When Alec Baldwin took the credit for Leonardo DiCaprio’s entire career: “You’re welcome”
Considering Alec Baldwin and Leonardo DiCaprio didn’t work together until 2004, when DiCaprio was already more than a decade into his career, it may sound odd that the older actor could claim credit for the younger star’s success. Baldwin has always been a bit of a blowhard, though, so looking at his comments through that lens, it makes perfect sense that he would claim DiCaprio owes him everything for a sage piece of wisdom he delivered at some unknown point in time. Allow us to explain.
By the time Baldwin and DiCaprio shared a scene in Martin Scorsese’s The Aviator, DiCaprio was the hottest young star in Hollywood. After taking a few years off following 1999’s The Beach, he roared back on the scene with the one-two punch of Steven Spielberg’s Catch Me If You Can and Martin Scorsese’s Gangs of New York. He followed those up with Scorsese’s biopic of Howard Hughes, which also starred Baldwin, a man on the comeback trail after 2003’s The Cooler garnered him the most acclaim he’d enjoyed in years.
Baldwin told Playboy that he loved watching DiCaprio work on The Aviator. He couldn’t help thinking, “God, how gifted this guy is. How he’s taking advantage of his opportunities. I love to watch the young actor transition into the grown man on film.”
Indeed, Baldwin’s words were tinged with regret, as he’s often been honest about how he didn’t take good enough advantage of the opportunities he had as a young star in the early ’90s. In fact, he believes he should have forged better relationships with other actors and directors, such as DiCaprio and Robert De Niro did with Scorsese. “I didn’t have that,” he lamented. “It’s like they’re asking you to walk down a dark alley. If it’s the right people, a door at the end leads to a fabulous wonderland. But the people who asked me to come down the alleyway? I was like, ‘Eh, let me get back to you.'”
“So, you’re welcome, Leo.”
Alec Baldwin
This may make you wonder: how can Baldwin give DiCaprio advice if he thinks the Titanic star managed his career better than he did his own? Well, it’s a case of “Learn from my mistakes.” Baldwin once told PBS’ Brief but Spectacular that, in his days as the hottest star on the rise in Hollywood, “Acting was like sex. And when I was young, I would do it with anybody. You get bedazzled by money and by other things.”
Baldwin feels this period, when he was young and hungry and good-looking, was the time when he should have buckled down and paid attention to the work, instead of frittering away his opportunity by buying into fame. “I always say to people, don’t live a big life in your early career, so you can really, really have a career,” he mused. “Those who succeed the most in the business, it’s the most important thing in their lives.” He shook his head bitterly and added, “Get out there and give everything you have got while you’re young and beautiful.”
According to Baldwin, this is the advice he gave DiCaprio at some unknown formative moment in his career. He believes wholeheartedly that the Revenant star listened to him, too, as he smiled, “Look what he’s doing. It is just working like a charm for him. He’s done everything I told him to do, and, look, he’s got women jumping out of the trees on him, and he’s got an Oscar.” Then, with a wry grin, he quipped:
