Wight - Leonardo DiCaprio - The Biography

Leonardo DiCaprio remembers the exact moment when Titanic transformed his life.

It came at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris. James Camerons disaster epic was on its way to becoming the biggest movie in history and DiCaprio, then 23, had a young girl stuck to his leg. The delusional fan, overcome with emotion at finally being able to clap not just eyes on the heartthrob she had only dreamt about, rugby-tackled the actor and clung on for dear life.

Amid the chaos and the throng, Leonardo had a moment of clarity and the absurdity of the situation struck home.

I looked her in the eye, he would later recall, and said, Whatever illusions of grandeur you have about me, theyre not true. I will sit here and I will talk to you. You dont need to cling; you dont need to dig your nails into my leg. It doesnt need to be this!

But the girl, who was no more than 14, had other ideas. It was as if she believed that by hanging on there, he somehow wouldnt notice and she wasnt about to give up such an opportunity without a fight.

DiCaprio said: She just pressed her head against my leg. I said, What are you doing, sweetheart? And she kept clutching. There was just a sort of obsessed look in her eye. She wasnt looking at me, though, just my leg. I looked at her and I sort of grabbed her face and said, Hi, its OK, no, you can you can get off my leg. Its fine. She kept saying, No, no, no, no! and I had to gently pry her hands off.

If Leonardo had been in any doubt up until that point that Leo-Mania had gripped the world the most hysterical fan reaction since the Beatles it was truly confirmed at that moment. Until Titanic became the highest-grossing film in Hollywood history, he was pretty much able to live in blissful obscurity. Quietly, hed acquired a reputation for risky, challenging roles and already had an Oscar nomination under his belt for his performance in Whats Eating Gilbert Grape, but neither of these factors had sent the girls screaming to his feet. Yet within months of the movie hitting the big screen his life was changed forever.

He topped a list of the 50 Most Beautiful People in the World an accolade that made him groan: You want to be remembered for your work rather than being hunk of the month.

Soon it became clear there was nowhere in the world he could go without someone knowing his name. On an environmental pilgrimage in December 2003 to the deepest Amazonian rainforest to meet the Alto Xingu Indians of Brazil, with his then-girlfriend, the supermodel Gisele Bndchen, he was astounded when a tribesman instantly recognised him and began chattering excitedly about the man from Titanic.

It certainly follows me, he admitted after that encounter. Im not exaggerating. Ive been to the Amazon, and people with no clothes on know about that film. Indeed, a few years later he was spotted in a dusty provincial village in Mozambique while filming Blood Diamond.

Leonardo has been a tabloid editors dream celebrity. After Titanic it was widely accepted he had gone off the rails somewhat, and in June 1998, New York magazine ran a highly damaging expose on Leos partying, which didnt put him in a good light. For the first time he started attracting attention for womanising and drinking. He made odd movie choices, industry experts insisted, when he might have been making millions, filling multiplexes as the romantic lead. Instead films like The Man In The Iron Mask and The Beach only made just over $150 million each respectable hits by any other actors standards but flops when judged next to the $1.8 billion raked in by James Camerons epic.

At the same time as his fee per movie jumped from $2 million to $20 million, he was scorned for dating some of the worlds most glamorous women. Even the ones he wasnt romantically involved with made for explosive headlines. Over the years hes been linked to some of Hollywoods hottest leading ladies: Demi Moore, Alicia Silverstone, Claire Danes, Liv Tyler, Sara Gilbert, Natasha Henstridge and Juliette Lewis, not to mention models like Bridget Hall, Kristen Zang, Bijou Phillips, Naomi Campbell, Amber Valletta, Helena Christensen, Kate Moss and Eva Herzigova.

Yes, after the success of Titanic life was tough for Leonardo DiCaprio! His exploits prompt a comparison with the English football legend George Best and the famous story of the hotel bellboy who, on entering the notorious womanisers room and finding him sprawled on the bed, with his winnings from the casino and the current Miss World laid out next to him, was moved to remark: George, where did it all go wrong?

Yet, joking aside, the attention heaped on Leonardo after 1997 often made him wonder if perhaps hed made the right move in turning down the lead role in Boogie Nights a part that eventually went to Mark Wahlberg in favour of Titanic. Bathing in his post-Titanic success, DiCaprio soon became a night-life junkie.

Everything happened so quickly, I began to feel engulfed by it, he explained, and indeed, it took him practically a decade to recover and find himself again. As Leonardo himself remarked: I was 22 or 23 years old, and it was completely surreal. It was insane. Nobody could have predicted it, or the effect it would have in so many countries. I shudder when I hear myself complain about it and so many people have so many more real and monumental problems but it was a bizarre, bizarre scenario.

After Titanic I was focusing on things that had nothing to do with the art. All the business with agents and publicists and managers, that can be extremely frustrating and ultimately a waste of time. Theres no real control over how the media or the public perceives you I know who I am, my friends know who I am. And, hey, Im not complaining about my life: Im doing something that I love and thats a precious gift.

After encounters like the one in Paris with the young fan, Leonardo has grown to accept the level of superstardom that one movie has bestowed him but it wasnt always that way. Initially hed turned down the role that would make him a star and was apprehensive about the marketing machine behind such mammoth productions. He even shunned the Oscar ceremony where director Cameron and crew cleaned up. Since then, hes grown to love it, however.

I have always been nervous of big-budget studio films, said Leo. 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.

Its just as well his attitude changed. In 2012, the movie was revamped for the digital age and released in a stunning new 3D format just in time for the centenary of the ships disaster. Once more, Leos fresh-faced Jack Dawson will light up the worlds cinema screens, sparking a new wave of Leo-Mania and potentially introducing the heartthrob to thousands of new fans.

Leonardo DiCaprio might be the most powerful movie star in Hollywood right now, but it could have been so different. In fact, if it hadnt been for the stubbornness of a German mother nearly 70 years ago, there might not have been a Leonardo DiCaprio at all