, I thought he was great. Then there was a decade or so when I couldn’t stand most of his stuff, with a few exceptions, like “Catch Me If You Can”. Now that’s he’s grown up a bit, he seems to be back on his game.
I still say he was completely miscast in “The Departed” though. He just comes off as too soft, too delicate to actually be accepted in those corners of society. He is the type of guy that career criminals would see as either an easy victim, or someone they would instantly resent just because of the way he carries himself. I mean, if he ever had to spent any time in jail, he would instantly be someone’s woman. Those kind of guys do not get anywhere in the criminal world outside of prison either.