Pimping Esquire appears to be the thing to do at the moment as not only has their Roger Ebert feature caught my eye, but their Leonardo DiCaprio features is equally entertaining as he discusses Scorsese, Spielberg, James Cameron, nudity and Kate Winslet, Jack Nicholson, River Phoenix and Meryl Streep. Here are a couple of examples I particularly enjoyed:
On Scorsese vs. Spielberg:
The only other person who knows as much about film as Martin Scorsese is Steven Spielberg…. People would always ask me, What are the differences between Spielberg and Scorsese?
All I could find myself talking about was the similarities.
On That Nude Scene in Revolutionary Road:
Kate Winslet is one of my dearest friends. We have the ultimate trust in each other and the best of intentions for what we want to do. I knew Kate before Sam [Mendes, her husband] even met her. So on the outside, it may seem strange to do a sex scene with a woman while her husband is directing. But it didn’t feel that way to me.
When the scene was about to start, Kate said, in front of the crew, “Wait, wait, this is totally weird.” She turned to both Sam and I and said, “Are you guys okay?”
We both looked at each other and said, Yeah, we’re totally fine.
She said, “It’s even weirder that you’re both totally fine.”
On the Night River Phoenix Died:
When I was eighteen, River Phoenix was far and away my hero. Think of all those early great performances – My Own Private Idaho. Stand by Me. I always wanted to meet him. One night, I was at this Halloween party, and he passed me. He was beyond pale – he looked white. Before I got a chance to say hello, he was gone, driving off to the Viper Room, where he fell over and died.
That’s a lesson.
Get the full feature here and the complete interview will be in Esquire’s newest issue.
