Leonardo DiCaprio Almost Stopped Acting Thanks to His ‘Titanic’ Stardom
Leonardo DiCaprio became a household name after being a part of James Cameron’s Titanic. But his newfound celebrity was a double-edged sword, which made the actor consider taking a long break from acting.
Leonardo DiCaprio couldn’t stop laughing at himself in ‘Titanic’
Much has changed in DiCaprio’s life ever since he first boarded 1997’s Titanic. He’s grown from being a Hollywood heartthrob to becoming one of the most respected veteran actors in the film industry. But as is always the case with aging, he’s also gone through quite a physical change over the years. Cameron himself took notice of the physical changes in both DiCaprio and Kate Winslet experienced over the years. This made his Titanic film feel like a sort of time capsule.
“Leo has gotten much more rugged-looking while Kate’s beauty has evolved in such a great, striking way. The way I relate to it is that it’s a snapshot in time and their characters Jack [Dawson] and Rose [Rose DeWitt Bukater] almost exist as fictional characters independent of who Kate and Leo are,” Cameron once said in an interview with Culture (via Female First).
But because of how young DiCaprio was back then, a much older DiCaprio found difficulty taking his past self seriously.
“When I watch the film now they look like such babies. I sat with Leo in Sydney not long ago and I showed him 18 minutes we had converted. He just couldn’t stop laughing at himself as kind of a kid,” Cameron recalled.
Leonardo DiCaprio considered quitting acting after feeling objectified thanks to ‘Titanic’
DiCaprio was already an established actor by the time Titanic came around. He already had films like What’s Eating Gilbert Grape and The Boy’s Life under his belt. He may have already been headed towards heartthrob status doing movies like Romeo + Juliet, but Titanic solidified the deal.
“It wasn’t the era of penetrating Internet paparazzi that we have now. But my name wasn’t me anymore. I was sort of this thing. Kate felt it, too. But a lot of the attention was on me because of the teenage girls who repeatedly went to see the movie. I had the blond hair, and I was Jack Dawson, this heroic figure,” DiCaprio said in a 2010 interview with Esquire.
DiCaprio was so against the image his Titanic stardom cultivated that he considered walking away from Hollywood.
“At first I hated the way I was turned into a pretty boy, as if that was all that was expected of me. It made me almost want to stop acting for a while because the attention that was focused on me was not where I wanted to take my career,” he once said according to The Fan Carpet.
This also discouraged DiCaprio from taking on other genres in the film industry that might have been too close to Titanic.
“I didn’t want to do romantic films or anything which just exploited my image or appearance. I also kind of had to be more careful about the friends I was hanging out with. I was living a pretty big life for a while and then that just gets tiresome,” he added.
Leonardo DiCaprio is still proud of ‘Titanic’
DiCaprio may have had to deal with the affects Titanic had on his celebrity image. But he still often looked back at his time on the film fondly, hardly regretting its impact on his career. To him, the pros of being in Titanic far outweighed the negatives.
“You know, it’s been such a long time, but it was such a huge part of my life,” he once told Entertainment Weekly. “And people maybe think I have a reaction to that, to that film, but the truth is, I’m incredibly proud of it. And not only that, the movie has really made me be in control of my career.”
