SMILE "Smile, though your heart is aching, Smile, even though it's breaking, When there are clouds in the sky You'll get by, If you smile, through your tears and sorrow, Smile and maybe tomorrow, You'll see the sun come shining through If you'll just smile!"

• Best Supporting Actor Award from the National Board of Review (1993)
  
  
• New Generation Award from Los Angeles Film Critics Association for both What's Eating Gilbert Grape? and This Boy's Life (1993)
  
  
• Premiere Reader's Poll   -    Best Newcomer (1993)
  
  
• Most Promising Actor from the Chicago Film Critics for both What's Eating Gilbert Grape? and This Boy's Life
  
  
• The American Youth Awards  -   Actor of the Year This Boy's Life  1993 - 1994
  
  
• Runner-up for Best Supporting Actor from New York Film Critics Association and the National Society of Film Critics for This Boy's Life

Toby is a troubled teen growing up in the 50's, struggling with not only his own pubescence, but also with a homelife that is sadly lacking. He is being raised by a single mother who has her good qualities, but who is also going through her own inner struggle to find herself...and a decent life for her and her son. She has a habit of running away from her problems, and from relationships. When we first meet them, Toby and his Mom, Carolyn, played by Ellen Barkin, are travelling across the country in a beaten up old car, carelessly and lightheartedly singing to pass the time. Toby is narrating the story, and he explains to us that his Mom is running away from her last 'abusive' relationship. They settle in Utah, where things turn out to be no better, and they again pack up and head North.

When they settle in the Pacific Northwest, Carolyn meets Dwight, played by Leonardo's idol and mentor...Robert DeNiro...who eventually becomes his stepfather from hell!

Leonardo describes Toby this way....

"He just doesn't have a chance. His stepfather is abusive, his mother is crazy, and his best friend is gay. He is a little snot who needed someone strict to guide his life. But he didn't need someone like his stepfather, Dwight. He took strictness to another level."

Dwight is an obsessive compulsive dictator who is enlisted by Carolyn to 'staighten out' her son Toby, who has fallen in with the wrong crowd, and is wasting his life. Dwight decides that being tough with Toby is the only way to 'sraighten him out' and when his tactics don't seem to be working, then he becomes mentally, emotionally and finally, physically abusive to him.

Leonardo remembers in particular one scene that really scared him....when Dwight is teaching him how to box and he gets very real with the punches. Leonardo came out of that scene with not only a real bruise or two...but a new awe for the acting genius of his mentor. He says, "I got a couple of bruises from big old Bobby D!"

Leonardo also says that his work ethic is totally different from DeNiro's...but that he was very blown away by his intensity. He says.."Robert DeNiro is one of the greatest actors that ever lived. That just suddenly hit me when I realized I got this part. I learned a lot from his professionalism and his focus. But I don't work the same way he does. It would take a lot of work for me to get into the character that much. He gets totally, but totally involved in the role. Me? I come in, do the work, and walk away...so I can be myself!"

Leonardo is outstanding in this movie...the role that brought him into the forefront in the industry...the role that led him to so many other 'troubled youth' type roles...and his Academy Award nomination. He brillliantly holds his own in the company of two of the biggest stars of the American cinema...and many thought he not only held his own...but stole the show!!