Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio was born on Monday, November 11, 1974 at 2:47 a.m. in a clinic in The Angels. Only son of a couple hippies survivors of sixties. His father, George DiCaprio, of Italian descent, is an author of satirical comics and publisher of his own works. From him, the actor inherited a look, a Steps and the ability to never be afraid. His mother, Irmelin Indenbirken, whose parents, Germans, fled the Nazism. From her, Leonardo received her blonde locks, that magnetic blue gaze and the gift of disappearing. The legend wants her first name to have been chosen by her parents during a trip to Italy. A visit to the Uffizi Museum, Florence, in front of a canvas of Leonardo DeVinci – Leonardo da Vinci – the unborn baby would have stirred violently in his mother’s womb. That day, it would be decided that this boy would bear the first name of a universal genius of humanity.
Leonardo DiCaprio has real parents but no real family. Even if he will not stop repeating: “I was lucky, very lucky to be born into this family“, he was not even a year old, when George and Irmelin divorced. What could have been an irremediable fracture will be experienced as a well done by little Leonardo. No cry, no real separation, no dispute for the custody of the only son. Parents who will never declare war on each other and will remain close neighbors. As if basically nothing had changed in this bohemian life. The couple did not a lot of money and lives Echo Park, a district of Los Angeles then plagued by poverty, the prostitution and the drug. An area where the police rarely ventures out, the place has been renamed “Syringe Alley“,” the aisle of syringes. Leonardo may be white, blond and rather puny, he was born here. And wanders without fear in this universe families of which he knows the darker corners. The ones where the heroin addicts shoot and the one near the billiard room, where the pimps collect the girls’ money. “Revolt, destruction were everywhere. I didn’t have to experience it to live it. So I did without it, “he says. He adds:” My rebellion, I got to know her later. Not against my parents, but against a new life that they imposed on me “
At nine years old, Leonardo DiCaprio confirms the wish that he trained. He confirms that he wants to be actor. In fact, he was stunned to discover that his half-brother with whom he does the 400 strokes, Adam Farrar, three years older than him, the son of his father’s new companion, pocketed no less than 50.000 dollars for the shooting of some pubs for some cereals. For the first time in his life, Leonardo DiCaprio realizes the power of money. He never had one. Turn ads, make tv or play in films then appears to him – in a brilliant way – as the best way to leave the dilapidated neighborhood from Echo Park. The actor will not hide it by declaring in on autobiography : “If I’m honest, I must say that money motivated me. I always wondered if we were going to be able to afford this or that thing. And doing the actor was the best shortcut to get us out of this mess. ”His father George, his mother, Irmelin, and his grandmother, Helena, remain his best. allies to achieve its ends.
Leonardo DiCaprio therefore connects all castings where we are looking children. His mother accompanies him, sometimes even if it means doing miles to arrive on time at appointment, but DiCaprio does not appeal to producers. The young boy grows impatient and seems to experience these successive rejections as so many injustices. All around him, we support him, we assure him that his stubbornness will eventually pay off. In college, his artistic education teacher Helen Stringos-Arias encouraged him. Despite this, it will not be never a child star as the studios regularly produce Disney, but he didn’t say his last word. At thirteen, his agent is the so-called Bonnie Liedtke, specializing in programs for children. With her he is confident. His previous agent had advised him to succeed in changing his name to Lenny Williams, DiCaprio would never have seen the light of day. He had slammed the door in her face. Bonnie Liedtke accompanies the beginner’s first steps. Physical question, there is nothing sexy: not very tall, frumpy, the pale complexion … At John Marshall high school, we remember a introverted boy despite his provocations. We call him Shorty, which means short on legs, or Leonardo Retardo so little does he seem quick-witted. Question character, it is solitaire and unpredictable. No girlfriend. A few friends, some boys with whom he spends his time skateboarding. He confirmed : “I was the smallest in size and played the smartest. It was the worst combination at this age“.
An actor who plays with his image
Leonardo DiCaprio, 17, is one of the 400 candidates for the casting of Secret Wounds. The production is looking for a teenager to face Robert de Niro as a tyrannical father-in-law. The director knows straight away that he will choose DiCaprio. He has the exact desired profile. During the tests, when he gets angry with de Niro, he stops and repeats “It’s good, it’s good”, sensing perhaps that he has in front of him one of its safest heirs. When the film finally came out, in 1993, DiCaprio simply steals the show from de Niro. Producers, agents, journalists notice it. A few months later, on the night of October 31, Di Caprio crosses paths with the actor River Phoenix, only four years older than him, at a partyHalloween. River Phoenix, Hollywood’s most intense and mysterious gem, is her absolute idol. “I wanted to greet him that evening even though I knew he was going to send me out for a walk.” DiCaprio holds out his hand to him, but two people come in between. And River Phoenix disappears into the night. He will die that same evening ofan overdose to Viper Room, the box of Johnny Depp. American cinema will therefore urgently need to find a replacement. Has DiCaprio suddenly become the right actor at the right time? Legend will say that the actor was undoubtedly born that night.
In this year 1995, Leonardo DiCaprio begins to be a much coveted actor. However, he did not change anything in his life. He continues to invite his mother and grandmother to the shootings, his father reads all the scenarios and selects for him roles that suit him like a glove. Dark and dramatic characters. Movies like The Basketball Diaries Where Rimbaud-Verlaine, where a strange coincidence, the directors had first thought of River Phoenix to play the main role. Black looks good on this blond actor who says he doesn’t like it love stories. “I have the feeling that it attracts attention that is not sincere,” he says. The following year, however, he was at Mexico To Rosarito Beach at the foot of a giant ocean liner replica, for the shooting of a film where he will be the archetype of romantic hero : Titanic. Director, James Cameron, knew very quickly that he needed this actor. “I saw him at a press conference. All the women in the building were in the room, from the accountant to the security guard. I thought I had to see him.” The film made him famous all over the world. The LeoMania takes hold of the planet. Girls dream of being in the place of Kate Winslet, Afghan hairdressers are imprisoned by the Talibanbecause they were making Leo cuts. Onze Oscars for the film but nothing for DiCaprio who will never like this film anyway. Neither his image, nor his story, nor his shooting in cold water. “Right after, he will say, I had a depression“.
Is it to ward off fate and thumb your nose at success than Leonardo DiCaprio, now extremely rich and courted, gains weight, is displayed in custom suits with big stripes, wears two-tone shoes and smokes big cigars. Caricature of the nouveau richeHollywood. We see it on yachts To Saint Tropez and in clubs at New-York. In reality, the actor plays with his image. Face side, a spoiled child of the cinema who is just 25 years old and seems to think he is Orson Welles. On the tails, a man who is wary of fires of success, illusions of cinema and find the world fragile.
Leonardo DiCaprio has always kept in mind, a painting which was enthroned in his child’s room. A cheap reproduction of the Garden of Earthly Delights, canvas of the Dutch master Jerome Bosh. Adam and Eve, humanity before the flood and then hell. “We see too large a population that devours the fruits of the earth, then black skies that announce l’apocalypse. It was my favorite painting, “he says. A vision that no doubt led him to become interested in ecology while it is not yet in fashion. He remembers that as a child what saddened him the most was the disappearance of certain species because of man. He spontaneously quotes quagga, a variety of zebra South African Tiger of Tasmania or the dodo, a bird of Mauritius. In 1998, he therefore launched his Foundation to help planet. At the time we take him for an original, at best a young Don Quixote who will burn his fortune in an illusory fight, but he perseveres. We see it everywhere, in Arctic near shrinking glaciers, Inde on floods, Brazil to denounce the deforestation, in the Everglades where the pollution wins … He spreads a word in which he firmly believes like a missionary on a crusade: “Clean air, water, a healthy climate are part of the inalienable rights of human beings,” says the actor. It’s not a question of politics, It’s a question of survival. Ours.”
The “Confidential” guest
Louis Lepron, culture editor of Konbini
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