Leonardo DiCaprio - The Biography. Douglas Wight
after the success of his debut movie Scandal (about the Profumo Affair) and modest triumphs with Memphis Belle and Doc Hollywood, was at the helm. But the man Leonardo had to impress was De Niro. Before it was his turn to read, he could tell just how nervous the other wannabes were. Among them was a then-unknown Tobey Maguire. As the tension mounted, DiCaprio knew he must pull something special out of the bag.
‘I just got up and screamed, “Nooooo!” I was right in front of his face and, like, veins pumping,’ he recalled. For a moment De Niro paused and in that brief moment, Leonardo felt his life hang in the balance.
He continues: ‘I’ll never forget his face – he burst into hysterical laughter.’
Of course this wasn’t the reaction he was expecting or hoping for – ‘I thought I had bombed that ship.’ But De Niro, who until that moment had been inclined to go with another boy, was swayed by the newcomer’s courage and passion.
Leonardo passed the first test and what followed was a further round of gruelling interviews and auditions because Caton-Jones wanted to be sure his search for the perfect candidate was as thorough as possible. In the end, DiCaprio beat 400 other hopefuls to the part and was ecstatic on learning he’d been successful: Leo was heading for the big-time.
‘It was simple,’ explains Caton-Jones. ‘I knew he was it, but when someone reads for you that early, you don’t believe it. So we tried loads of young actors, but we came right back to Leonardo.’
Alongside De Niro (who was cast as Dwight Hansen, Tobias Wolff’s brutal stepfather) was smoldering siren Ellen Barkin, playing Leonardo’s mum Caroline, but Caton-Jones was left in no doubt upon whose shoulders the fate of the movie would rest.
‘I have three excellent actors in this film, but Leonardo is the rock that this movie is built on. If people can’t relate to the character of Toby, the story becomes voyeuristic, but Leonardo makes this kid’s struggle something you can connect with immediately.’
With the weight of expectation upon him, Leonardo might have been forgiven for retreating into his shell to summon up the intensity needed to pull off such a demanding part. Yet such was his innate confidence, he took it all in his stride and thrived on the pressure.
At the same time, he was adjusting to life in a new school. He’d only recently moved to a more affluent area of Los Angeles – the money generated from his commercials and television roles meant that he’d earned enough to take his mum out of Echo Park and their $30,000 two-bed shack. In one respect he had achieved his goal – to earn enough to get his mum out of ‘Scumsville’, but poverty was not quite a thing of the past, although he was earning enough to be able to tell his dad that he no longer needed to pay the $20 child maintenance. Leo and Irmelin settled in the hilly neighbourhood of Los Feliz, north of East Hollywood. Although they were away from the slums, they were still in one of the poorest areas of the neighbourhood and the mansions on the hills around them were a constant reminder of how far they needed to climb to be truly affluent.
At 17, Leonardo enrolled at John Marshall High, appropriately a school that had featured in as many films as its new pupil, having provided the set for Grease and A Nightmare on Elm Street. There he fell prey to Hispanic gangs, who picked on him as one of the minority of white students (when first introduced to his new school mates, he was quickly dubbed ‘Leonardo Retardo’). But although he was teased and picked on, it seems his treatment was no worse than normal.
John Marshall High had aspirations beyond simply being a backdrop for teen dramas, however. It held well-run drama classes and naturally, Leonardo signed up. Instantly popular, he was cast as the male lead in the school play. At the same time he was holding down TV show roles.
‘Leo had that star quality you only see once in a lifetime,’ recalls Gerald Winesburg, his school drama teacher, who was certainly impressed.
Leonardo had not long joined the school when he landed the part in This Boy’s Life but by then he had already made an impression on his new classmates.
‘Leo was the virtually the only white guy in the class,’ says pal Pot Ontoun. ‘With his shock of blond hair, he stood out like a sore thumb. We used to call him “Shorty” – he was so scrawny.
‘Once, the teacher asked Leo to read out a romantic speech from Romeo and Juliet. Everyone stopped and listened. By the end, all the girls were staring at him, doe-eyed – while the guys were annoyed that he was attracting so much attention.’
Soon, however, his auditions and TV work were taking so much of his time that Mr Winesburg had to bar Leo for missing rehearsals: ‘Next morning, his mother turned up to talk it through with me. She was clearly a powerhouse, who was determined her only son would succeed.
‘Leo loved the adulation, but he was obnoxious about it. He never got into trouble, though. He had such an enchanting smile and endearing manner, he could charm any teacher.’
Winesburg remembers: ‘Each day, the school newsletter would say: “See our very own Leo DiCaprio in so-and-so!” I knew he was putting those adverts in himself.’ But more than that, the teacher adds, Leo was determined to get himself and his mother out of the ghetto – ‘He had that drive to succeed and I admired him.’
A struggling young actor he might have been, fighting to escape a poverty-stricken childhood, but Leonardo quickly identified the girl he wanted to be his leading lady: high school Homecoming Queen, Jennifer Faus.
Leo pulled out all the stops to charm Jennifer but, incredible as it seems now, given what we know about the actor’s prowess with the opposite sex, she blew his attempts to romance her out of the water.
The teenage Leo thought he’d won her over and ended his run of bad luck with girls when Jennifer let him kiss her – only to be left heartbroken when she turned him down for a date because he was ‘too bigheaded’.
‘Leo and I had the biggest crush on each other,’ recalls Jennifer, who is now happily married and working in a Los Angeles store. ‘People say I was so lucky to kiss the world’s most beautiful man – and I could kick myself now for not saying “yes” to a date with him.’
She met Leonardo when he started at the high school. ‘He was adorable,’ she says. ‘You just wanted to hug him because he was so little. He was so skinny and scrawny that I used to tease him – and hold his hands behind his back.
‘He used to drive this big old Mustang – he was so short that all you could see was his little hands on the steering-wheel.’
Little Leonardo looked to have no chance of winning the prettiest girl in school. But then he suddenly experienced a growth spurt – not to mention a role alongside Robert De Niro – and Jennifer soon began to sit up and take notice.
‘Once we left high school, I started to see how cute he was,’ she explained. ‘At first, we hid our feelings with play-fights – I was always boxing with him. I guess it was just an excuse to touch each other. We would hang out and talk a lot, but there was a sexual tension. I could tell Leo was hiding his real feelings.
‘One of my best friends had dated him, so I asked her if she would mind if anything happened between us. When she said it was fine, I was thrilled.’
When the two had to walk back from a friend’s house in Hollywood, Leonardo made his move.
‘He used to joke about how I should go out with him because one day he would be a celebrity,’ Jennifer says. ‘He was so talented I knew it was true, but I usually just laughed. That night, we both went silent. He turned round, looked at me – and kissed me. I have to say he was a very good kisser, even though he had dated only one other girl.’
But, to Leo’s dismay, Jennifer had second thoughts.
‘He had just landed a part opposite Robert De Niro in his first movie role,’ she continues. ‘Leo had always been a cocky kid and his big-headedness finally put me off. He offered to drive me home and asked me for a date. I was worried he was getting a bit too Hollywood,