DiCaprio wanted to gain weight for biopic

London: Actor Leonardo DiCaprio, who is all set to play J. Edgar Hoover, founder of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), says he wanted to put on extra kilos for the character to look real.

"I really wanted to take a break and do the whole real physical transformation. Of course, the film wouldn`t allow it. It was a massive amount of weight to put on in a very short amount of time. So thankfully, I had a lot of people (costume designers) to help me in that transformation and I think it turned out pretty well," contactmusic.com quoted him as saying. DiCaprio, who is known for his gritty roles in movies, including ‘The Beach’ and ‘Shutter Island’, reveals he was delighted to play Hoover in the Clint Eastwood directed biopic. "It was an honour to be able to play a character that has so many eccentricities, somebody that was in power in our country for over 50 years, through eight different presidents, who was in the underground of shaping the country that we know today," he said. "I didn`t agree with a lot of his politics, especially later on in his career. But certainly the world he came into, he transformed our country. He was a true patriot in that sense," he added. IANS