Is Leonardo DiCaprio aiming for our hearts and memes? The “One Battle After Another” star certainly gave it her all at the Golden Globes on Sunday.
First, there were DiCaprio's reactions when host Nikki Glaser joked about all the things he had managed to accomplish professionally, before his girlfriend turned 30. Vittoria Ceretti is 27, so she still has a few more years to burnish that resume with, say, Oscar No. 2.
He smiled, pointed and gave a thumbs up. Very good, Glaser said, very good vaping.
Glaser also apologized, more than hinting that he had to because the 51-year-old's penchant for dating 20-year-old models was the only thing the public knew about him personally. (Though he didn't exactly hide the whole smoker-turned-vaping-icon thing.)
“Leo, I'm sorry I made that joke. It's cheap,” he said. “You know what, I tried not to, but we don't know anything else about you, man. Like, there's nothing else. Like, open up. I'm serious. I looked. I searched. The most in-depth interview you've ever given was in Teen Beat magazine in 1991. Is your favorite food still 'pasta, pasta and more pasta'?”
TBH, we really would have preferred if she asked him if he still wants to study oceanography and drive a solar-powered 1982 Jaguar. (I guess it's a yes on the Jaguar).
Anyway, DiCaprio became a little more animated in that moment than he was on the red carpet, but it took a commercial break for him to become truly meme-worthy.
“I was looking at you with the K-pop thing, and you said, 'Who's that? Is that one? Oh, K-pop,'” DiCaprio said to someone off camera, gesticulating and enunciating too much to be understandable in what can be a very loud room. Which shouldn't be that funny, but it looked like that.
The “I'm looking at you” movement. The elaborate hand gestures. The polite applause of golf. Topped off by a laugh and smile that made him look like a younger Burt Reynolds with just a hint of Jack Nicholson. Think about sign language for people who can hear.
Maybe instead of Ben Sadfleck we now have Leo DiCapricious? Leo puzzled? It was definitely a complete change of public persona. When DiCaprio took the stage later in the show, after his film “One Battle After Another” won best motion picture, comedy or musical, he again looked like he was trying to keep that little nicotine pouch from moving around in his mouth.
DiCaprio's philosophy on fame, by the way, is in line with that: keep your mouth shut.
“It's been a balance that I've been managing my entire adult life, and I'm still not an expert,” he told Time last month, after the outlet named him artist of the year for 2025. “I think my simple philosophy is to go out and do something when you have something to say, or you have something to show. Otherwise, just disappear as much as you can.”
After the fame and attention he gained with “Titanic” nearly 30 years ago, he said, he needed to find a way to have a long career in Hollywood.
“I love what I do,” he told Time, “and I feel like the best way to have a long career is to get away from people.”
From your lips to the ears of God, Leo. We have our eyes on you.
