When he was young: "When I was young, I had this thing where I wanted to see everything.
I used to think, 'How can I die on this earth without seeing every
inch of this world?'"
On his personality: "I'm not really the quiet type although some people think I am. But
I'm the rebel type in the sense that I don't think I'm like anyone else."
On a bad experience meeting a fan while playing basketball: "This
girl came up and said, 'I'm your biggest fan. Give me your t-shirt.' I told her,
I'm not going to give you this t-shirt off my back, I'm playing basketball. I'll give you
an autograph or something, but that's about it. Ten minutes later she gets
her mother to come and tell me she has a daughter dying of cancer in a
hospital and that I should sign my t-shirt to her. So, trying to be a nice guy,
I did."
As the woman disappeared around the corner, Leo remembered the
conversation had started off as the girl being a car crash victim, not
cancer, so he gave chase and found the woman and her daughter round
the corner laughing about duping Leonardo DiCaprio. "It really bummed me
out. It's like I'm not even there, like I'm just some mechanical thing walking
around that isn't really human. I took it really personally."
On meeting fans: "A lot of actors have problems with people approaching
them, but I've never minded it. What's the worst thing that could happen?
Unless someone's going to be violent, the worst is that somebody's going
to want an autograph, or shake your hand, or talk to you for a couple of
seconds--and that's never harmed anyone. It's a small price to pay for the
kind of work I get to do. I know I've had more fun being famous that I
would've had otherwise."
On his friends:
"We party and play video games. We're all a bunch of daredevils so we're
always challenging each other to things like bungee jumping or sky diving.
It's how I keep my head straight. They were so important to me on the
(Mexican) sets of Romeo & Juliet and Titanic".
On his favorite Star Wars character: "It's Chewbacca. I was real young
when I first saw the movie, but I was fascinated by him. I also had my own
little Ewok village to play with."
On being seen as a "hunk": "I hate it. I feel that when I
see myself and these cute other faces, I'm just part of this meat factory.
'Wow! Here's the hunk of the month! This month we're shoving down your
throat this cute little kid--Oh, look! It's Leonardo DiCaprio! Isn't he cute!
Let's put him on the cover and we'll sell more magazines!' That's definitely
not what I want to be and I've tried hard to get away from that whole
situation. Just being in there annoys me. It gives me a yucky feeling."