Leonardo DiCaprio can claim, with some justification, to be the star that
helped turn Hollywood green. It was he who was at the vanguard of the move
towards eco-driving when he bought a Toyota Prius more than seven years ago.
He was followed by everyone from George Clooney to Harrison Ford and Cameron
Diaz.
However, unlike some stars, who supplement their fashionable hybrid car with a
Hummer, DiCaprio puts more of his money where his mouth is: rather than fly
in a private jet he insists on travelling on commercial airlines, and his
recent films - including a documentary on the environment - suggest a
passion that is more than a publicity stunt.
In fact, when we meet in the week of the American election, he can hardly
contain his excitement at the result that saw Barack Obama storm to victory.
“That was a present and a celebration all rolled into one,” he says,
explaining that he has met the president-elect. “I feel proud to be an
American again. He has more charisma than any actor I’ve ever met and he
also cares about the environment.”
In a move that would have DiCaprio nodding his head with approval, Obama plans
to convert the government vehicle fleet to plug-in hybrids that will run on
electricity generated by the national grid.
“I am an eco-geek and like to endorse new technology,” says DiCaprio. “We have
to find an alternative to fuel which is going to run out. It is only a
matter of time. Thinking about the future got me started in the first
place.” As well as his Toyota Prius, his latest car is equally in tune with
the times - a BMW H7, which runs on hydrogen.
The actor wasn’t always so planet-conscious: his first car, bought when he was
16, was a 1969 Ford Mustang, one of the original muscle cars. “It broke down
on the freeway three times,” he says. “I nearly died [of embarrassment].”
His conversion can be traced back eight years to when he was cast as the star
in the film version of The Beach, the book by Alex Garland that tells the
story of a group of backpackers who find an Eden-like island in Thailand -
but which they gradually corrupt. The story was mirrored in reality with
reports that the filming process led to the ruination of the Thai beach used
as a location.
DiCaprio’s response when he returned was to buy a Prius and take up the
environmental mantle. “It occurred to me that we inevitably ruin wherever we
go,” he says. “What starts off as paradise does not seem to last too long.
It was an important time for me. I had to face life head-on.”
Today DiCaprio looks relaxed and fit in an olive green sweatshirt. He turned
34 last week and his 6ft frame has filled out, but his face remains
unblemished and he hardly looks any older than when he first began being
noticed in films such as What’s Eating Gilbert Grape (1993) and Romeo +
Juliet (1996).
He says acting was a way out of poverty for him. He was brought up among the
mixture of run-down shops and tawdry cafes that make up the seedier side of
Hollywood. His hippie parents - German mother Irmelin and Italian father
George - split up when he was a baby, and he was raised in a cluster of
streets known as Syringe Alley, because junkies dropped their heroin needles
there. “Money was always on my mind when I was growing up,” he says. “If I
am honest, that is what inspired me to come into acting. I was aware that a
lot of people in Los Angeles were earning great money.
“At the same time, I was always wondering how we were going to afford this and
that. My mother did not make a big thing of it, but it was impossible to
ignore. Acting seemed to be a shortcut to getting out of the mess.”
Even he could not have dreamt of the success that was coming his way, however.
In 1997 James Cameron was casting around for a working-class actor to play
opposite Kate Winslet in the film Titanic. DiCaprio was perfect for the
part, and the film went on to break all box office records, taking a massive
$1.8 billion (£1.2 billion) worldwide and making him one of the world’s
hottest young stars. He says the sudden mega-stardom was unnerving: on one
occasion a fan in Paris fell to her knees and held on to his leg, refusing
to let go.
“I have always been nervous of big-budget studio films,” says DiCaprio. “The
hype and the marketing frighten me. Overall, though, I was glad to be part
of Titanic. As an actor I look at movies as a relevant art form, like a
painting or sculpture. A hundred years from now, people will still be
watching that movie.”
Even so, he has spent most of the intervening years turning down films that he
feared would thrust him back into the spotlight - Spider-Man was one - and
he tried to manoeuvre himself away from the paparazzi with less mainstream
movies such as last year’s The 11th Hour, about the threat to the
environment of global warming.
His latest film thriller, Body of Lies, from the respected British director
Ridley Scott, tells the story of murky goings on in the world of
counter-terrorism. In one scene his character, CIA man Roger Ferris, is
tortured to extract information. “I was strapped up to a wooden table for
hours and hours, with my hands wired to it,” he says. “There was enough
stuff there to freak me out - yet it was a film, not real life.
“Body of Lies was probably the toughest film since Titanic. I found the whole
thing difficult to deal with. Fortunately, as an actor, I am not the type
who goes home and broods about my character. I can go from playing the role
on a film set to being myself in a very short space of time. I especially
needed that sort of approach on Body of Lies, because, otherwise, the part
could have been harmful. As it was, the only mental pressure was waiting and
wondering about what would go on screen.”
The film is set mainly in the Middle East and DiCaprio and his co-star Russell
Crowe spent months on location. “It was quite a shock to be suddenly filming
in Morocco, alongside Russell, being shot at from helicopters,” he says. “A
lot of life is put on hold when you make these movies. Everything –
including personal relationships – is put on ice when being on location for
five or six months.”
He gives the impression that he is glad to be back and taking it easy, but it
is not just in his professional life that he yearns for a quieter time.
There was a point a few years ago when he earned a reputation as a hard
partying, hard drinking playboy with a string of glamorous girlfriends.
Those days, you suspect, are behind him. “I celebrated my birthday over a
quiet dinner with family and friends,” he says. “Ten years ago, it would
have been a giant party.”
Rather than cruising Sunset Strip in his spare time, he now dreams of escaping
and indulging in his distinctly nonHollywood passion for wildlife. “I am
regularly able to escape to watch wildlife in Africa and South America,” he
says. “Looking at lions, elephants and zebras in the wild is a passion. When
watching whales, it brings it home what a wonderful world it is out there.
I’ve had pet dogs, frogs and even a lizard.
“Animals have always been a big passion for me and I remember, at one stage,
wanting to be a travel agent so I could get out in the world.”
MY STUFF...
ON MY CD PLAYER
I am a fan of hip-hop, the band A Tribe Called Quest, in particular, and my
friend Q-Tip. I have been trying to persuade him to put out another solo
album and he’s finally about to do so. It’s called The Renaissance
ON MY DVD PLAYER
Every film with Jack Nicholson and Robert De Niro and every film directed by
Martin Scorsese. There are also old films: The Third Man, Lawrence of
Arabia, Sunset Boulevard and East of Eden. One of my favourites is The
Bicycle Thief, made in 1948 by the Italian director Vittorio De Sica
I WOULD NEVER THROW AWAY
I would never throw away my passport. I love travel and it’s like having a key
to the rest of the world
MODEL ROMANCES
DiCaprio briefly dated Helena Christensen, the Danish supermodel turned
photographer, in 1997 when he was 23
He met Eva Herzigova, the Czech model most famous for those “Hello boys”
Wonderbra ads, at a premiere in 1998 and they dated for about a month
Gisele Bündchen, the Brazilian supermodel and actress, reportedly called off
their four-year relationship when DiCaprio showed no sign of proposing.
He has been dating Bar Rafaeli, a 23-year-old Israeli model since they met at
a party for U2, the Irish rock band, in Las Vegas in 2005
LEONARDO DiCAPRIO: MY LIFE IN CARS
1969 FORD MUSTANG DiCaprio’s first car, bought when he was 16: ‘It
broke down on the freeway three times’
TOYOTA PRIUS In 2001 he became one of the first Hollywood stars to
switch to a petrol-electric eco-car
ASTON MARTIN DB5 The car he drove in the 2002 film Catch Me If You Can,
playing the fraudster Frank Abagnale Jr
BMW H7 DiCaprio’s latest motor may look like a fuel-hungry executive
saloon - but it burns hydrogen, not petrol
