Leonardo DiCaprio would "love" to portray a Russian political figure such as President Vladimir Putin, Lenin or Grigori Rasputin.
Leonardo DiCaprio
DiCaprio is fascinated with some of the country's most recognised political characters and would be "very" interested in depicting the 63-year-old politician Putin or former communist leader Lenin.
DiCaprio is also particularly intrigued by Rasputin, the peasant faith healer who acted as an advisor to Tsar Nicholas II and his wife Alexandra Feodorovna and whose involvement with the royal couple led to him being partly blamed for the fall of the Russian monarchy in the early 20th century.
Speaking to German newspaper Welt am Sonntag, the 41-year-old actor insisted Russia's history was full of rich stories to be told that could be "worthy" of English playwright Shakespeare's work.
He said: "Putin would be very, very, very interesting. I would like to play him. I think there should be more films about Russian history because it has many stories worthy of Shakespeare.
"That is fascinating for an actor. Lenin also would be an interesting role. I would like also to star as Rasputin."
'The Revenant' star has two Russian grandparents and met Putin in 2010 at a conference on the plight of the endangered Siberian tiger.
DiCaprio said of their meeting at the time: "My foundation has provided financial support for several projects for the protection of these big cats. Putin and I talked only about the protection of these magnificent animals, not politics."
Putin revealed he is a fan of DiCaprio and called him a "muzhik" which translates to "real man", because he flew through treacherous weather to attend the conference.
He commented: "A person with less stable nerves could have decided against coming, could have read it as a sign - that it was not worth going."
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