10 Things You Don't Know About Leo DiCaprio

[WyldeMan45]

You knew Leonardo DiCaprio was a movie star the first time you saw him on-screen. He keeps getting better because he watches the other movie stars (and directors and cameramen and costume designers) he works with -- watches them with intensity -- and he learns. Here DiCaprio, 35, the centerpiece of Martin Scorsese's new thriller, "Shutter Island" (opening February 19), talks about what he's picked up along the way in the March issue of Esquire.

1. On His Childhood
"The earliest memories I have are jumping up onstage before concerts in downtown LA and trying to get on the mic and breakdance, or do imitations of my mother's friends or my father's friends, or be a comic in class. I was the most insane child you can imagine, pretty intolerable to be around. High-octane energy all the time, never wanting to focus on schoolwork."

2. On Risks and Really Growing Up
"What you risk just to have thrills when you're in your twenties is absurd. It's all part of that process of doing things that are daring to be accepted by your peers -- and it's absolutely insane. You can enter a never-ending vapid hole trying to catch the next exciting moment without ever stopping to appreciate it. It can be a never-ending process of chasing something that isn't there. I know it's a clich, but I'm happy to be alive. I went skydiving and my chutes didn't open. Two of them."

3. On Fame After 'Titanic'
"It wasn't the era of penetrating Internet paparazzi that we have now. But my name wasn't me anymore. I was sort of this thing. Kate felt it, too. But a lot of the attention was on me because of the teenage girls who repeatedly went to see the movie. I had the blond hair, and I was Jack Dawson, this heroic figure. So I set up everything in my personal life to rebel against that image in order to strip it down. I had a lot of fun stripping it down. But ultimately, that knocked me a few rungs down the ladder."

4. On the Night River Phoenix Died
"When I was eighteen, River Phoenix was far and away my hero. Think of all those early great performances -- 'My Own Private Idaho.' 'Stand by Me.' I always wanted to meet him. One night, I was at this Halloween party, and he passed me. He was beyond pale -- he looked white. Before I got a chance to say hello, he was gone, driving off to the Viper Room, where he fell over and died. That's a lesson."



5. On the Greatest Actor in the World: Meryl Streep
"Then when I sat in the theater, it was, 'Oh, my God, she's the only person who looks completely natural.' She's the only person who has actually made her character into a real human being who would have an erratic moment because those erratic moments are what make you more human. That was a huge moment of discovery. Meryl may be the greatest actor in the world."

6. On That 'Confrontation Scene in 'The Departed'
"In 'Departed,' we had this confrontation scene. How would I react to him being suspicious of me being the rat? We did the scene, felt good about it, and that was it for the day. But I believe Jack went up to Marty afterward and said, 'I don't know if he necessarily believed me. I don't know if he was sincerely threatened.' Marty said, 'Let's do it again tomorrow.' So I come on the set the next day and hear we're doing the scene over for lighting reasons. Okay. But then a prop guy comes over to me and says, 'Just to let you know, there were some props Jack asked for. I had to get him a fire extinguisher, a bottle of whiskey, a lighter, and a gun.' "

7. On What He Learned From a Mustard Jar
"When I was 15, I got this amazing opportunity to audition for this plum role opposite Robert De Niro and Ellen Barkin in 'This Boy's Life.' Before that, it was 'The New Lassie' or a Bubble Yum commercial. They were using the mustard-jar scene in the audition. De Niro was going up to the kids with this almost empty mustard jar and cramming it into their faces, really pushing the kids' buttons. The scene was being used to see if the kid could stand up to De Niro, and it was hard not to be overwhelmed. When he started bludgeoning me, I completely overcompensated. He said, 'Is this empty? Is this empty?' I slapped the jar out of his hand, got right up in his face, and screamed at the top of my lungs, 'Noooooooo!' It was the most god-awful way to do the scene. I was supposed to be the victim, not the antagonizer, and there was complete silence. De Niro looks at me and goes, 'Heh, heh, heh, heh, heh,' in that way only De Niro can laugh. 'That was good. That was goooood. I like that. A little over-the-top but good.' "



8. On What You Can Learn From a Plate of Spaghetti
"What can you learn from a plate of spaghetti? I've never been asked that one before. I loved that character in 'Gilbert Grape.' You have to understand that Arnie was a creation that came out of going to a home in Texas and getting to hang out for a few days with some mentally disabled kids. I got to capture their youth-like innocence and that playfulness, that almost rebellious defiance they have for almost any type of authority. I remember going to Lasse Hallstrm with this checklist for him to do with the character. It was really Lasse believing in me and allowing me to run amok in all these scenes. It was incredibly fulfilling because there were no rules. Zero. There was nothing I wasn't able to do, no circumstance that I couldn't create, even if it was in defiance of the narrative. So Lasse would put a plate of spaghetti in front of me at the table, just to see how I could create chaos. You have to really look at that plate of spaghetti and understand how happy Arnie is because he's getting to eat his favorite food. The fact that there's this family dynamic going on around the table that's filled with tension doesn't matter if you're Arnie ... because he's getting to eat spaghetti."

9. On Jack Nicholson
"Out of any actor, I can't think of anyone who's got more memorable moments in cinema than Jack Nicholson. Jack never takes a single line straight on. Never takes an emotion written in the script at face value. He brings terror into what you thought was supposed to be a light moment and makes a light moment out of a cutthroat vicious line. He flips everything on its side. When you're working with somebody like that, it's just a matter of keeping up."

10. On 'Shutter Island'
"I have to say, I'm pretty proud of 'Shutter Island.' I'd love to tell you a particular story about it, but I can't. I'm not going to talk about it in any detail because I don't want to ruin it for anyone who's going to watch it."

[WyldeMan45]

Huh, 61 people stopped by to read this and apparently all 61 of you knew everything you read cause not one single person of you 61 commented on any of these good stories.

[Jellybeans]

Originally Posted by WyldeMan45

Huh, 61 people stopped by to read this and apparently all 61 of you knew everything you read cause not one single person of you 61 commented on any of these good stories.

I know that Leo is a lucky guy going out with the gorgeous Bar Refaeli and i envy him!

[Idioteque...]

3. On Fame After 'Titanic'
"It wasn't the era of penetrating Internet paparazzi that we have now. But my name wasn't me anymore. I was sort of this thing. Kate felt it, too. But a lot of the attention was on me because of the teenage girls who repeatedly went to see the movie. I had the blond hair, and I was Jack Dawson, this heroic figure. So I set up everything in my personal life to rebel against that image in order to strip it down. I had a lot of fun stripping it down. But ultimately, that knocked me a few rungs down the ladder."


I love how he was trying to go against that typecast but he sort of remotely put himself in those positions. I think Scorsese and DeNiro really saved him and after Aviator, the old Leo we knew was long gone. This is the mature Leo. And he doesn't even smile anymore, he's always got that stern face with the goatee friggin awesome.

Bale just went crazy after his kid days. Running naked and killing women in American Psycho and going super skinny and eating maggots.

Pitt's another success story but the dude's always had great movies. Just nobody wanted to see him play a character that wasn't supposed to be about looks but from being a limo driver to being one of the kings of hollywood. Insane.

[Blu Myers]

Interesting read. I've always been really interested in just about any movie Leo has played in. He's a really talented actor and I think he'll be around a long time. I always thought "The Beach" was really interesting.

Favorite Leo Movies:

1. The Departed
2. Gangs of NY
3. Shutter Island
4. The Beach
5. Titanic
6. Catch Me If You Can
7. Basketball Diaries

[Dexter Morgan]

One of my favorite actors. He's really matured into a great talent since the Growing Pains days.

[Blu Myers]

Originally Posted by leem6453

Interesting read. I've always been really interested in just about any movie Leo has played in. He's a really talented actor and I think he'll be around a long time. I always thought "The Beach" was really interesting.

Favorite Leo Movies:

1. The Departed
2. Gangs of NY
3. Shutter Island
4. The Beach
5. Titanic
6. Catch Me If You Can
7. Basketball Diaries

I have no recollection of writing this. It's amazing how time fogs the memory.

[s2mikey]

Originally Posted by Dexter Morgan

One of my favorite actors. He's really matured into a great talent since the Growing Pains days.

I disagree - I feel hes entirely out of his league in most films. He keeps doing these monster "character epics" but UNLIKE Daniel Day-Lewis I can tell hes acting in every one of them. Doesnt help that the films all suck too. Thats not his fault though.

Hes lucky to be a hit with the ladies & a draw because of it or I feel he'd be much less popular than if he had to get by on acting "talent" alone. Oh well. It pays to be handsome

[JavaJulien]

It's funny that over the years, DiCaprio has quickly become one of my favorite actors in Hollywood. Calvin Candie is still my favorite role of his,

[Bytor2112]

Another thing that people don't know about Leo is......

....he came in 3rd in 1998's Peoples 50 Most Beautiful People, losing to Hank The Angry Drunken Dwarf who won! LOL, the power of Stern nation is great.



In May 1998, People Magazine conducted an online poll on their website asking the public to vote to determine the “Most Beautiful People” in the world, as part of the promotion for their annual Spring issue. The film Titanic had been released the previous Winter, and had a prominent position in American popular culture. There were indications that People's editors simply assumed that the film's leading star, Leonardo DiCaprio, would automatically garner the most votes.[10]
The magazine owned by Time Inc. also allowed readers to submit a write-in candidate. The suggestion to vote for Hank the Angry Drunken Dwarf started on a Stern fan website and was discussed on message boards; then Howard Stern mentioned it on air a few times. Word started to spread and votes for Hank started coming into People Online at a rate of fifty per minute.[7] The voting lasted a week, and by that Wednesday Hank had garnered 50,000 votes as a write-in candidate.[13]
The following Tuesday, the official poll results were posted and Hank the Angry Drunken Dwarf had won by a landslide with 230,169 votes.[14] DiCaprio’s final tally was 14,471 votes (third place). In second-place was another write-in candidate, professional wrestler Ric Flair, with 17,145 votes.[15] The executive editor of People at the time was none too thrilled with the poll's outcome, stating: "Frankly, I think it's stupid."[10]
When People's "50 Most Beautiful People" issue hit newsstands, DiCaprio graced the cover. (The magazine photographed Hank so that he was mentioned on their website along with the more famous runners-up).[16]
Details of what had happened with the poll were picked up by various media; as one writer explained, "Voting for Hank offered people a chance to violate People's expectations while still playing by its rules”.[17] Some observers concluded that the reaction by the public to vote for Hank was a veiled commentary on how the media assumes that the masses are easily manipulated into liking what is marketed to them.[10] The New York Times quoted a participant in the poll as stating, "The 'media' tells us what food to eat, what movies to see, what music to listen to, who to vote for politically and what kind of people are attractive enough to have relationships with!...Voting for 'Hank the Dwarf' is a reflection of how the people really feel about media!"[10]
And some saw it as public recognition of Hank's "inner beauty."[18] Hank himself often wondered what it all meant.[7]

[NARMAK]

'Troll voting' like that tbh, is now par for the course. In fact, the reasons behind it are usually to give a slap in the face of the medias obsession with trying to cram stuff down our throats.

Still, 98 is quite early years for internet voting, so the write in figures to give that landslide are damn impressive lol.

Regarding the 10 things bout Leo, I never bothered to read up on the guy so they were all new-ish, but not particularly 'interesting' per se as I would've expected.

Leo is one of those funny sorta actors to me where I usually have a problem getting into their performances and he's probably the most well known of the batch.

[TheHighRoller]

Originally Posted by JavaJulien

It's funny that over the years, DiCaprio has quickly become one of my favorite actors in Hollywood. Calvin Candie is still my favorite role of his,

He was great as Candie, but I felt like he broke character a few times.