“I’m starved, I haven’t eaten all day,” is the first thing Leonardo DiCaprio says when he arrives in a backroom at a downtown restaurant in New York. In a moment, DiCaprio has ordered what feels like everything on the menu. Even a few minutes in, you feel like you’re having dinner with a regular guy, albeit one better looking than any guy you’ve ever met, and who’s also the world’s biggest movie star. What becomes clear is DiCaprio has just as voracious an appetite for teaming with the best directors as long as they’ll challenge themselves to take the biggest […]

These days the world-famous actor devotes much of his time and money to saving the planet, and this passion, along with his interest in history, is among the reasons that led him to star in the movie The Revenant. You frequently star in films based on real people and events in history. Why?I like stories in specific time periods. The Revenant’s era of American history was fascinating because it was this lawless no-man’s land. It defined the idea of the American frontiersman as man conquering nature. In a way, the story of Hugh Glass is about man dominating nature. Why […]

Leonardo DiCaprio looks older than you’d think. DiCaprio carries himself deliberately. He doesn’t walk; he saunters. He speaks intensely, mulling his words while locking his eyes on you. He looks all of his 30 years, if not more. There’s only a trace of the boy who starred seven years ago in the biggest box office hit of all time. “Yes, I can play younger than my age,” he says with a grin over chocolate-dipped strawberries and biscotti at the Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel. “But I can play characters older than I am, too. I’m not an actor who can just […]

“Most recently, the last few years, I feel way more comfortable than I’ve ever felt. You always talk about that, and then one day you’re like: If they don’t like this, well, f* ’em. What can you do? It’s a resignation to life and who you are. Hey look, I’m pretty well-formed as an adult now. I don’t have to impress anybody. You ask yourself these different questions: What do I want to do? Interesting question: What do I want to do? What makes me really happy? I’ve learned all these things that I’m supposed to do. I know I’m […]

Hollywood Mavericks – The Leading Man Leonardo DiCaprio, 38 Meet the emancipated Leonardo DiCaprio, a single-name superstar who’s broken free of the shackles that constrain other A-listers: Don’t accept a supporting role? (Too late.) Never mess with a beloved classic? (Whoops.) Under no circumstances play a bad guy? (Does a virulently racist slave owner count?) “I apologize if my voice is out—I’ve been screaming all day,” Leonardo DiCaprio says from the Long Island set of Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street. Taking a respite in his production office, he sounds sleepy, scratchy, and, quite frankly on this late-October afternoon, […]