Leonardo DiCaprio: “There is something in my life that is more important than me”

I understand that I have to ask him not quite a tactful question. But he is one of those that excite a great many of his fans. And it will have to be formulated as delicately as possible: actor Leonardo DiCaprio rarely gives interviews, does not like to talk about himself, agrees only to those that can help films with his participation. Involuntarily, it seems to me how a restrained, well-mannered person, sitting opposite me, devoid of gesticulation, preferring a neutral smile from the entire mimic palette, gets up from the table, shows me his height (1 meter 86 cm), says goodbye coldly, turns around on long legs and leaves. And I’m left alone in an empty restaurant…

But in reality, there are still two of us – DiCaprio, the greatest movie star of our time, somehow convinced the management of the hotel in the Hollywood Hills to release the restaurant for our conversation, offered me to order anything from the menu, although he was going to just drink a cappuccino, and now from Thirty local tables are occupied only by our one. And I finally make up my mind.

And I ask my question.

He doesn’t get up and say goodbye coldly. On the contrary, he smiles. And not at all condescendingly – he clearly does not consider this intimate question ridiculous or inappropriate. Leonardo DiCaprio smiles slyly. But colleagues warned me: he is exceptionally smart and subtle, so expecting direct answers from him is at least naive. They were absolutely right. DiCaprio is smart, subtle and, as it turned out, in addition, completely unflappable.

Psychologies: Leonardo, today you are thirty-seven. And I’m unlikely to be mistaken in saying that the question “When will you decide to start a family?” many people are interested. At the same time, you meet exclusively with supermodels. Is this your conscious choice, or perhaps this is how your craving for beauty manifests itself?

Leonardo Di Caprio: You know, I remember how then I found this book – about Howard Hughes, a billionaire, a genius, a director, a pioneer and innovator of aviation, a passionate and insane personality … Actually, this is why the Scorsese film “The Aviator” became possible – because I myself was in the field his attraction. What particularly interested me about Hughes was his obsession with movie stars. Actually, he experienced deep romances only with the stars – with Ava Gardner, with Katharine Hepburn … And I came to the conclusion: the more he admired these women, the more generous his care was, the more he looked at them … like his favorite planes . They turned out to be among his favorite objects and inanimate objects in which he also put his soul … At first – superficial – glance, behind this passion for the stars, it is easy to suspect a desire to make up for something, to acquire something that can fill in some flaws in the image. But I am convinced that behind our relations – human relations in general – there is far from always something social, a gap of a social nature that needs to be filled … Man, of course, is a social being, but mainly psychological. And me too. And in a relationship I’m looking for something else.

You may ask what exactly?

L.D.K.: It is possible, but completely pointless.

You won’t answer?

L.D.K.: I just can’t put it into words. I really believe that there are unspoken matters. But I definitely can’t relate to what I call the Howard Hughes Syndrome, which is when you fill in the beautiful – women, planes, cars, movies – a gaping hole in yourself. With Hughes, of course, he was orphaned early and filled in himself the gap of early loneliness, the gap of dislike. I have a completely different biography, my childhood was completely different.

What is important in your life it determined?

L.D.K.: I myself – and completely determined. You know, you can say that I started to be lucky at birth, and continues. My parents are amazing people. They broke up when I was a year old. But I never, ever felt like I was living in an incomplete family. Dad was always there, and they raised me together. Probably because they are hippies, convinced, with 50 years of experience. At their wedding, Timothy Leary, the “LSD guru”, was the planted father, and Charles Bukowski easily visited dad to see dad’s new comics, dad writes non-traditional, underground comics, satirical, socially relevant, and distributes them … Parents mine are really, genuinely, personally against the war. And at the level of their relations did not conduct hostilities. And they didn’t launch military operations against me – I don’t remember that I was literally brought up, well, there was no this violent element in my upbringing. The main thing I remember is that they always helped.

And in choosing your acting profession?

L.D.K.: I decided to become an actor at the age of five. And my parents obediently took me to different classes, to endless auditions, to some auditions, adjusted their schedule to mine. Mom only said: “You don’t owe anything to anyone, you can stop this at any moment.” And dad consoled me after failures. Once I burst into tears when I was once again refused, and he said, and so with conviction: “One day you will get the role. I have no doubts!” And all this despite the fact that at school I studied worse than anyone, was a cut below the whole class, and either fought with everyone, or made everyone laugh. In general, there was nothing from a charming little artist in me. And I could not be called a promising little talent. I remember school as something like a safari in the wild – without a guide and guards … But my parents endured.

Why do you think?

L.D.K.: For some reason they believed in me. I have always felt that they believe. Oddly enough, they believed in my talent. My grandmother told me later. I was three years old, and my dad said that I was an actor, regardless of whether I could become an actor. Because I did not let him watch TV – I covered the screen and depicted those who were on it, and it turned out quite similar to me … Yes, I was lucky with my parents. They are still hippies, dad still wears a beard, and he has long hair … And I still consider them the wisest people in the world. To be honest, I still don’t agree to shoot without my dad’s advice. He has a whole garage filled with scripts sent to me – he reads them and, after filtering, passes them to me.

Are you saying that you didn’t even survive a teenage protest against your parents?

L.D.K.: You see, whatever I did as a teenager in protest, my mom and dad had already done in their turbulent hippie adolescence. With an earring in the nose, with a joint, you will not surprise anyone with us. But it is precisely the desire to impress the “ancestors” that underlies any teenage protest. My position was, in this sense, hopeless. Yes, and I grew up in such an area … After all, we could not be called a financially prosperous family, so we lived in South Los Angeles. You go to school – syringes creak under your feet, in the evening from a friend – you step over drug addicts in the parish, the homeless … There was a lot of protest without me – in the sense, there was a lot of destructive, destructive around. And I did without my own destructiveness. But at 14, I really felt rejected. Because I was systematically rejected at the auditions, and I already firmly decided that I would only be an actor. Both my father’s new family and our house with my mother were those exceptional places where I did not feel like an outcast … Although, probably, later I still experienced something like a teenage protest. It was a protest against the rules of the new life, by which I was asked to live.

Probably after the Titanic?

L.D.K.: After the Titanic. The impression was that I was entering a new world where I was supposed to be eaten – chewed and swallowed. All these crowds of fans, paparazzi, tabloids, inventing incredible things about me – just incredible! – untruths. I am grateful for Titanic, but it almost killed me as an actor – this romantic sweetness in which I was supposed to be drowned was an obvious denial of what I wanted to do and already did! The denial of the imbecile brother from Gilbert Grape, who seemed to me not devoid of mind, but a free spirit … And the hooligan Romeo from Romeo and Juliet. And Rimbaud from “Total Eclipse” – a man for whom there were no conventions … And here in front of my eyes I turned from an actor into a creamy caramel! And I instinctively began to give in to pepper, play the bad guy, be rude … I myself was tired of myself unthinkably! I don’t know what would have happened next if my grandmother hadn’t given me her, as usual, wise advice then. She was a person who stubbornly and firmly stood on the ground. In the end, she fled Nazi Germany with her parents, she had such a strong survival instinct and such sobriety … And then she said: “Step aside from yourself. Do something with your hands, even lay bricks. From the outside, you will see who you are.” I took a step back… but I did my own thing. Declared “break”. Refused roles. Agreed to the offer Woody Allen – to practically play himself, a spoiled and confused celebrity, in his “Celebrity”. And now I shoot only in projects that seem to me really significant, essential. I do not agree to roles that can make candy out of me.

Today you often play people beyond reason – the same Hughes. There were also “Shutter Island”, “Beginning” … Why are you so eager to go there – into the irrational, beyond the borders of reason, beyond its limits?

L.D.K.: There’s nothing personal here. Nothing personal, but a lot, if you like, eternal. I try to participate in projects, in works that… how to put it… are aimed at eternity, or something. That is, they have the potential for eternal relevance. But these are only such things that tell about what is happening inside a person. And if you ask if obsession is characteristic of me personally, then, believe me, this question is definitely in the wrong place. I do not reduce the world to one point, to one feeling, I try … you see, I want to live to the fullest, learn a lot, see a lot, feel a lot. If I’m focused on protecting my world from prying eyes, from the tabloids – which is futile, I know – it’s only because I want people to see my characters on top of me. And not me for the heroes. I am generally a secretive person who opens up, is not afraid to open up. But people don’t need to know much about me to believe in my heroes. I’m going to exist in this business, in acting, for a long time. So it is important for me that people believe in my heroes.

Few of your colleagues, including recognized stars, would dare to say such a phrase: “I’m going to be in this business for a long time.” What fuels your confidence?

L.D.K.: My confidence is a consequence of the fact that I am easier on the so-called demand. In general, now I try to live easier – to perceive life as it is – with luck, bad luck, losses. I want to do cinema, which means I will find a way to do it under any circumstances. With new technologies, this is not even particularly expensive. I am occupied with other things and other thoughts.

Which for example?

L.D.K.: I feel more and more that we are all connected. That we own each other’s destinies. I first felt it many years ago… River. River Phoenix. He meant a lot to me, I was an aspiring actor, and he, at 23, was already recognized. And indeed, he played amazingly – in “My Own Private Idaho”, in “That which is called love.” He was, you could say, my idol. I met him at a party. That is, I was standing at the door of the house where the party was, and he had already left it and crossed the street. I saw him on the other side and was going to call out – I wanted to meet him. But cars passed between us and people walked. Music, rumble, hubbub… I thought, okay, there will be more opportunities. He left. Then it turned out that from that party, River went straight to the Viper Room, a club partly owned by Johnny Depp and now infamous as the place where River Phoenix died of an overdose … I mean, you know, if I called out to him, if I delayed , he might have fallen not on the threshold of the club, but during a conversation with me … And he could still be helped … But what happened happened. I didn’t help him. But now I feel these connections – all of us with all of us. And I think about it more and more.

Is that why you became an environmental activist? Is that where your documentaries come from, and your generous donations, and your concern for the survivors of the earthquake in Haiti?

L.D.K.: Probably. I feel like a very happy person. I was lucky in my life and career, I seem to use my abilities for the intended purpose … But the main thing that is needed for happiness is, in my opinion, not abilities and not luck. It is to find something that you feel is more important than yourself. I succeeded. Perhaps this is also luck.