The Man in the Iron Mask

The Man in the Iron Mask(1998) Behind the Scenes

For the honor of a king.
And the destiny of a country.

King Louis XIV (Leonardo DiCaprio), the evil twin tries on the iron mask.

Plot
King Louis XIV of France (Leonardo DiCaprio) rules the country but his way of living and cost of war leave the people starving and living in poverty. Athos's son Raoul is was sent to combat and dies there soon because the King has a crush on his fiancé Christine. An angry Athos (John Malkovich), along with Porthos (Gérard Depardieu) and Aramis (Jeremy Irons), all former muskateers plan to get rid of the King. A secret that few know of was that King Louis had a twin brother, Philippe (Leonardo DiCaprio) who is in an iron mask for six years that they must free. So the one day at a party their plan is set to replace the evil King with Philippe...but D'Artagnan, the King's faithful musketeer is forced to choose between good and evil.

Why he wanted to play the roles
"I was attracted to this project because there are not a lot of movies like this. It's about valour and passion and honor, which I don't see much of, as opposed to this machismo thing that's going on right now with films. There's a lot of appeal in it and the story is so complex. It has so many twists and turns, and you can really get wrapped up in it. I just couldn't put the script down."

The Ups and Downs of filming

Up: The Action Scenes. "The sword-fighting was great, I got to stand in a field and battle with big Johnny Malkovich. It's like anything else. It's like the dancing that I do in this film and the mannerisms of the king. You just have to practice it to the point where you look comfortable doing it and maybe even take it a step further."

Down: Acting in the iron mask. "It definitely feels claustrophobic, and within ten minutes of being in there, I could almost bash my head against the wall in frustration. It must become like part of your own body after a while. I got a sense of it. I wore it around for a while and it just becomes a part of you."

Down: Costumes. Over 14,000 costume changes was done and at times DiCaprio felt insecure about the way he looked. Co-star Gabriel Bryne explains to David Letterman on Late Night, "The first day we had to get into costumes, he (dicaprio) called me over onto the set and asked, 'Gabriel, do I look like an idiot?' I said, 'Leo every woman in the entire universe is madly in love with you. Why would you look like an idiot?' He then counters with, 'Well, I just looked at you and you look like an idiot!'"

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