Leonardo DiCaprio in Body of Lies Courtesy of Warner Bros.

Titanic may have defined him as an iconic blue-eyed pretty boy for a generation of moviegoers, but for the last decade Leonardo DiCaprio has leveraged his early success to take on risky roles in socio-political films that could have marginalized his fan base. But with well-received performances, DiCaprio has managed to continue to be a box-office draw while tackling issues and projects close to his heart.

With three films in the pipeline for release, the Oscar-nominated actor has been busier than ever. Two dramas set in the mid-1950s (Sam Mendes' Revolutionary Road and Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island) are preceded by Body of Lies, a spy thriller set in the Middle East. The film, which reunites actor Russell Crowe with director American Gangster director Ridley Scott, takes place in a not-so-distant future where European cities are frequently the target of terrorist bombings, and is based on the novel of the same name by Washington Post journalist David Ignatius.

DiCaprio plays CIA operative Roger Ferris who is plotting to bring a wanted terrorist out of hiding but instead gets caught in a larger game of deceit and subterfuge himself. DiCaprio talks about sharing the screen with Crowe under the direction of Scott, why the upcoming election is going to be a down-to-the-wire nail-biter, and why he'd love to get off "this rollercoaster of filmmaking" and do an off-Broadway play.

You first starred with Russell Crowe when you where 18 [in 1995's The Quick and Dead with Sharon Stone], pretty early on your career. How was it different this time, working with him professionally?
It was a different experience because I think that was — for both of us — our first experience working with a studio film in a big-budget production. I'm speaking for myself, for sure. [But] I do remember that being the case for Russell because I remember he had come fresh off Romper Stomper and had been talked about as a phenomenal actor from Australia that was doing incredible work... I think Sharon Stone had reached her feelers out and saw both of our performances and wanted to work with both of us. So we were kind of fresh and new to the whole business at that time, and we were kind of wide-eyed and bushy-tailed during that time period. And since then, I think we have both established a good resume of work together. It was really great to reunite, albeit for only a couple of weeks — a week and a half in Washington and then a little bit of time in Morocco — but I consider him to be one of the most talented actors of his generation, for sure. He's got an incredible work ethic, and you have to admire somebody who really takes his work that seriously. It is a joy to work with somebody like that, and he has always been a great guy to me.

How would you compare Ridley Scott and Martin Scorsese in terms of their style and approach?
They are different. Not that Ridley isn't meticulous with what he does, but Marty is very focused on each camera, at one given moment, capturing certain moments, whereas I think Ridley has a really innate ability to edit in his own mind, simultaneously with five or six cameras, and be able to have that type of focus where he can pop back from camera to camera. [He] really relies on his instincts, which are phenomenal. He has fantastic instincts when it comes to saying, "Okay, I believe what I saw on screen or I didn't," and will tell you that immediately and make changes immediately — whereas working with Scorsese is more time intensive. He really takes his time a lot more with scenes. But there are benefits to both. Certainly working with Ridley, [there is an] adrenaline rush you have every day working on set because you have cameras filming you from every different possible angle, and he could immediately flip the scene on its head at any given moment. You have to be prepared for that. In both scenarios you, have to know what you are doing and be secure in your own character, because anything could be thrown at you at any given moment. But they are much different directing styles, I think. Marty is very much about planned shots he had been thinking about for a long period of time whereas Ridley, I feel, wants to have every possibility on the day available to him to be able to make it up — not make it up as he goes along but improvise any given scenario or change things around. He loves his options.