Why RZA didn’t want to work with Leonardo DiCaprio
The Wu-Tang Clan and Leonardo DiCaprio are both revolutionaries in their industries. Very few rap collectives can boast of artistic and commercial success like the Wu-Tang Clan. As the de facto leader of the group, RZA has been at the forefront of most of the bigger decisions made during the long-running career of the group.
When it comes to acting, few can do it like DiCaprio. Just a quick look at his filmography will tell even the most infrequent movie viewers how big of a deal it is to have his name slapped across a production. It’s safe to say it would exponentially increase the expected revenue of a film. This is exactly why Raekwon, a founding member of the Wu-Tang Clan, worked his charm on DiCaprio during a lunch meeting to convince him to do a project based on the musical group’s life.
According to an interview he did with Rolling Stone, the rapper reportedly told Leo that he would be happy to have him play any role in the film and be involved in whatever capacity he felt like. To Raekwon’s delight, DiCaprio seemed interested and even listed some top directors who he could get to work with under his production company. The fact that Raekwon’s idea of doing a movie with a star like him would materialise into something real seemed almost too good to be true. Sadly, it was.
Expecting nothing but excitement, he broke the news to RZA about DiCaprio’s interest and how he would not only be acting but also producing it. He highlighted that the actor would be bringing in other big names and money, which, to Raekwon, was more than he could have asked for. Surprisingly, RZA’s reaction didn’t live up to Raekwon’s expectations. He seemed unwilling to accept the reality of the idea.
Despite RZA’s reluctance, he agreed to meet with DiCaprio’s team. Raekwon recalled that throughout the meeting, RZA’s behaviour was uncharacteristic, and he didn’t engage with others much, just listened on. Something felt off, and Raekwon said he had an intuition that it had something to do with RZA already having a similar project in progress.
At that point, RZA had already gained a reputation for leading and planning things without the rest of the group’s consent, and that’s why Raekwon had an inkling that he had already set things in motion elsewhere without his knowledge. It turned out that he was right. After another meeting with DiCaprio’s team, RZA revealed that he thought a TV series would be better than a film because of the length of the story and the longevity of having it on a streaming platform as opposed to a few weeks in the theatre.
Raekwon was genuinely hurt by this behaviour and said in his interview that RZA never believed that he “could bring power to the table”, but the film was so close to being made that Raekwon proved his colleague wrong. Despite the disagreements, a TV show did materialise. Wu-Tang: The American Saga was released on Hulu in 2019 and ran for three seasons until 2021.
The show received strong support in the start, but it wavered towards the final season. The almost-movie leaves us fans wondering whether we were robbed of an Oscar-worthy project? Thanks to RZA, we will never know.