Leonardo DiCaprio Will Play 24 Personalities in THE CROWDED ROOM
Leonardo DiCaprio really wants to win an Oscar, and he’s taking on a role that might just land him one. We know that a good deal of Oscar winners have won by playing crazy characters, and DiCaprio is taking on one of the craziest. He is set to star in a film called The Crowded Room, and it’s a project that he has been wanting to play for nearly 20 years. He will be playing a man named Billy Milligan, who was the first person to use multiple personality disorder as a defense in court. This man had over 24 different personalities living in his head.
The movie will be based on the 1981 non-fiction book by Daniel Keyes called The Minds of Billy Milligan. It chronicles the true events of Milligan's life, including his trial in the late 1970s in Ohio after being charged with robbery and raping three women on the Ohio State University campus.
Here’s a description from the book that gives us an interesting rundown of what this film will entail.
Out of control of his own actions, Billy Milligan was a man tormented by twenty-four distinct personalities battling for supremacy over his body — a battle that culminated when he awoke in jail, arrested for the kidnap and rape of three women. In a landmark trial, Billy was acquitted of his crimes by reason of insanity caused by multiple personality — the first such decision in history — bringing to public light the most remarkable and harrowing case of multiple personality ever recorded.
Twenty-four people live inside Billy Milligan.
Philip, a petty criminal; Kevin, who dealt drugs and masterminded a drugstore robbery; April whose only ambition was to kill Billy’s stepfather; Adalana, the shy, lonely, affection-starved lesbian who “used” Billy’s body in the rapes that led to his arrest; David, the eight-year-old “keeper of pain”; Arthur, the Englishman; Ragen, the “keeper of Rage” who possessed incredible strength; Allen, the con man; Tommy, the escape-artist, and all of the others, including men, women, several children, both boys and girls, and the Teacher, the only one who can put them all together. Each of these “people” play a distinct role in this often shocking true story.
The book is being adapted for the screen by screenwriters Jason Smilovic and Todd Katzberg. DiCaprio is also producing this movie through his Appian Way production company alongside Jennifer Davisson.
So do you think this is the movie that will finally lead to DiCaprio's Oscar win? This wouldn't be the first time DiCaprio played a mentally ill person. He most recently played one is Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island.
Source: THR