As long as we believe,
Nothing can come between,
The dreamer and his dream!

2/97...The Juice.net (Australia)

LEONARDO DICAPRIO THE BEACH

Did you think doing this movie was a risky choice after Titanic? Well actually, in actuality you know the films that I did before Titanic were I think more closely linked to this one and, if anything, Titanic and that choice that I made was actually a departure in the types of films that I did. It was a chance that I took and it was almost like an experiment. I wanted to try something different and I think this is more along the lines of what I did in the past but you know, it's not to say that a film like Titanic isn't something that I'd try again in the future. It's just to say that I'm a young man and a young actor and I'm trying to experiment and diversify the things that I do as an actor and take on different roles and different genres of film.

Titanic put you in the realm of the US$20 million actors - how do you keep yourself grounded?

Well, actually, even though money is a great fringe benefit it is actually something that I don't really take into consideration as far as the type of roles that I'm gonna take and as far as the type of actor that I want to be. If anything, I think that the people that were involved in this movie, it gives you more money to do your movie, which is I'd say one of the bonuses. But as far as money in my pocket, it's a misconception as far as what money does for your personal life but what Titanic did for me career wise is given me a whole new world of opportunity as far as choices that I wanted to make and put me in the drivers seat of where I want to go with my career.

What is your idea of paradise?

For me I think that it goes along with the theme of the movie, that I think that paradise is a false concept. Not only is I think mankind not able to deal with paradise, we're sort of destined to destroy paradise. I mean, the whole movie to me is Richard's character and finding this paradise is extremely symbolic of our relationship to this earth. We as the human race have been put on this earth, we've been given a gift of being put on this earth which is essentially a paradise and we don't know what to do with it. All we do is sort of conform it to make it the most comfortable place to live for us without any respect for sort of other life and other environments and stuff like that. So the whole concept of paradise for me is false and I think you can only truly find happiness within yourself and there's no idyllic place out there that's going to solve all your problems, you know. There's no place that exists there that will cleanse you of who you are because no matter where you go you're still left with you at the end of the day, you know.

Richard is on a search for new sensations and real emotions. Do you think that's something that's common in your generation and do you feel that?

Absolutely. I think I'd be presumptuous to say that it spoke for my generation, but for me it did. Maybe not for everybody else, but certainly mine and the ones to come are going to be more desensitised towards real emotions and real things like that because I think we're so influenced by the human comfort zone that has been given to us. We're able to sort of relive things through television and movies and media and video games and stuff like that and we have more and more a lack of tangible things like that. And I admired in Richard's character the fact that he is courageous enough to go search for something like that. He's searching for something that isn't already pre-packaged and predigested for him. He's looking for something else, and he eventually finds what he believes right away to be the ultimate trip, the answer to all his problems. Eventually, like I said before, realises there is no place like that.

What do you remember about Thailand?

I just remember going to Phi Phi Le, where we shot the film. I remember stepping onto that beach and looking at Danny and saying, "Wow. This is unbelievable." This is pretty much a postcard image of paradise - if there is anything like that out there... I'll forever think about that island and where it was shot and the beauty of that place. When Alex Garland (author) wrote about this paradise, he talks about an island where a hole had been cut out of the island to reveal a beautiful lagoon - white sandy beaches and palm trees that's completely enclosed in rock and completely cocooned away from the rest of the world that can't be seen by other travelers. And if there was a place like that, that location is unforgettable.

Talking about paradise - a lot of people would think your success must be like living in paradise. Have you acquired any wisdom about life in general since becoming an icon?

Paradise ties a lot into success and money and all that. For a lot of people, paradise would be winning the lottery or becoming famous you know. In a lot of ways, and like I said before, you cannot escape yourself and nothing like that will ever solve your problems. It never will, and I learned that. It wasn't something that I was always searching for, I wasn't always searching for becoming wildly rich and famous,(laughs) but once it happens you are still left with your own elements at the end of the day... you're still left with yourself and there is absolutely nothing out there that can fill that void if there is a void there, you know? I think there's a lot of misconceptions about being famous as well,that it must be hectic it is hectic at times absolutely but if you do have you know a solid core group of people that you trust around you, that is your environment. That's what you experience day to day. It's not the images of crazy fans and stuff like that and premieres and paparazzi. It's not always that. There are times when that does happen but overall, your day to day life is a much different experience than is projected.

Do you feel like a grownup?

No. I think that along with what's happened which takes definitely a lot more responsibility than ever before but I never really want to grow up. I think that's boring.

What other type of role would you like to do?

It depends on what comes about in the future but I don't have a specific agenda as to what I want to do next. I am committed to doing another movie soon - I'm going to be playing this young sort of gangster that's avenging his father's death in this film Gangs of New York. I want to try as many different things as possible while I have the opportunity that I have.

This movie has Vietnam references - how do you feel about that?

I think that obviously Richard's character is so influenced by media - I've sort of coined the term by saying that he doesn't know much about Vietnam but he knows how to play the video game. And it says a lot about my generation in the sense that we've never really had a war like that. We've never had anything to fight for. Everything is such a comfort zone, everything is so safe that he's entranced by that world and is completely influenced by it and it's a part of who he is but he doesn't know what the real experience is like. So once he becomes isolated on the island and separates himself from the community, these images of war start to come into his mind and he wants to reply to that and relive that and experience that for himself. So he turns into a sort of almost demented Rambo-esque character in a lot of ways and he starts to become fascinated with violence. It's a violent culture. Basically he goes through the stages of a video game. It's all an intricate part of who he is and he starts off in this playful video game but through the course of while he's up there, he becomes more and more dangerous and he takes more and more chances and gets closer and closer to a violent encounter and when it actually happens, reality hits him in the face of what that really is. Of what violence really is and what death really is and it no longer becomes a game for him. Or it no longer becomes something that he's fascinated with.

Have you done much backpacking yourself?

Not in that sense. Not in the sense that Richard has. I think that like I talked about before, the admiration I have for Richard's character of really just truly trying to get away from the tourist trail that was given to him was really admirable. I've never done something like that. I've never gone on a plane, flown somewhere and just sort of immersed myself in a world like that. It's always been with somebody else or something like that. So that was very courageous of him.

Could you drop out and live on a beach?

I'm sure I'm going to do something like that in the future but right now I'm okay (laughs). I don't need to do that. Especially after doing this movie and seeing the consequences of doing something like that.

Don't you think it's sad that your generation misses out on a lot of art because they're so into computer games?

Yeah, it is sad. It is sad. But what can you do? It's an inevitable force in a lot of different ways and even in America, even with the educational system in America, you see a lot of young kids who don't know anything about their own history. And you go somewhere like London where they're so much more vastly educated than we are about their own culture and history. It all ties into the digital revolution that's going on. We have access to so many different things in our own home that why should we venture off and find something different? But you can only do that in raising future generations to say, hey go to a museum, get a different education, travel, do other things. And it's something that each individual has to fight for. It is a plague. It is a disease in a lot of ways. It's something that is definitely happening. You have to fight it if you have kids, I suppose.

Do you surf the internet?

Oh yeah. Absolutely. Whether I want to say it or not, I'm a product of that (laughs). I try to do other things, as many as possible to get away from it but it is this tantalising thing that is there and that's a lot about what the movie is talking about, breaking away from that. That's what Richard's character does. He tries to break away from that.

Michele Manelis