Quips From THOSE LIPS (Page 2)

Quips From Those Lips (2)

Quotes made by or about Leonardo...

Have a favorite quote that you would like me to add?
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Catch Me If You Can

"What I learned from him...it is possible to be a great actor in this business, do great work and not become crazy. And that to me is the most successful thing in the world. If you can be so great at what you do, yet still be such a great, normal guy."
Leonardo DiCaprio, on working with Tom Hanks

Back in the public eye after almost three years of self-imposed hiatus, DiCaprio's hardly the babyface from Titanic, an obvious physical shift that's had him fretting over playing a character who's seen ageing from 16 to 26. "There are four different looks including a prison sequence where I have long hair and then me after prison. I was surprised at the beginning of the movie because I thought "How the hell am I going to look so young for this character"? And then when I cut off all my hair I said "How the hell am I going to look old? Because I looked like an infant again without my hair!"

Gangs of New York

May 22 2002 Cannes press conference: "But none of the "problems" on set concerned DiCaprio", Scorsese said. "I've got to tell you, the kid was there. We never, I must say, ever had disagreements. I never was upset about supposedly late-night antics."
Martin Scorsese, director - Gangs of New York

"I like his acting process. It's very detailed, very true. He has something unique when he's on screen that a lot of other young actors only develop later or never get at all."
Martin Scorsese, director - Gangs of New York

"I'm really excited about our bedroom scenes" laughs Cameron Diaz and reveals: "All my friends are jealous." Cameron (a Spanish name meaning shrimp) starts shooting the action drama Gangs of New York alongside heartthrob Leonardo DiCaprio in August. According to Hollywood insiders these should be the hottest sex scenes that Leo has done up to date. The costly movie (budget $80m, of which Leo will be getting $16m and Cameron $6.5m) deals with the New York underworld at the end of the 19th Century, when Italian and Irish gangs fought for control of the Eastcoast city. The movie will be shot in New York and Rome and will be directed by cult director Martin Scorsese (whose movie Bringing out the Dead is currently running at German theaters). Cameron plays a crafty thief called Jenny, Leo plays gang leader Amsterdam. At first the two are enemies but they then fall for each other and do things together. Whether there'll be a happy ending or not isn't yet clear as the script is still be worked on. Has Cameron already discussed the film with Leo? Cameron says: "Leo and I were invited to Scorsese's place and spent the whole night talking. The film will be the biggest challenge of my career." And what was Leo like? Cameron: "He was very quiet all night, very concentrated, he only drank water and in the middle of the night ordered a giant pizza for us." And her favorite film of Leo's? "Whithout a doubt, Gilbert Grape. I cried buckets when I saw it at the movies."
Cameron Diaz, co-star - Gangs of New York

The Aviator

Now, Scorsese said, he needs to go to work again. "I have a 3-year-old to feed," he smiles. What will he make? Two projects are in his mind. One is a biopic based on Dean Martin, which he has been talking about for years. Another is "The Aviator," based on the early life of Howard Hughes, who has an earth-shaking love affair with Katharine Hepburn.

"You know who looks uncannily like young Howard Hughes?" Scorsese mused. "Leonardo DiCaprio."

Alexander

Titanic

From Betty DeRamus / The Detroit News - November, 2001 (Thanks Chris!)

This week, as bomb-weary Taliban fled Afghanistan's capital, Kabul, ordinary Afghans celebrated. They trimmed their Taliban-required beards. They dug up their forbidden television sets hidden in their yards. They cranked up their radios for a blast of long-banned music. And anyone with a VCR watched this country's favorite movie, Titanic.
Titanic?
Oh yes. Despite the Taliban's rubber whips and stiff rules, Afghans fell in love with bootlegged copies of Titanic. It gave them concrete ways of displaying their discontent.

Earlier this year, some Afghans risked jail to get their hair cut like Leonardo DiCaprio's in the movie. Meanwhile, Afghan merchants have been selling wedding cakes shaped like the doomed ocean liner and attaching the Titanic label to shoes, cosmetics and rice.

Titanic, of course, is the epic story of two lovers who meet aboard a ship that "God himself couldn't sink," according to one of the characters. DiCaprio plays Jack, a poor boy who wins a ticket to America with a lucky hand of poker. He then wins the heart of Rose, a proud-eyed beauty who hates the narrow life she's expected to lead. It's easy to see why the film would capture the imagination of the Afghan people. What man in a country where the ruling government has outlawed music and hanged televisions from trees wouldn't yearn for a ticket to freedom? And what heavily-shrouded woman in a nation where she couldn't work, go to school or walk the streets covered from head to toe without a male escort wouldn't imagine a different sort of life?

This really is one world, now, and America continues to conquer it without firing a shot. Our movies, songs, videos, dances and fantasies do the job for us.....

America often is rightly slammed for pumping out movies that do nothing but celebrate car chases, explosions and hard-hitting heroes. Yet, some films, including Titanic, carry other messages that people anywhere can decode. Seize the moment. Shape your own destiny. Cherish freedom. And make courage your shield and sword.

From Tom Long / The Detroit News (Thanks Chris!)

(Article about Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone) "It's certainly not a Titanic-type film..... he doesn't think it will come anywhere near the amazing $600 million earned by Titanic in 1997, making it far and away the biggest-grossing film of all time......

But a real key may be the return audience. Harry runs two hours and 33 minutes. How many parents will want to see the movie twice, and how many will sit through it over and over again with their kids? Titanic, on the other hand, appealed greatly to teens who could go back on their own to see it again. And again. And again. And let's face it, magical though he may be, Harry is no Leonardo Dicaprio.

The Man In The Iron Mask

Gabriel Byrne's (who worked with Leonardo in MITIM) reponse on CNN interview when asked about Leo's lack of an Oscar nomination for best actor for his role in Titanic.

"Leo doesn't need an award to validate his talent, his acting speaks for itself."

Celebrity

The Beach

Her first taste of Hollywood came when she landed a part alongside Leonardo diCaprio in The Beach. Then she became the envy of women everywhere as Hugh Grant's love interest in hit Brit flick About A Boy. Both her co-stars made a big impression on her.

She says: "Leo is amazingly untouched by fame when he's on a film set - very supportive and charming, and very attentive to every detail."

"You realise what pressure he's under all the time, though, because it is his name that carries the movie and that's one hell of a heavy responsibility.

"In The Beach, a lot of us could relax because we weren't in every scene. He was. As far as socialising went, he was far more likely to be found learning his lines and moves than going out partying." Victoria Smurfit, co-star - The Beach

Danny Boyle said that studio executives insisted on major changes to the story for the final script of The Beach, and he believes this affected Garland's creativity when his movie finally hit the big screen. "We should tell the whole story of that film one day and what happened to it in Hollywood," he said. "If I had my way, I would recut the film and re-release my own version."

The actor who played Unhygenix: Firstly we had a session on the beach where each of us had 15 minutes to tell everyone about ourselves. It got to Leo and we thought he’d be excluded because he’s so famous. But he stood up, said “My name’s Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio,” and talked about where he was born and his life. We were all on the same level. After that initial introduction he was no longer Leonardo the film star – we became like a family. For the next four months we were just mates hanging out and having a laugh.

In the movie I play Unhygenix – the guy who cooks for the whole community and sticks of fish. I learned how to gut fresh fish in seconds and cook them using only what you’d have on the island. By the end of the movie I was cooking for everyone and even Leo was eating it.

In fact, he mucked in with all of us – whether it was learning how to fish, or do gardening, or clearing away the forest where we’re supposed to live. We also had a personal fitness instructor, and Leo was included. We were on the beach at 6am every morning – jogging, doing press-ups and squats. Sometimes we just couldn’t stop laughing.

There was one time when Leo, Guillaume and I were just running along the street having a water fight, and we realised there was something like 3,000 people in this square, watching us. Or we’d be near some shops and see all these T-shirts inside with his face on them, or lots of posters of Titanic. Leo would keep his head down and stay quiet – he just accepts it. And when you’re with him, so do you. It wasn’t until we went out to restaurants together that the reactions of other people made me remember who is. I’d suddenly think: “Christ! I’m with Leo DiCaprio!”

He’s really quite amazing. One day we were in hysterics about something, laughing and laughing, and Leo had to go and shoot a really intense scene. He just switched and the transformation was spot on – it was amazing how he didn’t need to get psyched up. That gives you an idea of his talent. He’s simply one of the best actors around.”

Marvin's Room

Romeo & Juliet

Leo on Leo and other fun stuff!

Comment from Leo on being 'frugal': (thanks James!)"I believe in things like not accepting that just because you're in a hotel you have to pay $5 for a coke. Just go down a block for a $3 6 pack"

"I don't really care whether my movies make money in the long run, because I'm still going to work as an actor," insists DiCaprio, who points out that if it weren't for Titanic, an expensive proposition like Gangs probably wouldn't have gotten the green light. "My main objective now is to use this power that I have to make great art. And I don't want to squander that opportunity. I don't want to drop in and do films that I feel are recycled versions of things we've seen a million times before."

The Yahoo Chat for Gorillas quotes:

Question: Leonardo, as an environmentalist, what made you focus on the endangered gorillas as opposed to any other endangered species?

Leo: It's a complicated question. Partly because they're so closely linked to us. Virtually our cousins.

Animals on the verge of extinction...one of the saddest things in the world to have them wiped off the earth. It's important to understand we want to urge the public to look for gorilla friendly technology. Write to your organizations for cellular phones to find out where this Coltan is coming from. Help make it a positive thing for gorillas.

I wanted to get into some surprising things I learned recently with Penny Patterson and Koko. The subject of how closely we are related to them. How it's almost a form a specesism, the same as racism or sexism.

By killing these animals off, we're placing ourselves on a higher plane. Like Genocide.

Koko's reaction to WTC attack. She said, she felt very sorry about what happened!

She gave an audible sigh. She responded to things like life and death. Here's a conversation where an interviewer asked animals for when they die. Her answer was, 'A comfortable hole, bye bye'

"When do they die?", her answer was "When they are unhappy or old."

Very profound things come from this gorilla. Almost like the closest thing to contacting alien life forms, communication with another species that has a moral belief system.

To lose these animals would be an insane tragedy.

Well, considering that the gorilla population was, two years ago, the Eastern Lowland Gorillas, were around 8000. With 400 being killed off a month, it's down to 800. This is a crisis situation for these animals. By doing this chat and being further involved, we can bring an awareness to this issue.

When you buy a can of tuna, it's dolphin safe. When we buy our cellphones, I want to see that they're gorilla friendly. These "animals" are not so closely liked to us and similar trains of thought, but they took over 7 million years to develop into these perfections of nature and we can't afford to wipe them out in the blink of an eye.

Like the rest of you, I've seen Gorillas in zoos. But you can ask that if people eat them in the wild as bushmeat, why can't we just move them to preserves? Why? It's because they don't migrate and don't transplant.

There is no place to take them, or any way to get them there.

Specifically, I'd love to do an environmental film. It would have to be done very well. It's a hard subject matter to take on. It's very morbid. It would certainly be depressing film, considering how sad and what's in store for us in the future.

But I would absolutely be enthusiastic as long as it was well made and hit important issues. So far, I haven't seen a real environmental film since Gorillas in the Mist.

Question: I've read that there are only 650 gorillas believe to be left in the wild. How much time will it take for them to become extinct if nothing is done to save them?

Leo DiCaprio: If nothing is done to save them? It could be as little as 2-3 months!

Once again, this is why we decided that this chat had to be done today. And addressed now. It couldn't wait another day.

There are only 2 or 3 mountain gorillas ever in captivity They're very high strung. If we tried to relocate them, we’d lose a good portion due to stress and trauma of the operation. It would be counterproductive. We wouldn't be as involved in this if we didn't believe in it. We can learn a lot from these gorillas. They have learned to coexist with each other in a peaceful and fair way. We can learn a lot from them.

Here's one more quote from KOKO...

A conversation between Koko and his trainer - She asked for a quote, saying she couldn't come up with any ideas. Koko said "Bad", and the trainer asked about what gorillas know that people done, "Don't know."

Then the trainer asked what is the meaning of life. Koko's answer was, "Polite people. People help good"

It proves once and for all how closely we are to these fast diminishing creatures. And I hope and urge you all will do something about it.

Thank you ,

Peace on Earth.

All Other...

"I don´t like to talk about him, but I´ll comment a lttle something. Is one of the most wonderful people... no, no, inteligent and humble that I´ve met. You know the kind of person that is happy when the other´s happy? A man that doesn´t feel comfortable if his mother or father are not happy? Leonardo worries more about others than about himself. So, he´s enchanting, is my friend, is one of the best people I know. It´s not because that our relationship didn´t work out that I´ll criticize it "Oh this guy..." It didn´t work out cause it didn´t! The curious thing is that I used to see him as an idiot and the bad fame came from the news on the social columns and from cinema. Leonardo is a rare man, unvulgar, because being a myth, he's cordial and affectionate with others, linked to his family and one of the few who has moral values. He´s grade 1000... really." (grade 1000 or 10 is a brazilian expression when we use to say the person is almost perfect, flawless.) "With him I learned a lot. Was a man that taught me to calm down, see the world and to deal with the profession."
Longtime girlfriend, GISELE BUNCHEN

Thanks to James for the next two quotes:

"He needs something on his ribs"
Leo's Oma Helena

"He wanted to bed me for some time but I didn't want him to think I was easy"
Leo's long time girlfriend Kristen Zang:

Ted Casablanca's take on the CMIYC premiere: And though Tom didn't wet his lips with Leo's, I figured he might be able to get to the bottom of the cache that is 'Leo the Legend'.

"Explain, please."

"Judging from my perspective," Hanks said as he crossed his arms over his sleek-suited-up bod, "He has a vast amount of intelligence and a huge amount of perspective on who he is and what he wants."

The setting was a Japanese restaurant in Florida's Epcot Center. John Travolta was there with his wife and two kids.

"I had a four-day growth of beard. I was wearing a baseball cap and a T-shirt," Travolta recalls. "I just wanted to be comfortable."

He was -- until a group of 30 15-year-old cheerleading contest winners caught sight of him.

"You would have thought Leonardo DiCaprio walked in. They were touching me, shouting. I told them, 'Girls, this is an old geezer.'"

"I can't see him as other people do. All I'm concerned about is his health. Sleep more, exercise more, eat better. That's the litany. The rest? I wouldn't care if he gave it up tomorrow."
Irmelin DiCaprio loving her son. (What a lady!)

"A dream I'd like to live?
...A Date with Leonardo DiCaprio."
Actress Katie Holmes (You go girlfriend!)

Here's my story. I was with Leonardo DiCaprio. He's a brilliant impersonator. He was impersonating all the friends he knew whom he had worked with. DiNero and Johnny Depp. We were all laughing and laughing. ``Oh yeah yeah yeah.''

All of the sudden, he did this (impersonation) and everyone was laughing but I couldn't guess who he was impersonating. It wasn't funny to me _ and it was ME!!
I think my whole life is analysing and looking into others, but I don't really have a very clear perception of myself and I think that's a life-long journey.
Baz Luhrman

Question to Sharon Stone: What do you think of your THE QUICK AND THE DEAD costar LEONARDO DICAPRIO, whom you once dubbed a genius?

Answer: I knew the second I saw that kid, he's just the one. Leonardo is like Mozart, there's not a lot of that. People don't know it really yet because of the kind of movies he's done and because he looks like a kid. But, like the Magic 8 ball says, "It will be revealed!" It will be revealed with Leonardo. If he makes it. It's such a hideous thing, what's happened to him. I can't think of anything worse.

Question to FREDDIE PRINZE JR.

Question: What's your opinion about someone closer to your age: Leonardo DiCaprio?

Answer: He's an awesome actor. I love his work. He just vomits energy. I'm just now thinking that this might come out weird: he like, vomits all his own energy out so everybody can see it and then he sucks up everybody else's. He's this intense listener. You can just leave the camera on him, it doesn't matter who else is in the scene

Question to Michael Caine

Question: What advice would you give to a young actor like Leonardo DiCaprio?

Answer: I would hardly feel qualified to give Leonardo DiCaprio advice; he's a much bigger star than I ever was or am likely to be. He's very good actor; people forget that. He was very good in TITANIC. I'm slow to give advice to actors because actors don't listen unless you're talking about them....

I just thought of my advice for Leonardo DiCaprio: when you're my age, you must look back and regret the things you did and not the things you didn't do. It would be terrible to regret things you had not done.

Martin Scorsese - The Dallas Morning News, promotion of "Bringing Out the Dead", October 30, 1999:

"The story is traditional, and it will probably be my most linear movie, telling an actual story. It's a coming-of-age story for Leonardo's character and also a coming-of-age story for New York City. The two parallel."

"All of Leo's choices in the next few years will be scrutinized because of Titanic. But I think Gangs of New York is a perfect fit for him. He's the best young actor working in movies today. When you look over his entire body of work, you see his power. I always notice an actor's eyes. Leo's got fire in his eyes. It was there in Titanic and in This Boy's Life and all his early films. And Nic's eyes have sadness and nobility, which is right for Bringing Out the Dead."

Blink 182 - Recovery Magazine, July 1999

Upon closer inspection, you'll find many weird and wonderful people amongst the extensive Blink182 'thank you' list in the sleeve notes of 'Enema of The State'. While some are the usual Blink load of bull - 'Harrison Ford (the years add up, but your ass still shines)' - others are actually bona fide. Leonardo DiCaprio! "He's a good friend of ours," explains Mark. "We just thanked him because he's just a friend who comes out to shows and you know, he's done really well the last few years so we just wanted to hook him up a little bit." So what the hell is he like? "He's very nice, he's a cool dude - very down to earth," says Mark sincerely. "With all the fame he's had, he still keeps his head about him so that's really cool."

Thanks to Chris and Pat - This resembles Leonardo much more than the political Academy Awards, and it is an honor that was bestowed on Leo during filming of Gangs of New York in Rome: The Rudolph Valentino Awards are designed to celebrate those unforgetable, magical screen moments, which collected over the course of a successful career in that liveliest of arts, constitutes and inspired "lifetime achievement in the cinematic arts." Sometimes mystical, often illusive, it is that character which our most gifted performers manage to communicate, both on and off the screen. Each year Rudolph Valentino Awards are presented to a deserving actor and actress who have reached pinnacle of worldwide success through the realization of character, star quality, charisma and magnetic capabilities which manage the communicate and often mesmerize audiences all over the globe, following the highest standards established by Rudolph Valentino himself. The Rudolph Valentino humbly acknowledges those legendary performers whose extraordinary talents will be appreciated for generations to come. Following the example set by the mystical Valentino. We bow with respect and admiration, to those uncompromising performers who continue to lighten the burdens and brighten the lives of interested audiences around the world.

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