The Gatsby that I remember reading when I was 15 years old in junior high school was far different from the Gatsby I read as an adult. And what I remember from my years in junior high was this hopeless romantic that was solely in love with this one woman and created this great amount of wealth to respectably hold her hand. Then to reread it as an adult it was incredibly fascinating. It is one of those novels that is talked about nearly 100 years later for a reason. It’s incredibly nuanced, it’s existential and here at the center of this movie is this man that is incredibly hollow searching for some sort of meaning and he’s attached himself to this relic known as Daisy. She’s a mirage and I was struck by the sadness in him for the first time. I looked at him completely different, I looked at him as somebody that was very hollow and searching for some sort of meaning and Nick was the only one who truly sees what’s going on in reality. One very telling sequence that we talked about a lot and for me was a very important one in the book, is when Nick notices that he’s holding her but he’s still staring at the green light, you know he’s finally got her in his arms he’s still searching for this thing that he thinks is going to complete him. That was the Gatsby I was incredibly excited about playing as an actor and as I got older it took on a new meaning and I think that’s what’s so incredible about this novel, everyone who reads it has their own interpretation of who these people are, who these characters are. —Leonardo Dicaprio