Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet reveal the road to their big-screen reunion

Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet

When Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet decided to reunite for their first movie since the 1997 blockbuster "Titanic," they picked a dramatic film that was essentially the opposite of "Titantic." Whereas "Titanic" is a gushy, romantic epic with a "true love lasts forever" message, "Revolutionary Road" is stark, angst-ridden story with a "true love can turn sour" message. In "Revolutionary Road" (based on the Richard Yates novel of the same name), DiCaprio and Winslet are Frank and April Wheeler, a married couple in 1950s suburban Connecticut, who struggle to come to terms with their crumbling relationship. April believes that moving to Paris will solve their marital problems, while Frank is conflicted over the idea. The Wheelers’ animosity toward each other continues to build until it reaches an emotionally shattering conclusion.

"Revolutionary Road" (which arrives June 2 on DVD and Blu-ray) was directed by Winslet’s husband, Sam Mendes — and it marks the first time that Mendes and Winslet have worked together on a movie. For DiCaprio and Winslet, making "Revolutionary Road" was the perfect challenge for them to show that their on-screen collaboration can go beyond just playing the cute couple from "Titantic." At the New York City press junket for "Revolutionary Road" in December 2008, I caught up with DiCaprio and Winslet, who sat down to talk about how they’ve changed since "Titanic," what it was like to work together again and what scenes in "Revolutionary Road’ affected them the most.

Do you think bad communication is the fundamental problem in Frank and April Wheeler’s marriage?

Winslet: I think it’s a combination of many things. Yes, I think it’s an inability to communicate. Or certainly, it has more to do with the fact that they have forgotten to communicate with each other for some time … For April, it’s very clear that this isn’t the life she expected for herself. And Frank questions it too … It’s at that point that they realize that maybe they aren’t the people they were when they first met, and that they’re wanting different things from life.

And April is so determined to find happiness, to feel something again other than what she has, that she’s prepared to risk everything in order to get that. To me, it’s a very heroic act, not a cowardly one … I feel that April is a heroine. I don’t feel she’s a coward. Neither do I think she was suicidal. And I certainly think she was a bipolar. But I do think she was a woman taken to an emotional brink in her pursuit of happiness, and I think it drove her mad.

Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet in "Revolutionary Road"

DiCaprio: And my character, on the other hand, is very un-heroic and cowardly. He ultimately is a product of the environment, and he doesn’t have the courage to manifest any sort of tangible change in his life. On the one hand, April is wanting to risk everything for a new opportunity or to pursue the dream she once had of what she wanted to be. And ultimately, my character is his father’s son. I [as Frank] want to conform to my environment. Is it about people who don’t communicate enough? I don’t know if that’s the truth. I think it’s about two people who are being forced apart who are desperately trying to salvage their marriage and stay together.

Pictured at left: Kate Winslet in "The Reader"

Pictured at right: Kate Winslet in "Revolutionary Road"

Kate, you’ve been getting a lot of critical acclaim for "The Reader" and "Revolutionary Road." How do you feel about competing against yourself at awards shows for both of these movies?

Winslet: I feel very proud of both of these films and proud to be a part of them. Quite honestly, I don’t know categorizing of actors even happens. I really, truly don’t. It certainly has nothing to do with me. It’s incredible to be talked about in that way, and I can only hope that I live up to the expectation. I hope that the work speaks for itself. It’s my job to make myself available to support those films equally.

Pictured at left: Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet at the 1998 Golden Globe Awards

Pictured at right: Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio at the 2009 Golden Globe Awards

What surprised you the most about working with each other again?

DiCaprio: Kate and I have been friends for many, many years, since ["Titanic"], and we’d both been actively looking for the right project to do [together]. The fact that Sam [Mendes] was attached to this, the fact that this was a great piece of material and such a departure of what we’d done before — it wasn’t treading on similar territory, which we knew was a complete setup for disaster, having done "Titanic" — we knew we needed to try something completely unique, and it was just about finding that project. And this was something that Kate was shepherding for many years and put all the pieces together, and I felt very fortunate to be chosen for it.

Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio in "Revolutionary Road"

As far as how Kate has changed or not changed, the truth of the matter is that she’s always had that sort of pursuit of excellence in the characters that she plays. She has an unbelievable work ethic that’s she’s maintained ever since I’ve knew her in her early 20s. She cares about being great and about the other actors involved. That’s all there. But what has changed is that since ["Titanic"], she’s done quite a bit of work, as have I, and we don’t approach the filmmaking experience the way we did in our early 20s. We don’t look at the director or producers involved as parental figures, which is what I think we did in our teenage years. We were constantly looking for that guidance. I think we go into movies now as equal pieces to the puzzle, and bring our own ideas for what the movie should be. And for lack of a better term, we’re more like adults, whatever that word means.

Winslet: Any major surprises? He’s nicer than he was, if that’s possible. He’s funnier than he was, if that’s possible. And he’s a better actor than he was, even if that’s possible. Playing Frank and April Wheeler, there was a surprise every day … I just loved so much playing the difficult scenes, knowing that because of the trust that we have as two people having known each other for so long, that there was just no boundaries … To be able to do off-camera dialogue for him, and to have to stop myself from crying, because I was seeing someone for whom I have so much respect doing things as an actor that I have never seen him do before … There were many moments like that, pretty much every day.

Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet in "Revolutionary Road"

Do you have any favorite scenes in "Revolutionary Road"?

DiCaprio: What was interesting about the way Sam [Mendes] set this film in motion was that he really attacked it like it was a theater production He really realized that this was an ensemble piece that depended so much on the actors, and he listened to all of our ideas endlessly in the rehearsal process. But then what we go to do was live this microcosm of a life in the form of the period, almost in real time. It was bizarre. We shot the beginning sequences in the beginning of the film and there was do much unsaid in the first two-thirds of the film that’s pent-up win these characters, so that when the kettle sort of explodes at the end of the movie, all that stuff felt realistic, because we were confined in this tiny little suburban house for months at a time, and there was so much that our characters wanted desperately to say to each other.

When those scenes finally happened, that was something I was really looking forward to, because I just felt that doing it with Kate as well, there’s such a comfort level that we have just being friends and knowing, like she said, that we have the best of intentions for each other. We can be brutally honest and brutally savage onscreen and we trust each other in that regard … It was fun, ultimately.

Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet in "Revolutionary Road"

Winslet: For me, I felt that one of our most memorable scenes that we shot together was the breakfast scene at the end of the film. I remember reading it and thinking, "How the hell are we going to get through this? How on earth are we going to do this?" Everything about that scene took me by surprise. From the way it was lit in that incredibly stark, beautiful, naked way — the way that Sam really steered us through that scene and those very difficult emotions. Rhythmically, the scene is very, very delicate.

How important is it for this movie to be set in the 1950s?

DiCaprio: Where do I begin? I think what’s interesting about the novel and the way Yates writes these characters is that … the sympathy shifts constantly throughout the course of the book … Who’s the hero and who’s not a hero? I don’t know. I just loved playing a character that fell just slightly short of his ambitions. I thought it was a compelling to do. He did not have the courage, at the end of the day, to follow through with the life that he wanted. He would be happier conforming to his existence.

Having read the ["Revolutionary Road"] novel and the script, at first I thought the 1950s was a huge component. I thought, "This is the era of prescription medications … trying to have that Americana iconic family existence drove a lot of people nuts." I thought, as much as it was a product of the movie, once we did this film, a lot of that was just stripped away. A lot of that became a backdrop to the emotional drama of these characters’ lives that run rampant.

Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet in "Revolutionary Road"

What is Sam Mendes like as a director?

DiCaprio: I think he knows how to work with actors. He’s masterful at that. He realized very early on that we would all have questions about our characters, the true intent of our characters. He let us unleash a lot of that with him. We got to express our doubts and disbelief about what our characters’ intentions were, what we felt. And he listened to all of that and asked us these very penetrating questions.

Sometimes it’s jarring. You’re in the middle of a scene and he says, "What do you think you character is really doing this for?’ And you stop and say, "Wow, I actually didn’t think of that, I have to admit. I should have an answer to that, but I don’t. Let me think of that answer." And that ability to question his actors in a very gentle way gives you all that subtext that you need. I could go on and on about it, but you get the picture.

Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet in "Revolutionary Road"

Kate, how would you compare society’s pressures on women in the 1950s with the pressures of today?

Winslet: One of the things that was so touching and moving to me about April Wheeler is that this is a woman who seemed to be like so many women of that time. [Her] interior world was so much bigger than her exterior world. I’m very different from her. I had to find a way of understanding her and loving her, which I do. It was not always easy. She’s a very complex and complicated woman, who has no emotional outlet.

I’m lucky. I get to express my passions and the spirited side of myself and the strong-willed part of myself through the job that I do. I was just so moved by April’s lack of emotional outlet. It was just crushing to me and very difficult to play.

Frank and April they do see themselves as slightly more glamorous than those around them, and I think that’s the one thing, many ways actually, that has kept April going, living the life that she’s living. She’s somehow managed to convince herself that everything’s OK … they’re just a little bit better than everyone else As she says to Frank, "We can go on pretending that we’re living the life that we wanted." In many ways, she’s incredibly brave to even admit that to herself … So many people, so many women were coasting along and living this lie because they simply had no option.