Back in 1997, when James Cameron’s Titanic came out, then young actor Leonardo DiCaprio rose to the ranks of the biggest teenage heartthrobs of the late 90s. Sure, DiCaprio had already been collecting romantic roles in movies like 1995’s Total Eclipse and 1996’s Romeo + Juliet, but Titanic was the one that turned him into an instant teen crush. This is, as many performers that have failed to keep their string of successes going after being labeled as such can tell you, a dangerous position to be in. Due to a combination of typecasting and a lack of respect for anything enjoyed by teenage girls, actors tend to look for a way out of the teen bubble, usually investing in more so-called serious movies. For instance, Twilight’sRobert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart appeared in movies like David Cronenberg’s Cosmopolis and Olivier Assayas’ Clouds of Sils Maria, respectively. But DiCaprio’s first post-Titanic role was not one that challenged his heartthrob status. Instead, Randall Wallace’s The Man in the Iron Mask grabbed onto its star’s looks and fanbase and ran with it. However, that does not mean that the movie did not give its lead the space he needed to show his acting chops.

Now, DiCaprio was already a pretty respected young actor by the time Titanic dropped, with heavy movies like This Boy’s Life and The Basketball Diaries on his resume. He even got an Oscar nom in 1994 for his supporting role in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape. Yet, somehow, Titanic put him in the position of having to prove to others that he was more than just a pretty face. “It was pretty disheartening to be objectified like that,” he told Newsweek in 2007. “I wanted to stop acting for a little bit. It changed my life in a lot of ways, but at the same time, I can’t say that it didn’t give me opportunities. It made me, for the first time, in control of my career. But yeah, it was weird.” And then along came the script for The Man in the Iron Mask, a movie with a star-studded cast full of well-established actors that gave DiCaprio the opportunity to tackle two extremely different roles at the same time.

Leonardo DiCaprio Plays Twin Brothers in ‘The Man in the Iron Mask’

As twin brothers King Louis XIV and Phillippe, DiCaprio didn’t exactly get out of the pretty boy box that so unnerved him. After all, as the movie’s main villain and its hero, he had to be, at the same time, cruel and kind, decadent and innocent, the bad boy you’re not supposed to fall for and the smiling sweetheart that unfortunately knows too much about the horrors of the world. He makes you want to slap him, but he also makes you want to comfort him, and isn’t that what teenage infatuation is all about?

Still, in playing these dual roles, DiCaprio still managed to show audiences what he was made of, not just by proving that he could play a villain, but also by making it clear that he had the range for various kinds of parts. It’s actually pretty safe to say that DiCaprio carries the movie on his shoulders, and that’s no small feat considering the actors he had by his side. Based on the classic novels of Alexandre Dumas, as well as on the legends that surround a very real 17th century French convict known as “The Man in the Iron Mask”, Wallace’s film features Jeremy Irons, John Malkovich, and Gérard Depardieu as the three musketeers Aramis, Athos, and Porthos, and Gabriel Byrne as their former young apprentice D’Artagnan, now captain of the royal guard. With King Louis starving his people to death while waging a bloody war, Athos, Porthos, and Aramis concoct a plan to replace him with his brother, Phillippe, who is hidden in the infamous Bastille prison, his face perpetually covered by an iron mask.

Indeed, for a young performer, such as DiCaprio was at the time, the chance to share the screen with such household names was a significant opportunity. However, the performances in The Man in the Iron Mask are very uneven. With pacing issues that are to be expected from a director’s debut and an extremely melodramatic script that is reminiscent of telenovelas, the supporting cast fall short of expectations.

Leonardo DiCaprio Proved His Acting Chops Once Again in ‘The Man in the Iron Mask’

But DiCaprio knew very well what he wanted from this movie. He saw the promise of playing dual roles, grabbed the opportunity with both hands, and refused to let go. His performance in The Man in the Iron Mask is nothing if not great. As Phillippe, he is innocent, charming, almost childlike, his development stunted by his years in prison. As King Louis, he is hateful, experienced, his eyes filled with a cruelty that is completely absent from Phillippe’s. He still has a charm, but only because he needs it to attract naive young women to his bed before getting rid of them. The two characters could not be more different from one another, and DiCaprio infuses a very distinct energy into each one of them. In scenes where the two appear together, the ease with which we are able to recognize Louis and Phillippe is almost instinctive: Louis is haughty, with a constant air of disgust around him, while Phillippe always looks nervous and kind, even as he is begging his brother to kill him instead of returning him to prison.

The scene in which DiCpario shines the most, though, is one in which Phillippe is completely alone. During a masquerade ball, the musketeers manage to kidnap the real king and replace him with his brother. It’s an on the nose moment about wearing a mask to conceal your own identity, but it actually works brilliantly. Entering the ballroom with his face barely covered, Phillippe is nonetheless wearing a disguise. His clothes are not his own, and neither is his skin. He’s supposed to not just imitate Louis, but, to an extent, become him. He fails at the task, of course. He is much too kind to treat his subjects with disdain. But it is as he is marching across the dancefloor that DiCaprio shines, his face a perfect combination of Louis’ arrogance and Phillippe’s fear. The balance he finds is so great that we can understand how someone could miss the nervousness underneath the cold facade while also witnessing it in full force.

‘The Man in the Iron Mask’ Is an Extremely Fun Experience

The result of The Man in the Iron Mask’s ambitious combination of elements is a movie that might not be great, but it is absolutely one of the funnest, most entertaining swashbuckle adventures of its time. And we’re talking about the year that gave us The Mask of Zorro, mind you. Sure, the characters might be stereotypical and their stories tailor-made to provoke an emotional reaction in the viewer, but, by God, if it doesn’t work. Likewise, the action scenes might often be too unbelievable, such as when the musketeers manage to emerge unscathed after being shot at by an entire regiment, but are they exciting? Yes! Yes, they are! And even though they are not particularly well-choreographed, the sword fights are engaging and make you want to jump off the couch, brandishing your remote as if it were a rapier.

While the movie may not have impressed critics, it raked in an impressive $183 million at the global box office. As for DiCaprio, in the years following The Man in the Iron Mask, he continued to prove himself in critically acclaimed movies, from Catch Me If You Can to Gangs of New York. He became one of Martin Scorsese’s many muses, working with him in Gangs, The Aviator, The Departed, Shutter Island, The Wolf of Wall Street, and, most recently, Killers of the Flower Moon. The lesson that we can derive from this story? Well, even if a movie is not the best of all time, if an actor has what it takes and is truly committed to their role, they can take it to new heights. Sure, The Man in the Iron Mask is not Cosmopolis, but DiCaprio did everything in his power to shine in his roles, and made the film better in the process.