Robin Hood’s director Otto Bathurst and its star Taron Egerton have broken down just how involved Leonardo DiCaprio was in the making of the blockbuster.
“On a day to day basis he wasn’t involved at all,” admitted Bathurst. “He has a brilliant partner called Jennifer Davidson who produced the movie. He wasn’t on the ground at all.”
However, by the point of shooting, DiCaprio had already done plenty of work to get the film into production.
“What he does deliver though is that most people, when they see he’s involved, go, ‘Hang on. Leonardo DiCaprio doing a ‘Robin Hood’ film. It must be different. There must be something there’,” continued Bathurst.
“So it was definitely helpful in the early days when we were trying to touch bases with actors, who were responding, ‘Really another ‘Robin Hood’ film?’ So he was a big help to get them engaged.”
“He loved what we were doing. Loved the take on it. He just has huge faith in his producing partner Jennifer. We wielded him out when we needed the big guns.”
“But most of the time he was just supporting from the background and allowed us to get on with it.”
Egerton echoed Bathurst’s comments, admitting that it was an email from DiCaprio that ultimately convinced him to sign up for “Robin Hood.”
“It was brought to me. I originally said no to the film. Because it felt like there had been loads of them. I wasn’t sure if the world needed another.”
“But having met Otto, seen what he did with ‘Peaky Blinders,’ and then been told he wanted to do that with this story, I thought it would be cool.”
“Then Leonardo DiCaprio emailed me and that sealed the deal. He’s an executive producer, so he was largely removed from the equation in the terms of making it.”
“But his being a good producer is about putting the right people together and it was largely about getting me on-board.”
“Robin Hood” is in theaters now.
