Quips From Those Lips...

The Lips

Quotes made by or about Leonardo...

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This Boy's Life

"Leonardo DiCaprio is the best of all the young actors working today. He is underestimated as an actor because he is a pretty boy. He has a wet-panty feel to him. But he is both: pretty and a great actor."
From Michael Caton-Jones (This Boy's Life director)

What's Eating Gilbert Grape?

"Leonardo DiCaprio in an Oscar-nominated performance is mentally challenged, requiring constant supervision. DiCaprio throws himself so far into his role he's almost unrecognizable."
Reviewer for Mr. Showbiz on Leo's role as Arnie.

Basketball Diaries

"He's the most down-to-earth person I've met. He's very un-Hollywood."
Mark Walhberg on Leo (Basketball Diaries Co-Star)

"Well [laughs], kicking drugs is not anything you wanna do while you're on your vacation. It basically sucks. You know, I mean . . . This is why Leonardo was so good. He never had any experience like that, but you saw when he's kicking in Reggie or Ernie's apartment, that gracefulness he had from walking down the street and playing basketball--even though I was a much better ball player than that! [Laughs]--but that gracefulness with which he carried himself, all of a sudden he took it away from himself. 'Cause there's no position--you try every position to get comfortable and you can't, you know. There's something--these cells are screaming inside of you for something, you know, cells that you've created, you know, and only want one thing. And so um it's really . . . So that was really his most amazing thing to me, that he got that.
Jim Carroll, whose real life story was told in The Basketball Diaries

Total Eclipse

"It's not about relationships. It's not about a couple. You know, it's not what it's about. It's about these two guys sort of taking Paris by storm and taking the whole poetry world by storm with them."
Leo on Total Eclipse. (ET Interview)

Marvin's Room

"He's utterly compelling. You can't watch anything else when he's acting."
Meryl Streep on Leonardo's Acting (Marvin's Room Co-Star)

Romeo & Juliet

"Leonardo DiCaprio has other talents as an actor. If he can get through the shock wave of being this popular and can get back to his acting, what we'll see from him is an enormous capacity and an enormous range."
Baz Luhrmann, Director of Romeo & Juliet (People Magazine)

"Claire grabbed me by the back of the neck and kissed me and I was like, "Oh what's going on here?!" I was taken aback by the whole thing. But then I realized this girl knew what she was doing. She was tough, she knew the role, and I loved that about her."
Leo on his experience with Clare Danes' audition for Juliet.

"When I auditioned I knew I'd have to make an impression. So I really fired off lines from the scene into his face and kept his eyes locked to mine. He later told me I was the only girl who'd used that method to effect. He's brilliant. I'd seen a lot of his work and he has such talent. He's so smart and perceptive and he's also wild and out of control. I love that about him."
Claire Danes on her audition experience for Juliet.

"We felt like idiots. But it worked out, and I think that in the end it just made it all the more conversational. And I think that if you see the movie it's almost like at points, you're like, "Is this really Shakespeare?" It's like you're so involved in it, it seems like normal language."
Leo on the Shakespeare experience.(MTV interview post R&J)

"He has an innate ability to get under the skin of a character that I believe even he himself doesn't quite understand."
David Rubin on Leo (Casting Director for Romeo & Juliet)

"Our Romeo and Juliet is a little more hardcore and a lot cooler. I wouldn't have done it if I'd had to jump around in tights. If you never read Romeo and Juliet, it's like this classic story, blah-blah. But if you really study it, you see Romeo was like a gigolo who falls for this girl, Juliet, who says, "Look, if you've got the balls, put 'em on the table." It's about those things that carry you in a certain direction and you can't stop, like when people run off to Vegas and get married. That's the beauty of it. They both were people who had guts."
Leo on his decision to do Romeo & Juliet. (Premiere Magazine)

Titanic

"Working with Leonardo is very relaxing. He's a terrific actor, he works with instinct. He's not so theorist, he doesn't overprepare himself. On the contrary I prepared too much myself, so my acting was too pedantic. Leo obliged me not to forget my instinct and my mystery."

"I mean, doing the love scene in the back of the car we just had such a laugh! It was very uncomfortable and we kept getting covered in fluff and all his make-up was on me and sliding off all over the place... audience laugh) ...and, eh, it was sort of like snogging your brother or something... (audience laugh) ...and I have to say my heart didn't flutter for him."

"Uh, yeah, he's a very good kisser...But I have to say, it's only now that I sort of think about that, because at the time you don't think about that at all...Coz you're sort of in the middle of a scene and it's all, y'know, 'don't stick your tongue in' y'know, and all that sort of thing, well, you have to give stage kisses...Well he would sometimes do it to me, just to annoy me, just to annoy me, just to wind me up and make me laugh...He had, he has stuck his tongue in my mouth yes...I didn't stick my tongue in...No, I didn't stick it in, I didn't want to! I didn't fancy the guy! I swear to God I didn't!"

"Because, well, 7 months together, it was like a, like a relationship and we sort of became brother and sister, I mean we were really, y'know 20 hours a day together most of the time, and it WAS a hard shoot and so we were, y'know, really, really, looking after each other all the time and y'know."

"I´ve always admired Leonardo DiCaprio, so when I knew I was going to work with him I just couldn´t believe it."

"He is, to me, one of the greatest actors of our generation, and I find that incredibly exciting. I believe there are very few actors in the world who are really, genuinely, gifted from God and can just do it, couldn't possibly be bad, even if they tried."

"He's probably the world's most beautiful-looking man, yet he doesn't think he's gorgeous. And to me, he's just smelly, farty Leo."
Kate Winslet (Titanic Co-Star)

"Leo is amazing, that guy has so much charm he could lure the panties off a nun."
Kate Winslet (US Magazine)

"I was having my makeup done with nothing on and there was Leo. He saw me and went "WHOAAAA" and I said, we're going to spend the whole day like this. We might as well get over it now. That broke the ice."
Kate Winslet on Leo first seeing her nude during Titanic filming.

"Leo is such a brilliant actor and he doesn't know it he really, doesn't know it."
Kate Winslet on Leo (HBO Special)

``Look, there's Leo,'' she said.

That's Leo as in Leonardo DiCaprio, teen heartthrob and leading-man-in-the-making, who was sucking on a cigarette, looking bored.

He plays Winslet's star-crossed lover, the guy from third class who falls for the rich girl.

He sat in this chair and ran his hands through his sandy blond hair. He was adorable, but aloof.

Later, he and Winslet snuggled on the deck. Ah, so that's what it meant to get "in character."
Excerpt from a sister of an extra who visited Titanic set

"DiCaprio, who wasn't nominated, was robbed. He's the real McCoy: dashing, sensitive, funny and he can dance a jig. When the camera zooms up the grand staircase to discover him in his dinner glad rags, echoing the first shot of Gable in "Gone with the Wind," the self-conscious bridging of 'ye olde Hollywood' with the new notches a million goosebumps.
Jan Stuart, film critic for Newsday

"I can understand why he boycotted the Academy Awards; he was robbed. It is not often that an actor can flesh out a cardboard character and make it vibrant and compelling. Leo unlocked the usually unrealized power of cliches; which is based on the fact that nothing which is not profoundly human can ever become a cliché. It may be that TITANIC was unsinkable, but without Leo it would not have floated as majestic; it would have been just another well made superproduction. Kate was nominated and she was a fine Juliet, but it was Leo, not Kate, who stirred the juices of TITANIC and gave a heart to the tin man. His failure to get even a nomination is a travesty. How often does one get to see a flawless piece of work?"
Hollywood Variety

"You get to be like a cat after a while. You just don't want to get in there."
Leo on all that water! (ET Interview)

"I would, I would like to be like that character. I mean Jack sort of embodies a lot of things that I think we all find admirable. Like a Bohemian that lives life day to day and finds his own sort of happiness. I, you, we try to be like that. I wish I, ya know, I think I do have some of those aspects but you know he's almost just like the kind of guy we all wish to be."
Leo on Jack Dawson. (Good Morning America Interview)

"I got to dump a big thing of ice and water on Jim's head in front of everybody after the movie was done. He didn't know who it was. He looked around trying to search around and it was me and I got away scott free which was cool."
Leo on Titanic filming...it's over! (ET Interview)

"At no point did we ever feel like what we were doing was life threatening by any means. It was always completely planned out and almost like our own sort of personal thrill ride to go on."
Leo on all those hydraulics...(E! News Daily Interview)

"Sorry I couldn't be there tonight, but this is one of my rare opportunities where I get to thank everyone that supported me especially on this film. So I want to thank everyone that voted for me through MTV, and I also want to thank everyone that I worked with on the movie. Ain't that right, Jerry?"
Jerry: "I thought you sucked..."
Leo in a hilarious short accepting the MTV Movie Award for Best Male Performance for Titanic with best pal Jerry Swindall in tow.

The Man In The Iron Mask

Celebrity

"Leonardo was really fun and we had a great time. He's a little more carefree. A lot of the down time was spent with him being very entertaining."
Gretchen Mol (Celebrity Co-Star, Vanity Fair Magazine)

"I found him lovely. Couldn't have been nicer to work with, sweet as could be. Cooperative, a good disposition, and a great great actor. He is definitely gonna be around for a long long time in a big big way."
Woody Allen (Celebrity Director)

The Beach

"I waited quite a while for my next movie because I wanted to truly find a project I was in love with. This character clicked with me, and the story line clicked. It was a character that went on a journey within himself, while exploring the exterior of a beautiful island."
Leo on accepting the part of Richard in The Beach (Time Magazine)

"Looking into his face, you see another dual role. He seduces you with one eye while he impresses you with the other."
Danny Boyle director, The Beach

Leo on Leo!

"I insist on keeping a level head. I've maintained the same exact home life that I've had for 20 years. All I see is more people looking at me than before. But you know, who cares? You just can't obsess yourself with this fame stuff."
Leo on Fame

"It's easy to fall into the trap of believing all the hype that's written about you. Who knows? In a couple of years you might find me in the loony bin."
Leo on Fame & Hype (Vogue Magazine)

"I never wanted to be a celebrity and never saw myself as a celebrity even when others did. This whole celebrity thing is encroaching on my real life."
Leo on celebrity status.

"People just want to be loved so much that they are killing each other off and I think it (Romeo & Juliet) kind of relates to how the world is right now. There are so many people that are deprived of love in their life...they have to vent it out in different ways...we are doing the same things that we were doing since we were cavemen...and killing each other off. Having the dominent person win."
Leonardo, Interviews CD (thanks Mary!)

"Love at first sight? I absolutely believe in it! You've got to keep the faith. Who doesn't like the idea that you could see someone tomorrow and she could be the love of your life? It's very romantic."
Leo on Love (E! Celebrity Profile)

"What I would do in order to be popular was, I would put myself on the line and joke around and be wacky and funny, and I was always known as this crazy little kid. I did impressions, all of it. Then I realized that that's not what I want to do. I don't want to be a comedian just to please other people."
Leo on Youth (E! Celebrity Profile)

"I think what I liked best about my childhood was the repetitiveness of the things we did. I think when you're a kid, and you do a whole lot of things, see a thousand different things, it's all a blur and you really don't remember anything. But we did the same things, went to the same museums, took the same pony rides, and those things have become locked in my memory as one good experience."
Leo on Growing Up (Vanity Fair Magazine)

"I asked my dad how much Adam made from the Golden Grahams Commercial. He said, "About $50,000". Fifty thousand dollars!?! It just kept going through my head! My Brother has $50,000! And that kept on being my driving force. I just remember for like, five years, thinking my brother was better than me because he had that." Leo on his decision to be an actor.

"I always thought I would have great chemistry with Angelica Huston because she's such a great actress."
Leo on an actress he admires.

"My favorite actress? One of my favorites is Meg Ryan."
Leo on another actress he would like to work with.

"My first date was with a girl named Cessi. We'd had a beautiful relationship over the phone all summer long. Then she came home and we met to go out for the first time to the movies. When I saw her I was petrified. I couldn't even look her in the eye to talk to her."
Leo on his first date.

"Then don't be in the business - There are negative things about every job. Parts that you don't like about everything but you just have to deal with that sometimes".
Leo's comment about people who complain about Hollywood and 'The Business' (thanks Mary!)

BG (Bryant Gumble): This film does not really have commercial potential. Does that scare you?
LD: I am still young and I don't need to branch off to become this big thing.
BG: Yeah, but you don't want to be known as somebody who can't deliver an audience.
LD: I'm not concerned about that at this point. I'm more concerned with growing as an actor.
BG: What about the sexual content of this movie. No concerns on your part about that?
LD: We wanted to be honest with the lifestyle and as an actor, for me to bring by own problems into it would have been selfish and disrespecting of who Rimbaud was and not being honest about it.
BG: Aren't you worried about the response from the gay community for such a negative portrayal of their lifestyle?
LD: Wow, I never thought about that. But I think we're telling the truth about their lifestyle (meaning Rimbaud and Verlaine, of course). They did some of the most beautiful work of their time while they were together. I mean, they were like the rebels of their time.
The Today Show (Leo was promoting Total Eclipse 1995)

"My dad is a Buddha-like figure to me. He's like what I would like to be someday. I would like to have it so together like that."

"My mother meant everything to me. The stability and honesty that she gave me. She brought me to Germany when I was a young man, to live with my grandparents for a while, to see what my German heritage was like. And then we traveled all around the world. She made me the together person that I am."

"Happiness is something that you can never control," he told me. "It's something that comes and goes. It comes in spurts. It comes however. You can never be truly, always happy." He paused. "But I'm fortunate to have an interesting life."
Leo from the Talk interview, 1999



All Other...

"After I had my first long conversation with Leonardo, I knew he was right for Earth Day 2000. I have seldom found a star as thoughtful, knowledgeable, and deeply concerned about any issue as Leo is about climate change. Our talks reminded me of conversations I had a quarter century ago with the young Robert Redford when he chaired a similar national clean energy campaign that I organized.

That is what's so ironic about this feeding frenzy of criticism over ABC's choice of Leonardo to discuss climate and energy issues with President Clinton. Leo actually knows more about these subjects than most of the reporters I've encountered.

I haven't heard the raw ABC interview, and I certainly have no idea what will be left on the floor of the editing room. But Leo and Bill both have interesting, unconventional intellects. Some years ago, I spent most of a day with Clinton and a few actors -- Billy Crystal, Tom Skerritt, Christopher Reeve, Lindsay Wagner, and others. The president let his guard down and joked around in a way that he never would have with Sam Donaldson. I wouldn't be shocked if Leo elicited some candid comments that no reporter could ever obtain.

For example, I want to know whether Clinton thinks that Congress, at the behest of the coal and oil industries, will force America to abdicate leadership in the coming energy transition, and what this will mean for our long-term national security. I'd like to get Clinton's candid political assessment of the coal industry's duplicitous lobbying effort to scuttle the global warming treaty, and his opinion about why this twilight industry still has so much clout. Cutting closer to the bone, I want to know why the Clinton administration allowed American carbon dioxide emissions to increase by nearly a fifth during the last eight years. I can see Leo asking those questions, and others like them.

I hope ABC sticks to its guns and runs the interview.
Denis Hayes, chair, Earth Day Network

On the other hand, he (Bazz Luhrman) knows Nicole Kidman is a controversial figure right now. "One moment she's a saint, the next moment she's on the cover of some magazine dealing with Nicole the evil manipulator. So what's the truth? Hey! I see this all the time. For example, the Leonardo DiCaprio I know is not the Leonardo I read about in the magazines."
Bazz Luhrman during a May 2001 interview to promote Moulin Rouge (thanks Peanut)

"He is like a Belgian Truffle - he is like the most valued commodity...... Leo really brings something for audiences that we haven't really had in a long time which is his 'exhuberance', a 'joie de vivre', and for a hearthrob that's pretty remarkable and rare".
From Christine Spines, a writer for Premiere Magazine

"Only the world sees him differently. To us, he's that same terrific young actor."
Harvey Weinstein, Miramax Films Chairman commenting on Leonardo after the smash success of Titanic. (People Magazine's 25 Most Intriguing People Issue)

"I adore him ! He is certainly the actor I photographed the most, as he was about 15-16 years old when I met him. For a photographer, it is a dream, because Leo takes risks, he is permanently an actor, because he has no barrier. He is not afraid to show the feminine part every man has in him. He is at the same time crazy and extremely sensual, a real dream to photograph."
From Greg Gorman - A-list photographer

"I can't see him as other people do. All I'm concerned about is his health. Sleep more, exercise more, eat better. That's the litany. The rest? I wouldn't care if he gave it up tomorrow."
Irmelin DiCaprio loving her son. (What a lady!)

"A dream I'd like to live?
...A Date with Leonardo DiCaprio."
Actress Katie Holmes (You go girlfriend!)




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