Leonardo DiCaprio Memorable
Performances Romeo and Juliet: Romeo Total
Eclipse: Poet Arthur Rimbaud What's Eating Gilbert Grape:
Arnie
The Basketball Diaries: Poet Jim Carroll
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(This article ran during the early
days of Titanic's theatrical release)
He's taking year
off to study wild animals
By Garth Pearce
He is the
world's sexiest star, an idol to millions - but all
Leonardo DiCaprio wants to do is watch ANIMALS. Hollywood's
No. 1 heart-throb is quitting the jungle of Tinseltown to
go on Safari in Africa and South America. The 23-year-old
star of Titanic - the world's most successful movie - says
he is exhausted after making 11 films in just five years.
He reveals: "I'm taking a year off. I want to slow down,
because I have been working so hard. There are so mnay
things that I have not had the chance to do, just becasue
of work. Looking at lions, elephants and zebras in the wild
is one of them." Leonardo says he is bewildered by his rise
to stardom and his -symbol status. He continues: "The
strangest thing about Hollywood for me now is seeing the
things I had wished and hoped for becoming a reality. It is
a bizarre feeling, because even I don't beleive it. It is
the same with all the stories about my alleged sex appeal.
I just don't see it. I am living through the experience and
only later will I wake up and know what it feels like."
Leonardo is footloose again after the end of his
relationship with model Kristen Zang - he has been seen out
with another model, Amber Valetta - but now he just wants
to relax and enjoy himself. He says: "I have always wanted
to travel preferably to see animals which might be on the
verge of extinction. If I don't start soon, then I fear I
never will. My problem is that I have not had a chance to
live life. I started on films at 16 and I have gone from
one to another. I have had to put aside all my other
interests." "Animals have always been a big passion for me
and once I wanted to be a travel agent so I could get out
in the world. I've had pet dogs, frogs, even a lizard. But
I've not had a chance to build up proper interest or
knowledge. I have been living through films for so long, it
is great not to have a part to work on for once. I need to
put back some energy and thoughts and experience in my
life. There are a lot of great advantages with this job,
but some things that are not so good. Anonymity is to be
cherished. I enjoy going where I'm not recognised. If I
have to go to the wilds of Africa to do that, so be it. I
also want to learn to paint and buy art. There's so much to
do, to make up for lost time." Leonardo's status as the
world's hottest sex symbol came after the global success of
$1 billion-grossing Titanic and before that, Romeo and
Juliet. He arrives in London this week for Thursday's
premiere of his new film The Man In The Iron Mask at the
Odeon, Leicester Square. And there will be co-stars Gerard
Depardeiu, Jeremy Irons and John Malkovich, who play the
ageing muskateers in the film, released on Friday. Leonardo
- snubbed by Hollywood in the Oscar nominations for Best
Actor at the Academy Awards on March 23 - sparkles as the
tyrannical boy king Louis XIV who makes a prisoner of his
twin brother - also played by Leo. Leonardo went straight
from filming Titanic to work on The Man In The Iron Mask in
France. He says: "I was emotionally drained at the end of
it all. I couldn't resist the film, with such a great cast,
and I have no regrets but it was an exhausting process."
The stresses on the Titanic film-set took their toll on
Leonardo too. He recalls :"There were many times when I was
in tears. It was the toughest shoot, lasting for six or
seven months, and Kate Winslet and I were both driven very
hard in a lot of the difficult water scenes. There was no
point in complaining. We were filming in a giant tank in
Mexico and the film was costing a fortune. So all the
complaining in the world was done in privacy, with just the
two of us. We did not have to vent it on anyone else."
"Sometimes Kate was in tears, other times I was, and
occasionally we both were. It was that kind of a job. But
Kate is awesome. She is beautiful, tremendously talented
and is really down to earth. I don't think England realizes
what a treasure she is." For Leonardo there will be no wild
times in London, apart from attending the premiere party.
He says: "I want to check out some more museums and art
galleries. WhereverI go now, I like to look at the history
and the art. I feel there is a whole world that I don't
know enough about. I left school at 16, began working on a
TV series, Growing Pains, and was in a movie with Robert De
Niro called This Boy's Life a couple of years later. "There
has been no time to catch my breath. I didn't even have
time to go to drama school." When Leonardo returns to
films, he is determined that it will not be in another
romantic role. He says: "I died in Romeo, and as Jack
Dawson in Titanic. Perhaps they are trying to tell me
something. I feel as if I have done those kinds of leads
for now. I am not looking to play the super-hero either. I
did Titanic only after seeing the script and meeting
director James Cameron and Kate. The Man In The Iron Mask
was agreed, because I admire all the other guys in the film
so much. But I want and need to call a halt to it now."
Although Leonardo's parents split when he was a baby, he
still consults his dad George about his roles. His
manager-mother Irmelin, 45, and his German grandmother
Helena will be by his side for the London premiere.
Leonardo says: "After that, I will be looking to the next
step in life. At this moment, I feel I would sooner see a
herd of wildbeast than face another film crew."
-by Garth Pearce-