Is Leonardo DiCaprio gunning for our hearts and memes? The “One Battle After Another” star certainly gave it his all Sunday at the Golden Globes.
First, there were DiCaprio’s reactions to host Nikki Glaser joking about all the things he’d managed to accomplish professionally — before his girlfriend turned 30. Vittoria Ceretti is 27, so he still has a few more years to polish that resume with, say, Oscar No. 2.
He smiled, he pointed, he gave a thumbs up. So good, Glaser said, so vaping good.
Glaser also apologized, more than hinting that she had to do it because the 51-year-old’s penchant for dating models in their 20s 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,” she said. “You know what, I tried not to, but like, 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 her to ask him if he still wants to study oceanography and drive a solar-powered 1982 Jaguar. (Guessing it’s a yes on the Jaguar.)
Anyway, DiCaprio got a little more animated at that moment than he was on the red carpet, but it took going to a commercial break for him to go truly meme-worthy.
“I was watching you with the K-pop thing, you were like, ‘Who’s that, is that, oh, K-pop,’” DiCaprio said to someone off camera, gesticulating and over-pronouncing to make himself understandable in what can be a very loud room. Which shouldn’t be that funny, but it looked like this.
The “I’m watching you” movement. The elaborate hand gestures. The polite golf clap. Capped by a laugh and smile that made him look like a younger Burt Reynolds with just a touch of Jack Nicholson. Think sign language for people who can hear.
Perhaps instead of Ben Sadfleck, we now have Leo DiCapricious? Leo Discombobulated? 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 for best picture, comedy or musical, he was back to looking mostly 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 I’ve been managing my whole adult life, and still I’m not an expert,” he told Time last month, after the outlet dubbed him its entertainer of the year for 2025. “I think my simple philosophy is only get out there and do something when you have something to say, or you have something to show for it. Otherwise, just disappear as much as you possibly can.”
After the fame and attention he scored with “Titanic” almost 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 out of people’s face.”
From your lips to God’s ears, Leo. We’ve got our eyes on you.
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