The career choice that Leonardo DiCaprio admits was a “regret”
The 1990s were a time of fervent Hollywood commercialism, with the concept of the ‘movie star’ gaining more traction and focus as the industry neared the new millennium. Stars like Jim Carrey, Brad Pitt, Winona Ryder, Keanu Reeves, Johnny Depp, Sandra Bullock, Tom Cruise and Julia Roberts began to rule the silver screen, whilst we saw a young Leonardo DiCaprio grow from a burgeoning talent to an undisputed movie icon.
After having taken minor roles in several TV programmes, DiCaprio was quickly thrust into the industry limelight in the early ‘90s, starring opposite Robert De Niro in This Boy’s Life. “I was 15 years old, and I remember every single detail,” he said of his experience working with the esteemed Oscar winner, “Everything was so new to me. Watching Robert De Niro on set, seeing his dedication, was one of the most influential experiences of my life”.
He went on to dominate the remainder of the decade, earning an Oscar nomination in 1993’s What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, before taking on Baz Luhrmann’s Shakespeare adaptation Romeo + Juliet and James Cameron’s seminal box office smash hit Titanic in 1997. His sudden rise to prominence was utterly remarkable, even in the context of the modern industry, where a movie star can seemingly be made overnight.
Despite the rampant success, DiCaprio isn’t blind to how he could have handled his early career differently, revealing one specific regret he had regarding his progress in the 1990s in an interview with Rolling Stone.
“You have regrets, and then you learn from them,” DiCaprio stated when asked if he would have done anything differently in his early career, “I regret certain things that I did or didn’t do professionally, and certain decisions I made in my personal life”.
When pushed further on the matter, he added: “In a way, I wish I hadn’t said, ‘Screw this, I’m not going to conform and become a hermit. I’m going to go out there and do whatever the hell I want to do, whenever the hell I want.’ I still have that attitude, but it’s more tapered down. I wish I hadn’t had that rebellious feeling I immediately had when all that stuff was going on, because then I wouldn’t have fueled that fire. That’s a regret. I could have played it a little cooler. But the ironic thing is that I wasn’t doing anything wrong”.
The immediate exposure to the world of showbiz wasn’t easy for a young DiCaprio to take on, with the actor only being 17 at the time when This Boy’s Life was being filmed. Still, the juice was certainly worth the squeeze, with the icon now being one of Hollywood’s most famous names.
Take a look at the trailer for This Boy’s Life, the film that introduced DiCaprio to the wider world, below.
