Leonardo DiCaprio, the man who ate raw bison liver for his art (despite the several looming fires raging around him with which he could have cooked the viscous organ), picks his projects very carefully. He has, in recent years, developed a particular affinity for portraying amoral men. Speaking with Germany’s Welt am Sonntag, the Oscar-less actor said he would love to portray Vladimir Putin, the Russian president and sometimes shirtless model. “Putin would be very, very, very interesting,” DiCaprio said. “I would love to play him.” They unlikely pair met at a 2010 conference on the endangered Siberian tiger, when Putin was still just a lowly Prime Minister. “My foundation has provided financial support for several projects for the protection of these big cats,” Leo said. “Putin and I talked only about the protection of these magnificent animals, not politics.” Putin later declared DiCaprio, who is half-Russian, a “muzhik,” or “a real man,” probably because he ate raw bison liver for his art. If DiCaprio did get to play Putin, where do you think it would rank on his list of best performances? Probably somewhere around the homicidal slave trader, guiltless Wall Street swindler, and crazy, paranoid FBI director.
