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By AMY LONGSDORF Times Leader Correspondent
Sunday, February 06, 2000 Page: 1G
KAPALUA, HAWAII – So, did Leonardo DiCaprio really father a child with
“Beach” co-star Virginie Leyoden while secretly dating Carmen Electra? The
actor bursts into laughter, as if the idea is completely off-the-wall. But
it’s not altogether out of the question. DiCaprio, after all, has a way with
the ladies – both onscreen and off. Ever since “Titanic” turned him into a
$20-million-a-movie, name-above-the-title player, he’s been the object of
desire for teenage girls around the world. It was DiCaprio’s loyal fans, who
saw the film repeatedly, that helped turn the epic romance into a full-scale
phenomenon. As for the business about Leyoden and Electra, DiCaprio is happy
to issue a denial. “Every day it’s a new rumor,” the actor says, turning
serious. “No, I’m not dating Carmen Electra. No, I didn’t get Virginie
pregnant. I used to take these kinds of things personally. I would often
think, `This is going to eat me alive!’ I would want to give a press
conference every five minutes. Now, I just don’t care anymore. It’s all kind
of ridiculous.” In “The Beach,” DiCaprio’s first major movie since
“Titanic,” he plays a restless young man searching for sanctuary. The actor,
needless to say, could relate. “There is nowhere you can go to escape who you
really are,” muses DiCaprio during an interview at the Ritz-Carlton in Maui,
where he’s come to help 20th Century Fox promote “The Beach,” opening Friday
in area theaters. “The only sanctuaries are places that bring you closer to
your inner self. The tides always turn.” At the moment, DiCaprio is riding an
incredible wave of success. He was a well-respected actor honored with a Best
Supporting Oscar nod for “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?” when he snagged the
starring role in “Titanic.” Two years, $400 million and countless “Teen
Beat” covers later, DiCaprio is a household name. “I’ve been afforded so
many opportunities because of that movie,” says the actor. “I think
`Titanic’ will be remembered forever. It’s a part of American and worldwide
culture. It’s cemented in time and I’m proud to be a part of it. So, all in
all, the pros outweigh the cons.” Sometimes, though, he feels like he’s
barely keeping his head above water. “Certainly that whole year after
`Titanic’ was a huge learning experience for me,” says the actor, whose
wardrobe choices – blue jeans, black T-shirt and sandals – make him look
younger than his 25 years. “There is no handbook that you can go out and buy
on what it’s like to become famous and how to survive it. I can’t just go to
Barnes & Noble and pick up a copy. Fame is a monster that you have no control
over, and no matter what you do things are going to get mutated in the
press.” Many close to the actor advised him to lay low rather than risk
overexposure. DiCaprio chose another road. “I didn’t want to turn into a
hermit,” he says. “I wanted to live my own life and do whatever the hell I
wanted to do, so I wanted to defy it in some ways.” If the gossip columns are
to be believed, DiCaprio spent most of the last two years popping up at clubs
and Hollywood parties, always in the company of supermodels. At the moment,
DiCaprio is single. “I don’t say that sadly,” he declares. “I’ve partied,
sure, but most nights I’m sitting at home. Maybe I get on my Web site
(www.leonardodicaprio.com). Talk to people.” Last year, when the actor
finally decided it was time to talk to Hollywood, he resolved to hit “The
Beach” with director Danny Boyle, of “Shallow Grave” and “Trainspotting”
fame. DiCaprio maintains he didn’t feel any pressure to try to repeat his
“Titanic” success. “I just wanted to find a project that struck a chord in
me, that I actually connected with, and that really spoke to me and not just
something that someone else told me would make a brilliant film,” says
DiCaprio. “Danny came along and he made me a partner. I wasn’t just an actor
for hire. Danny said, `Let’s shape this the way we want to shape it.’ ” Boyle
originally considered “Trainspotting” star Ewan McGregor for the starring
role, but once he decided to make the character American, he turned to
DiCaprio. “Leo and Ewan actually have a lot in common,” says the filmmaker.
“For both of them, it’s effortless. Leo, in particular, loves acting, and he
does it so well.” In many ways, the restless drifter that DiCaprio plays in
“The Beach” is a throwback to the edgy characters the actor created in
pre-“Titanic” movies such as “The Basketball Diaries,” “Total Eclipse”
and “Marvin’s Room.” “The Beach,” which is based on Alex Garland’s
well-regarded cult novel, is the story of a young American tourist who thinks
he has found heavenly paradise on a remote island in Thailand. What he really
discovers is much closer to hell. “I don’t like to talk for my generation,
but I think the movie says that all of us who have been de-sensitized to real
emotion by TV and movies and the media have begun to feel kind of empty,”
says the actor. “My character in the movie goes off in search of a real
experience. He goes traveling to Thailand, where he ends up finding a utopia
that seems to be the answer to all of his prayers. But, in the end, he
realizes that paradise is essentially a false concept. There is nothing out
there that will solve all your problems. In order for paradise to exist, it
has to exist for everyone.” Filming “The Beach” was far from a paradise for
DiCaprio even though the movie was shot on the remote island of Phi Phi Lee.
Before filming began, with the permission of local Thai authorities, the
production removed three tons of garbage from the beach, planted 100 coconut
trees and lowered two sand dunes. Still, the movie was picketed by
environmental groups. “We were targeted as this big Hollywood machine that
came in and disrespected this island,” says DiCaprio. “We helped the place.
So the whole controversy was a lie.” Lies, or at least rumors, have a way of
attaching themselves to DiCaprio. Here’s a couple of truths about the actor:
He’s a video-game freak who is addicted to Dreamcast. He drives a Lexus,
listens to hip-hop and has just taken up scuba diving. His acting idol is
Meryl Streep, with whom he co-starred in “Marvin’s Room.” In the last couple
of years, the actor has been mentioned for a handful of upcoming projects,
ranging from “American Psycho,” which he dropped out of, to “The Godfather
IV” and the next “Star Wars” prequel. “I would have dearly loved to do
`Godfather IV,’ but the death of Mario Puzo has put an end to that dream,”
says DiCaprio, who was born in Hollywood to an underground-comic-book-writer
father and a social worker mom. About the next episode of “Star Wars,” the
actor says, “I’ve talked with George Lucas about playing (an older Anakin
Skywalker), but I haven’t seen a script. We’ve just had one conversation.”
Did he insist on seeing a script because “The Phantom Menace” left so many
disappointed? “I need to see a script of anything I’m a part of. Period,”
DiCaprio adds.
Next up for DiCaprio is Martin Scorsese’s “Gangs of New York,” which is
scheduled to begin filming in Rome in March. “I play a young Irish man in the
1850s who returns to New York City to avenge the death of his father,” says
the actor. “It’s a project Martin and I have been talking about for years
now.” In the past, DiCaprio has enjoyed good relationships with the
filmmakers he’s worked with. An exception is James Cameron, who directed the
actor in “Titanic.” Reports surfaced that DiCaprio dumped a can of ice water
over the filmmaker’s head on the last day of shooting. “It was like Gatorade
poured on the coach’s head,” says DiCaprio of the incident. “I’ve said many
times before that, yes, Cameron does have a certain personality. The truth is,
it takes a commanding, general-like man to do a movie like `Titanic.’ ” Would
DiCaprio work with Cameron again? “Depends on the project,” says the actor.
Working with Boyle on “The Beach” was much more to DiCaprio’s liking, even
though Boyle asked the actor to take to the seas in a small boat that
eventually capsized nearly a mile from shore. “Danny talks a lot about the
incident and how scary it was,” says the actor. “The current took us out to
the ocean and waves began crashing onto the boat and the next thing we knew
the boat was sinking, equipment was overboard and 30 people were swimming.”
Alone among the cast and crew, DiCaprio wasn’t spooked by the incident. “I
understand that a human body floats,” says the actor, laughing. “So I wasn’t
panicking about it at all.”