The true story behind Dicaprio’s darkest challenge yet
Leonardo Dicaprio is set to play infamous Jonestown cult leader Jim Jones — an expert reveals what to expect
WHAT WAS JONESTOWN?
IN ONCE UPON A Time In Hollywood he faced down a terrifying real-life cult; now Leonardo Dicaprio will be starring as the leader of one. Jim Jones — soon to be played by Dicaprio in a new film he is also producing — was a pastor who started the Peoples Temple in Indianapolis in the 1950s. “He began with this message of social justice and racial equality,” explains Julia Scheeres, Jonestown expert and author of A Thousand Lives, a history of the Jonestown settlement and massacre. “He had an integrated church at a time when the US was deeply segregated. People were attracted to that.” But as his teachings grew more extreme, so did the media interest, which led Jones to move his followers to the jungle in Guyana to build Jonestown, a supposed socialist utopia. It was here, in 1978, that the increasingly paranoid Jones orchestrated a mass murder-suicide, encouraging his congregation to drink a cyanide-laced punch. More than 900 people died, including nearly 300 children.
WHO WAS JIM JONES?
What kind of man could entrap so many people? “He was a chameleon,” says Scheeres. “He told you what you wanted to hear. People believed he was a faith healer with special powers. He could capture people’s attention.” Understandable, then, that Dicaprio would find the role compelling. But Scheeres argues that a respectful telling of this story shouldn’t put Jones centre stage. “The concern is the film sensationalising this without humanising Jones’ victims. It should honour those who died in Jonestown, not treat them as backdrops. They should have a voice.”
WHAT DID KOOL-AID HAVE TO DO WITH THIS?
Referring to Jonestown’s fatal drink, the now everyday phrase “drinking the Kool-aid”, is inaccurate — it was actually a poisoned mix of cheap knock-off Flavor Aid. Scheeres believes it falsely represents the massacre. “It implies people willingly died, when they didn’t,” she says. “There was systematic planning to kill them. Jones talked about his fantasies of killing a group of people before they even moved to Guyana.”
WHY NOW?
There have been Jonestown TV movies, documentaries, even a horror inspired by it — but never a major Hollywood film with A-list backing. It’s a fascinating story with lasting cultural impact, so why hasn’t it hit the big screen yet? “It’s very dark,” says Scheeres. “There’s no Hollywood happy ending. There’s lots of stigma and misinformation around Jonestown. It’s not an uplifting story, so it will be interesting to see how they pull it off.”