Leonardo DiCaprio is "slowing down" now he's in his 50s and is becoming more picky about his acting projects.

The Hollywood actor - who turned 50 in November - admitted he's taking on fewer projects now but he couldn't "say no" to working with director Paul Thomas Anderson on new movie One Battle After Another.

He told PEOPLE: "I'm slowing down a bit ... When these opportunities come up, I mean, I can't say no ...

"I think anytime would've been the right time [to work with Anderson], to be honest. Ever since I met Paul early on and I saw Boogie Nights, I've been an obsessive fan of his work, watched all his movies.

"His films ruminate in my mind and they're conversation pieces with my friends, they last ... Awards can come and go, accolades, box office can come and go, but those pieces of art, that you still talk about and still think about and still question.

"Those are the films that we strive for as an actor. And Paul is the dude of our generation that does them."

In a separate interview with Variety, DiCaprio admitted he was thrilled he got to work with the director on this particular film, in which he plays a washed-up revolutionary living off-grid who comes out of hiding after his daughter is kidnapped.

He told the publication: "Anytime you get somebody that's really trying to do a massive spectacle-odyssey, that is such a unique filmmaker like Paul, you have to jump at the opportunity.

"To tell you the truth, I would've done any movie that he proposed, because he's that unique and interesting of a filmmaker and that great. But I'm glad I got to do this one."

He added of the film: "We did a lot of crazy stuff in this movie. But you know, that's the difference of what Paul does. It's different than everything else. He wants to see the dude fall."

The movie has already won praise from famed director by none other than Steven Spielberg, who called the film "insane" during a question and answer session with Anderson at the Director's Guild of America theater in Los Angeles.

According to The Film Stage, Spielberg said: "What an insane movie, oh my God.

"There is more action in the first hour of this than every other film you've ever directed put together. Everything, it is really incredible.

"This is such a concoction of things that are so bizarre and at the same time so relevant, that I think have become increasingly more relevant than perhaps even when you finished the screenplay and assembled your cast and crew and began production."