Read More: One Battle After Another Is a Potent Portrait of America
It’s not lost on DiCaprio that One Battle is also about having something at stake, a core idea that seems to resonate with audiences in our precarious world. In addition to being a wily, entertaining comedy, the movie suggests that it’s essential to have principles to cling to. “It’s about human beings in a world where we all feel stifled to say what we believe or stand for something, because, you know, it’s a scary world out there.”
DiCaprio makes a wholly believable dad, a character shaped, he says, by talking to Anderson about his “fear of the future for his children, what it’s like for him to be a father in the world that we live in, and what humanity and politics in the world are going to be like for his offspring.” He loved working with Infiniti, he says; she made it easy for him to slip into the role. “You go, ‘Oh yeah, I’d stand in front of anything for this person,’” he says. “She’s just so incredibly good-hearted and sweet you want to protect her.” And working with DiCaprio, Infiniti felt not only that sense of protection, but a warmth and generosity she wasn’t prepared for. “I mean, he’s Leonardo DiCaprio, so it’s a no-brainer that he’s passionate about the craft,” she says by phone from London. “But getting to see his expertise up close and just observe him, and then to find out on top of it that he’s a very kind and genuine person.” He was, she says, the perfect person to learn from. “It was my first film set, and I didn’t know what to expect. And he would guide me in any way he could and offer advice. But also just him being there, making himself just a person to have a conversation with, about anything—it was such a beautiful thing.”
