The Water’s Hot This Time

PHI PHI LE, Thailand —  Storm clouds gathered ominously over Leonardo DiCaprio.

He was aboard a luxury yacht, moored off this idyllic island in the Andaman Sea, resting between scenes of a $45-million 20th Century Fox movie, “The Beach.” Minutes ago the hot sun shone in a cobalt blue sky; the glass-smooth sea’s clear waters were turquoise, turning to jade green in the shallows near Phi Phi Le, where they lapped at fine whitish sand.

Just another day in paradise, right?

Not quite. Heavy black clouds raced in, bringing thunder, lightning and torrential rain. Soon DiCaprio’s boat was at the storm’s epicenter, bobbing on choppy waves.

Talk about an obvious metaphor.

It was already a bad day for DiCaprio, in Thailand to shoot his first lead film role since starring in the record-breaking “Titanic.” He and two French actors, Guillaume Canet and Virginie Ledoyen, playing young Western backpackers, had a scene in which they swim desperately to reach the beach on Phi Phi Le. For hours this involved being in the water,inhabited by jellyfish. One breed of red jelly-fish, which delivers a painful, irritating sting, targeted DiCaprio, who almost passed out and had to retire to his cabin aboard his yacht to recuperate.

Yet DiCaprio has had to endure more than stings since arriving here. “The Beach” is embroiled in an extraordinary environmental controversy gripping Thailand, and DiCaprio--arguably the world’s hottest movie star--is smack dab in the middle.

Based on the novel by English writer Alex Garland, “The Beach” is about a group of young backpackers who find a remote “paradise island” and establish a small, primitive community closed to outsiders who might spoil it, especially tourists. Scenes involving this community were shot on Phi Phi Le’s Maya Beach, a breathtaking stretch of sand protected by a bay with sheer cliffs that almost encircle it.

The British filmmakers behind “The Beach”--producer Andrew MacDonald, director Danny Boyle and writer John Hodge--also made ‘Trainspotting” and “Shallow Grave.” It was decreed that Maya Beach should look even more like paradise, so 60 palm trees were imported and planted, sand dunes were bulldozed and straggly bushes and grasses uprooted.

Phi Phi Le is a designated environmental zone in a Thai national park, yet the filmmakers found Maya Beach anything but unspoiled. Tourists visit the island daily, and, said MacDonald, “we removed three tons of rubbish from the island before we even started.” He paid Thailand’s forestry department $108,000 for permission to shoot the film. Fox posted a $250,000 bond, promising the beach would be returned to its former state (minus garbage). The palms will be removed and replanted; dunes will be bulldozed back in place.

This has not satisfied Thai environmental groups that have opposed the film since preproduction in November. They have demonstrated on the set, wearing masks of a DiCaprio photo with fangs dripping blood.

The film’s opponents also object to the use of a waterfall in a national park in the north of Thailand; a protruding section of fake rock was built near the waterfall to make diving safer for a scene in which beach community members dive 70 feet into deep water.

Protesters are angry the Thai government’s forestry department let national park sites be modified for filming. Ing Kanjanavanit, 39, a Bangkok-based journalist, filmmaker and spokeswoman for opponents of the film, claimed the bond and permission fee represented “over-the-table bribery.” (Protesters stress the contrast between the relatively small sums offered and DiCaprio’s reported $20-million fee for the film.)

Kanjanavanit said Thailand’s National Park Act was violated in granting “The Beach” permission to shoot; she claimed an inappropriate clause of the act was invoked. “My point,” she said, “is that our laws shouldn’t be for sale.”

So, for the first time in his career, DiCaprio’s celebrity, which hit dizzying heights in the wake of “Titanic,” is being used against him. Since January, when the extent of demonstrations against the film became apparent, he has stayed silent. Last week he decided to fight back.

The day after DiCaprio was stung, the shooting schedule was on dry land, probably to his relief. Before starting a closed-set bedroom scene with British actress Tilda Swinton (who plays Sal, the beach community’s manipulative leader), DiCaprio brooded in his trailer.

He had agreed to talk about environmental issues raised by the protesters--but clearly the prospect did not thrill him. Exposure to the Thai sun had given him a light tan, and he has bulked up considerably, making him look older than he appeared in “Titanic.” Yet he seemed nervous, insisting producer MacDonald sit in on the interview. He offered opinions tentatively, obviously wishing to say nothing to further inflame opinion against him or the film. He looked less like the world’s hottest movie star than a young actor of 24 out of his depth in a thorny political situation.

He admitted the protests had affected him: “I don’t know why these things have been said. I haven’t seen any destruction of the beach whatsoever. And I’ve been there every day to witness it. So it gets into the realm of. . . . “ He turned to MacDonald. “Is it OK to say ‘politics,’ do you think?” he asked.

“Yes,” MacDonald said.

“Well, I don’t know if I should get into the realm of where all this started,” DiCaprio said. “It’s none of my business. From what I’ve seen, [the allegations against the film] are false, made up out of thin air. I’ve seen everyone [on set] take the utmost meticulous care. They took tons of trash off [the beach] and it looks better than it ever has before.”

He referred to a survey of Phi Phi Le by Reef Check, a nonprofit organization endorsed by the United Nations, which praised the work done by the production in cleaning up the island.

“In all this controversy my name has been used as symbolic of what’s going on,” DiCaprio said. “That’s upsetting to me, because I don’t want a bad reputation as somebody who endorses something which is hostile to the environment.

“If I want to help out with environmental causes in the future, I want to start with a clean slate, and not have people think I chose movies that are reckless and don’t care about the environment of other countries. Normally I wouldn’t do an interview about stuff that’s not true, which has happened to me a lot in the last year. But this is something I feel strongly about.”

He called the protests “a big waste of time. A lot of energy that people are expending toward this could be put to something of actual use. There are a million important environmental issues going on throughout the world right now, in Thailand and the areas around where we’re filming. That this is getting so much focus. . . . “ He shook his head dispiritedly.

Still, the incident has filled him with resolve. Noting that he had donated money to environmental charities before, including a project to save gorillas in Rwanda, he added: “This year I’m really going to do some big things as far as the environment is concerned. I’m going to become a lot more active.” He paused, censoring himself in mid-flow. “It makes it sound like a cop-out when I say that,” he said, grimacing.

From the many scripts he was offered post-”Titanic,” DiCaprio decided on “The Beach” because he admired Boyle. They met in 1996 at a “Trainspotting” party in Cannes. “I was a big fan of Danny Boyle before this film came about,” he said. I saw the type of filmmaking he does as unique. So when they told me about this, I’d figured out what the theme was, and I was in on the story. I was excited.”

He plays a backpacker named Richard. In a Bangkok hostel he meets a drug-addicted hippie who tells him of a secret, remote paradise beach on an island populated by a small, idealistic group. The hippie kills himself but leaves Richard a crude map of the beach. With a friendly young French couple (Canet and Ledoyen) he sets out to find it. Once there, they learn the island’s terrible secret and the group’s determination to stop more outsiders from joining them. Thus the story is a perfect analogy for the outside world spoiling the remote splendor of the real Maya Beach.

Two days later, Ing Kanjanavanit, the Thai protesters’ leader, sat in a Bangkok coffee shop reflecting on her campaign against “The Beach.” She shrugged when told of DiCaprio’s distress at upsetting Thai environmentalists. “If he doesn’t want to upset us, he should go home,” she said. “Anything else they do or say is just a PR exercise.”

She singled out Boyle for wanting to change the look of Maya Beach, but blamed Thai officials for granting permission to film there because they thought it would promote tourism. “Everything in this country is for sale,” she said, tears springing to her eyes. “It is a banana republic, now more than ever. This affair of ‘The Beach’ is like a mirror. It shows me what sort of country I’m living in.”

Meanwhile, she has reported Fox to the U.S. Justice Department under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Some 37 Thai law professors have petitioned the Minister of Agriculture to revoke the contract giving permission to shoot the film. A hearing is set for March 26. (Shooting is scheduled to end April 11.)

Producer Andrew MacDonald took this reporter on a guided tour of Phi Phi Le with almost missionary zeal, pointing out the imported palm trees, the bulldozed sand dunes, the uprooted scrub. “The grass will grow again here when we irrigate it,” he said.

“This is the first movie made by Westerns in Thailand that actually represents Thailand,” he reflected. “That’s part of the reason there’s so much sensitivity.”

That, and maybe an imprecise response to a delicate situation. DiCaprio’s handlers issued unilateral statements on his behalf, stressing his love for the environment and respect for the Thais. Yet in one statement he endorsed Thailand as a “hot” tourist destination, though the Reef Check survey that he supports specifically named tourism as Phi Phi Le’s major problem.

Still, it seems likely “The Beach” will be completed here, despite all the obstacles put in its way. MacDonald, though, wants vindication, too; he is making a short documentary about the film. “We’ll have before and after pictures,” he said. “And I can’t wait to show them to the world.”