Back in March the rumor was floated that Clint Eastwood wanted Leo DiCaprio to star as J. Edgar Hoover in Dustin Lance Black’s screenplay about the former FBI director. This week several reports have surfaced with DiCaprio confirming his involvement. I was holding off in hopes more substantial information would surface, but looks like nothing is forthcoming so we’ll go with this press conference tidbit quoted on Hitfix:
While discussing his upcoming Christopher Nolan thriller “Inception” today, DiCaprio confirmed earlier reports that he’s hard at work on a biopic of notorious FBI director J. Edgar Hoover.
“I am talking to Clint Eastwood about playing J. Edgar Hoover who had his hand in some of the most scandalous moments in American history,” DiCaprio says. “Everything from the Vietnam war to and Dillinger to Martin Luther King and JFK. So, it’s about the secret life of J. Edgar Hoover.”
Of course, after his death in 1972, one of the biggest scandals about the intelligence director whose name struck fear into the hearts of many American minority groups (and not to mention Presidents and politicians) was that Hoover was actually homosexual himself.
Most sites following this story seemed strangely anxious to find out if there would be scenes of Hoover’s alleged crossdressing. DiCaprio says there haven’t been any dress fittings, so the answer would be, No. Eastwood is expected to begin production on Hoover later this year.
