TO PLAY IT DARK IN THE BEACH

by Jeanne Wolf /February 8, 2000

"Leo! Leo!" The chorus of female hysteria was heard around the globe wherever he was or wherever he was believed to be as fans worshiped the King of the World.

But the world wondered when the youthful monarch who starred in Titanic would find another movie to follow this awesome success. Leonardo DiCaprio headed to The Beach, plunging into the kind of twisted take on reality that had attracted him to films like The Basketball Diaries and What's Eating Gilbert Grape?, for which he received an Oscar nomination.

Leo's much anticipated big screen outing is dark and offbeat a challenge for him and the audience. Okay, he does take off his shirt and get back in the water, but in his latest role, DiCaprio attempts to shed the pop star image that has enveloped him.

Enormous fame seems to make everyone who experiences it a little crazy. Have the fan frenzy and media attention been a little scary?

I remember saying to my friends, "Oh, I can't go here. I can't go there." They all looked at me and said, "What're you kidding me? Are you going to let this whole thing affect your life? Are you going to hide out like a little hermit?" Something sort of clicked in me, and I realized I had no control over it so I might as well enjoy the time I'm on this earth and not spend six months in my house. When I go out in public, I have ways of wearing a hat and glasses not to be recognized at least sometimes and that helps.

It's been two years since we've seen you on the big screen. You looked at a lot of scripts before deciding on The Beach. What was it about this project that grabbed you?

I really identified with the character of Richard and his concept of what paradise is. He is looking for a way to deal with his own demons trying to escape the cyber-techno revolution, where everything is being preprocessed and prepackaged for him. He's going in search of something that's a true, real experience. The Beach deals with how my generation is sort of desensitized by the media television and movies and video games. We really have a lack of tangible connection with real emotion anymore. We're longing for and looking for it.

Is the bad news that Richard doesn't get what he's looking for?

When he finds paradise on an island off the coast of Thailand, in a lot of ways, it proves to be something that can't exist. It brings out the worst in people. But at least he had the courage to go in search of something different. Actually, he even swims a long way through shark infested waters to reach that island.

Would you have the guts to do that?

Me? I would probably find a way to get a boat over there. Maybe have somebody check it out for me first, just in case there was a group of cannibals there. That's what I admired about Richard. I probably wouldn't be as courageous as he was. I wouldn't swim over to an unknown island at the drop of a dime.

Richard is obsessed with actually, sort of addicted to video games. Word is, you could hold your own with him. I am a video game freak.

I've had every system imaginable. I am a product of that generation. I think it's a trap, because once you get involved in it, it is truly hard to escape. It envelops you. I go through periods of a year where I don't play any video games, but once I get into it again it becomes like a drug, in a weird way.

Until now, you've just acted in films, but when you hit The Beach, so to speak, you did a lot more. Danny Boyle, the director, wanted to bring me in as a partner.

He didn't want me to just be an actor for hire. We did a lot of work on the script. We did a lot of experimentation, taking different characters out, putting them back. We experimented all over the place. I had tons of conversations and arguments with Danny about what we thought would be good.

You and the production took some flak from environmentalists, who accused you of doing harm to the island. Did you feel singled out?

I just became the target for a lot of the political wrangling that was going on at the time. Meanwhile, we took three tons of garbage off that island. It was pretty much a disaster before we got there. Unfortunately, we got caught up in a controversy and a series of lies about what was going on that got spread all around the world. But there are certain things you have no control over. The only thing you can do is try and put your word out there, and, hopefully, the truth will get out in the end.

You've become somewhat legendary for kidding around on the set, doing impressions and pulling practical jokes, even when things are tough on a shoot.

I don't know how legendary I am. I think that, just like life, the filmmaking experience should be a relaxed atmosphere, that's all. So, my so-called notorious acts and joking around off camera are to lighten things up.

But everyone who works with you talks about how totally focused you are on camera. Are you conscious of that?

Very. Acting is the only thing I've held on to that is true about who I am. Everything else seems to change in life. Everything else seems to be metamorphosing into something different, but acting being a performer is the only thing I have known ever since I was a kid. It has consumed me in a lot of different ways. It's something I can't escape.

Danny Boyle talked about your ability to maneuver a crowd looking straight ahead and to keep your life together, somehow, in the midst of all the craziness around you about you. That's a different kind of focus. How did you master that?

When I was, like, 16 or 17, just starting to grow up, I first encountered what fame was like. I went through a period of starting to go in a different direction, maybe thinking higher thoughts of myself, because of all the attention. Then quickly, thank God, my friends and family, who are a lot more grounded, helped me put it in perspective. But that experience at an early age prepared me much more for the whole Titanic phenomenon, which was just like a gigantic hot air balloon taking off.

Would paradise, for you, be a place where you didn't have to deal with all that?

You have to deal with who you are in the end. If you have internal demons, you are going to have to deal with them, whether you're famous or not. We've all heard a million times stories of people who have gotten fame and wealth and great opportunity, and ruined it all. In the end, you are going to have to deal with who you are. There is no paradise, and there is no handbook on how to experience fame. I couldn't go to, like, a self-help book on what to do when you become famous. Nobody wrote that book. It is something you have to experience. You make some mistakes, and you learn, and that's it.

When you're not on a movie set, what would be the first thing you'd do just to kick back?

The first thing that comes to mind? Okay, you know, this is going to sound lame, but...hanging out with my friends. I know that seems like just the most atypical answer I could possibly give, but my friends take me away from the whole world of show business, and it really grounds me in a lot of ways. It brings me back to who I am. They are still intricately a part of my life. I've known so many of them for such a long time, and no matter what the hell is going on, they can always sort of bring me back down again.

You've always been very close to your parents. Let us in on some of the words of wisdom you got from them.

"Get out of bed, do some exercise, stop being a little worm." Something like that. I absolutely hear my mother's voice saying that all the time. My father would be constantly challenging me to try different things. I've been blessed with having unbelievable parents who have given me the opportunity to do what I'm doing career-wise, and they also made me into the person I am.

People describe how you come alive on camera. You can come in looking half dead, but when they say, "Action," you're ready to go. Is that something you understand in yourself?

It's my passion. It's the passion for being a performer and getting into the character that makes me come alive. It's the fascination with being able to involve yourself in another person's mind, and be that person that, for me, is one of the greatest gifts I've been given, being able to do that.

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