[Robb Ellis sent me a link to this fascinating article on how DiCaprio learned the “Rhodesian” accent he used in the movie. I must say, I was very impressed, as a Rhodesian, with the character DiCaprio came up with. There was a lot of authenticity to it. It wasn’t 100% correct – but its a damned good attempt I must tell you. I’ll put my own comments in another article on the subject. Jan]

Leonardo DiCaprio says late night drinking sessions in Africa with mercenaries helped knock the “Aussie” out of his initial attempt at the South African accent.

The Hollywood star was under pressure to master the accent for his new $US100 million ($A127 million) political thriller Blood Diamond, which is set in Africa in the late 1990s.

DiCaprio plays a soldier of fortune, turned diamond smuggler, but when he first landed in Africa for the shoot he admitted sounding more like the Crocodile Hunter than a local.

“At first it sounded like an Australian accent,” DiCaprio, 32, told reporters in Los Angeles.

A dialect coach was recruited, but the Los Angeles-born actor also infiltrated Africa’s seedy world of soldiers-for-hire to meet real life mercenaries.

“This really was a foreign accent for me,” DiCaprio said.

“I had never spent any time with any South African mercenaries, so it was a matter of going out and seeking these men out, hearing their stories, spending as much time with them as possible.

“I was getting drinks with them, getting them drunk.”

DiCaprio became close with one particular mercenary, a Zimbabwe-born veteran of numerous wars on the African continent.

“He taught me military aspects, tracking, surviving in the bush and spoke about his mixed feelings of being an African man who loved the continent, but had been consistently disappointed by a lot of the political situations,” DiCaprio said.

“I heard about the atrocities he had seen first hand in these war zones.

“I spent as much time with these people as possible, trying to extract some of their personal stories and put that into my character.”

The research has already paid off for DiCaprio, with a Golden Globe best actor nomination for his performance as disillusioned soldier Danny Archer.

He is also one of the top prospects for an Oscar nomination when they are announced on January 23.

Blood Diamond, directed by Edward Zwick and co-starring Jennifer Connelly and Djimon Hounsou, was filmed in Mozambique and South Africa.

DiCaprio said he fell in love with the people of Mozambique.

What I was most impressed with were peoples attitudes about life there,” he said.

“Literally, we’d be driving around Mozambique and they were dancing in the streets.

“They were so happy to be alive and had such a positive outlook about life.

“Then you go back to a place like America, where we are all so much more fortunate than we could ever realise, and it makes you not want to listen to anyone’s problems.

“Its really up to the more fortunate countries of this world to give back. When you are immersed in a place like that, you realise how fortunate we are.”

Ninemsn, Australia

URL: http://www.zimbabwejournalists.com/story.php?…/p>