If you win an Academy Award for playing a role with multiple personalities, do they award each one of them? If so, that would make up for the snubs so far in Leonardo DiCaprio’s career.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the star of The Wolf of Wall Street and Inception is set to take on 24 personalities in his next film, The Crowded Room. The film comes from writers Jason Smilovic and Todd Katzberg.
DiCaprio will play Billy Milligan, who was the first person to successfully use multiple personality disorder as a defense in a court of law. THR adds that the actor has been eyeing the role since 1997 with the project moving forward as a whole finally with New Regency.
Published in 1981, Daniel Keyes’ book chronicles Milligan’s story, including his court trial in the late 1970s in Ohio after being charged with robbery and raping three women on the Ohio State University campus.
In the preparation of his defense, Milligan — who died in December 2014 — was diagnosed with multiple personality disorder. Pleading insanity, he and his lawyers contended that two of his alternate personalities committed the crimes without his knowledge. He was the first to use this defense, and the first to be acquitted for this reason.
DiCaprio will be next seen in director Alejando G. Inarritu’s follow-up to the Best Picture winning Birdman, The Revenant, which has him starring alongside Tom Hardy and Domhnall Gleeson.