Extended transcript: Leonardo DiCaprio

Leonardo DiCaprio: Honored to be a working actor

Cowan: "The Wolf of Wall Street" really was a passion project for you, wasn't it?

DiCaprio: Yeah.

Cowan: Ever since you found the book.

DiCaprio: Probably about seven years ago, when I picked up the novel. And I was kind of enveloped by his honesty of his debauchery.

Cowan: "Warts and all"?

DiCaprio: Yes, everything. I mean, there's nothing he didn't divulge about this incredibly hedonistic time period during his life. And if you're going to do a sort of portrait of this culture and put it up on screen, you want to start on a basis of somebody being very honest. And that's what I appreciated about the novel, and certainly after 2008 I became really obsessed with putting this up on screen.

Cowan: Why so obsessed? What was it that you thought would make such a compelling story?

DiCaprio: 'Cause the world that we live in seems to be very surreal sometimes, you know. And certainly after the economic crash, the blatant corruption and this incessant need for more is a part of our culture. I see it all around me.

And doing this movie, we wanted to put that darker nature of humanity up on screen, like you said, warts and all. We were doing a press conference recently and people were talking about the sort of crudeness of the characters in this movie. And Marty said something very pertinent: "Why should I be polite about my portrayal of these people? They weren't polite, you know? What they were doing wasn't polite. So I'm not gonna make a movie that's polite about them."

Cowan: And you said that the whole hedonism aspect of his life really carried out on set. You guys acted like you were some sort of Roman emperors -- I mean, there was nothing that wasn't sort of allowable.

DiCaprio: Yeah. (laughs) Absolutely. Well, he infused that attitude in all of us. More so than that, it was, you know, we had no moral compass. None of the characters really had, except for my first wife in the film, none of us have any sort of moral high ground. It's just about consuming as much as possible and feeding every primal urge and giving into the sort of reptilian part of our brain. (laughs)

And so, Marty created an environment where we got to improvise and anything goes. And it was incredibly reflective of what these people were doing at this time. And so, you know, that attitude permeated through every cast member.

Cowan: And he said because it was that way, it was almost experimental, in a way, right? 'Cause you sort of just went with it?

DiCaprio: I've never really done a film quite like this. I've worked with Marty [before]; this is my fifth movie with him now. But I kind of realized doing this film that plot is almost irrelevant to him. (laughs) Truly. I mean, it--

Cowan: He's all about character.

DiCaprio: He's all about character. And as you've seen in so many of his films in the past -- these masterpieces, "Taxi Driver" or "Raging Bull" -- the characterization of these people and approaching them in a way that is nonjudgmental, even if you're exploring the darker nature of who they are, is what he does.

Because he's said many times in the past, "I don't know who I would've been if I'd grown up in a different environment. So I'm not gonna impose my judgment on them." And I think that those types of films last because he's being very honest about them. And he's therefore reflecting something about humanity.

Cowan: That's gonna be what makes it timeless, you think?

DiCaprio: I think so. I think so many of his films are timeless. I know certainly for my generation, any time one of his films comes on -- a lot of films seem dated, but his central focus on the character, and the exploration of that character, and allowing the actor to have a certain amount of freedom in their portrayal of that, becomes timeless. His movies come and you just are sort of transfixed.

Cowan: So, after spending so much time being Jordan Belfort, was it hard for you to get out of that mindset, that hedonistic sort of--

DiCaprio: To tell you the truth, no. I'm able to shut off pretty quickly. We didn't leave the set and continue to act like this. But there was a certain, you know, recklessness on set. (laughs) We were all -- I mean, I could recount many different scenarios on set where it just became completely out of control, and he had to reel it in.

But that's the environment that he wanted to create. It was almost like organized chaos, you know? There was a lot of improvisation beforehand, and we rewrote that [into] the script according to that improvisation. But then, when we'd get on set, we'd re-improvise that improvisation. And then it became this sort of insanely loose, insanely free improvisational atmosphere.

Cowan: How much time did you actually spend with Jordan Belfort himself?

DiCaprio: Many months. Many months.

Cowan: And what were you looking for? Why did you want to spend so much time with him?

DiCaprio: I wanted to capture his attitude. You know, certainly he helped me with a lot of the Quaalude sequences (laughs) because I had no idea what the stuff was like. And he reenacted a lot of that for me.

Cowan: Did he actually, like --

DiCaprio: Yeah. He crawled around on the floor and --

Cowan: Really?

DiCaprio: Yeah, and showed me what it was like. It's sort of an investigative process. You have him recount a lot of these stories. And then he penetrates a little bit deeper and deeper.

And then, all of a sudden, there's a great detail that may have been not written in the book that sort of defines what the scene's about, or what you want to accomplish in that scenario. So I spent many, many months with him.

Cowan: Did you like him?

DiCaprio: You know, he's a likable guy. He's actually a likable guy. I don't agree with anything that he did. Don't get me wrong. I think that, you know, I'm the first one to say I think a lot of his actions were deplorable. And he'll admit that.

But when somebody's such an open book and is so candid about what they did and unflinching in their accounts incredibly embarrassing activities, you have to appreciate that as an actor. Because there's not many people that really do that. And certainly, if we wanted to put this era up on screen, we needed somebody with that attitude. And that's what he infused in the book.

Cowan: You made a conscious effort, it seems like, to make sure that you didn't try to make him likable.

DiCaprio: Well, look -- I mean, I think that there's a line that he started to cross. He came in there with the attitude of wanting to have the American dream. And so much of Marty's movies, and this movie is another one like that, is about the pursuit of the American dream, the corruption of that dream, and the sort of hustle that it takes to get there. And I think, slowly but surely, Jordan passed these lines of corruption and illegal activity. And then, pretty soon, he was way in over his head.

And he had sort of a cult following of people that were dependent on him in every single way. He created that dynamic -- it was almost like this corrupted little family that he created on Long Island, this little microcosm of a pseudo Wall Street that wasn't Wall Street. They were trying to emulate Gordon Gekko. They were trying to be the fat cats on Wall Street. But they weren't. They were kind of imposters.

Cowan: (laughs) The upstarts.

DiCaprio: Yeah. And so, they found a loophole and they essentially started selling these fraudulent penny stocks to very rich people and made an incredible amount of money. And then, I think all those people became dependent on him. And it almost became a little bit of a cult. And he continued to uphold that attitude and push further and further and further. And, of course, that compounded with the drug use, made it all the more insane.

Cowan: For all the preparation you did, you said that it wasn't really until you started doing those speeches in front of the whole crowd of people that you sort of got the sense of that rock-star quality that he had.

DiCaprio: Yeah. Yeah. Well, those speeches really were -- 'cause they're insane speeches. I mean, (laughs) they're almost like out of "Gladiator" or "Braveheart." They're, like, a war cry to your troops, except they're completely twisted and encouraging (laughs) his soldiers to go out there and screw over as many people as possible. So they were insane.

And I was thinking about them for such a long period of time. You know, seven years was one of the real attractions to the screenplay in the first place. Because it's all about a corrupted American dream: making more money makes you a better person. You know, "I've been a rich man, I've been a poor man, and I choose rich every single time, you know? At least when I have to face my problems, I show up in the back [of a limo …" I'm reenacting the whole (laughs) scene. But it's about wealth identifying who you are.

And, so I got up there and I had a very singular sort of plan mapped out for how I was going to do those speeches. And then, that audience was there. And you feed off of them. And even though I knew they were clapping, we had to do this for, you know, a week.

Cowan: Yeah.

DiCaprio: Even though I knew they were clapping for me and they were sort of paid to clap for me, I felt kind of what Jordan must have felt like. Like I was Bono or some sort of crazy rock star and they were cheering for me. And then, it became these wild monologues infused with greed.

Cowan: Is there some similarity between Jordan Belfort and Gatsby, in the sense that both of the tales were about hedonism, except at different times? It's sort of the same flawed tale, I guess.

DiCaprio: Yeah. Yeah. Well, certainly, "Gatsby" is a much more existential, well-thought-out story.

Cowan: Yeah.

DiCaprio: This is kind of-- (laughs) -- I mean, that was supposed to be the "Wolf of Wall Street" of its time. But it has many more layers to it, as far as a novel is concerned. But yes, I mean, that's what Gatsby did. And that's what's sort of in the undercurrent of it, is the fact that he went into the underworld to make his fortune to belong to the aristocracy of America, and belong.

I mean, they're both about characters that wanted to belong and wanted to have an identity. Certainly Gatsby was one of the most interesting characters I've gotten to play, and [it] works on so many different levels simultaneously.

This, to try to find the motivation of Jordan is a different one. Because he came from a normal upbringing, and you can't pinpoint it to his parents. It's just like I said before. He reverted to a reptilian part of his brain. And that's what was interesting in its own right, Because to me, I see that all around us in the world that we live in, and especially with the youth in America.

It's like the identification of being wealthy seems to be paramount. I mean, trust me, there's a lot of good being done, there's a lot of people doing very good things for the world. But that seems to be sort of rampant everywhere.

Cowan: So much has been made of how much you and Martin Scorsese worked together. But what is it about the relationship between the two of you that just clicks?

DiCaprio: It's interesting, you know. I come from a completely different perspective. My whole generation of friends, ever since I became an actor, we admired the films from the '70s, the era when the director was God. They had artistic control. And of course, there's a few that rise to the top, and at the top of that list was Marty's work with Bob. That relationship with De Niro and Scorsese is legend. It's the greatest sort of cinematic relationship ever.

Cowan: Was it your dad, actually, who pointed out the partnership between De Niro and Scorsese at first?

DiCaprio: Yeah. I remember my father taking me, I believe it was maybe to "Midnight Run," and saying, "You want to know what a great actor is? You want to watch a great actor, Leonardo?" I go, "Yeah. Yeah. Sure." "He's that guy right there."

And as soon as I got "This Boy's Life" with De Niro, I obsessively watched all of their films together. And, you know, that's a very impressionable age. And when you watch films like that, the threshold of what they accomplished, the bar is set so high (laughs) that you sort of say, "Okay. I gotta dig deep. And I wanna do something close to this good in my lifetime."

And that thirst never goes away. So, my approach in wanting to work with Marty was, okay, I want to work with my favorite director of all time. And hopefully when I'm in the position to be able to finance a movie some day, I'll get to work with him. So, since then, it's been this long relationship of trust. I think we've learned to trust each other more and more implicitly as each film goes along.

But what's been great is the collaboration and the fact that we've oftentimes gotten to discover what the film is while we're creating it. And ["Wolf fo Wall Street"] was, I think, the culmination of a lot of that relationship, this film. This was a huge collaboration on our part.

Cowan: Being the film historian that he is, you've said that he's taught you more about film and the art of film than probably anybody ever could.

DiCaprio: Yeah. It's just amazing. I mean, he is an encyclopedia. The man lives and breathes cinema. There's nothing that you can talk to him about that doesn't reflect--

Cowan: Come back to movies?

DiCaprio: -- and come back to movies. (laughs) Even if he's talking about a moment where he, you know, had a walk in the park with his daughter, he'll talk about a Fellini film or a Polish film that (laughs) had a similar shot, and start talking about that movie. You know what I mean?

That's how he grew up. It's so interesting coming from the sort of violent streets of New York, his connection with his father was through cinema. He was an asthmatic child and they got to connect through that. I believe that he's watched every film ever made up until 1980 or something like that. And so, my appreciation of film as an art form, as sort of the great modern art form, has been incredibly escalated as a result of my relationship with him. And it's ongoing.

Cowan: And your production company really, in large measure, sounds like [it] was formed as a way for you to sort of go outside the studio system and find scripts that you really were interested in, not just the regular studio fare.

DiCaprio: Well, it's interesting. 'Cause after obsessively watching movies when I was 15 years old, and I spent about a year doing it, and then getting opportunities after "This Boy's Life" and "Gilbert Grape," I started to notice that a lot of the things I was being offered were just, frankly, not that great.

Cowan: (laughs) They just didn't interest you?

DiCaprio: They just didn't interest me. And I guess they weren't different enough. My father was a huge sort of catalyst in pushing me towards more interesting films at an early age -- things like "Total Eclipse," which not many people have seen, which is about the great poet Arthur Rimbaud.

He kind of put it into a modern-day perspective for me in saying, "Look, this guy was kind of the James Dean of his time. He was a great poet, he was a radical, he was a rebel. He sort of revolutionized that art form. Just take a look at that, Leonardo. Take a look at that."

And so, therefore my taste kind of shifted. And I think the production company was in large part formed to try to go seek out material that I wasn't getting from the studio system. Oftentimes, studios give you great material. But by the time it's gone through that process, it becomes something different. It becomes something that from the onset is sort of -- I don't want to say sanitized, but packaged version of its initial inception.

Cowan: I mean, it seems like with "Wolf of Wall Street," you ended up making the movie you wanted to make.

DiCaprio: Very much so, yeah.

Cowan: Which is rare. Right?

DiCaprio: Very, very rare. And that was my pitch to Marty on this one. Because we were supposed to do it, really, seven years ago. And I think he had a little bit of resistance about the distastefulness of the subject matter with the studio.

And I think that he basically said to me, "Look. I've been doing this for way too long to get this type of resistance. Unless we're able to do this in a very real, authentic way, I I'm not really interested."

So you know, he went on to do another film and I sort of waited. And I was going to put it together with another director. But I kind of said to myself, "He's the only one that can capture this part of our culture and have the sense of humor with these characters and really give the actors enough time to have the freedom to portray these people." So, I waited until I got the right financing, the right people that would allow us to make the movie we wanted to make.

Cowan: So, when you did "This Boy's Life," I mean, here you are opposite Robert De Niro. What were you thinking?

DiCaprio: I'd never seen a set that serious before. I'd come from television shows and commercials. But once De Niro sort of walked onto set, everyone was silent. And I was like, "What the hell's going on?" It was like (laughs) a ghost came into the room. But, you know, I realized the concentration that he put into this. And I think I was very just an instinctual actor at that time. And Michael Caton-Jones, who was the director, kind of laid some foundation for me, basically, "Shut up, kid, you know, when we're tryin' to be serious. (laughs) And, you know, "Don't complain. Pain is temporary. Film is forever. You know, concentrate on the work. Prepare."

[That] really gave me the fundamentals of what it was to do a film like that. But it was really watching Bob, in a lot of ways, watching De Niro prepare. And the chances that he would take with each scene -- it wasn't just about reading the dialogue, it was about, you know, creating something out of thin air and embodying that character, and committing to it. And that made a huge impression on me.

Cowan: When you say you thought you were an instinctual actor, what do you mean? What did you sense that you had?

DiCaprio: I mean, I knew I had a hunger for it. And I had a thought process that I'd do anything to try to make this character realistic. [And] I suppose I had a fearlessness as a young kid. I wasn't afraid to do anything, really.

And it's interesting. 'Cause when I think about that age, I already sort of formed what I wanted to become, and that really hasn't changed. Like, (laughs) people talk about, "What has changed throughout your career? How's your taste changed? What kind of person or actor do you want to become?" I knew at 15 years old that this is the kind of actor I want to be. These are the type of movies I want to do. And that's it. And you've got to understand, once you're young and there's, like, this field of actors out there that are all vying for the same roles, once you kind of get that golden ticket, it's truly like winning the lottery. That was my way out of where I grew up. It was my way out of everything.

It's an honor to be able to be a working actor, period, has kind of been my attitude since. And I'm not going to squander this opportunity at all.

Cowan: And that was your big decision after "Titanic." Because like you said, you didn't change. But everything around you changed after "Titanic."

DiCaprio: Yeah.

Cowan: And, you know, it became, what are you going to do with that opportunity, I guess.

DiCaprio: Well, a lot of ways. I came from doing independent movies that were different from what I was being offered. And then, this opportunity of "Titanic" came along, which I hesitated to do. I'd never really done a film like that.

I look back at that time and it's hilarious. Because we did this monumental film and I got to work with Kate [Winslet], who was great, and Jim [Cameron]. And it was insane. And we were there for eight months of our life. It was just, like, a huge part of my younger youth. But then, the movie comes out and all of a sudden people start seeing it around the world. It's incredibly successful. And people are saying, you know "This movie is huge." And I'm like, "Great. Cool. Isn't that what it's supposed to be?" (laughs) They're like, "No, No. You don't understand. I mean, it's making billions of dollars." I'm like, "So, that's good, right? Billions of dollars are good? (laughs) That means it's a big movie?"

Cowan: You just didn't get the scale at all.

DiCaprio: I-- I just didn't understand. I really didn't.

And, you know, I think the sort of media pressure -- not the media pressure, but the focus on me, was more acute than ever before. And it made me kind of want to just hide out and say, "All right. Let me regroup and go back to who I am and what I set out to do."

Not that that wasn't a part of who I am. It was just a sort of diversion. And ultimately, I really liked the movie and since then gotten the opportunity to really finance movies as a result of being in that film. It's been a huge blessing for me.

Cowan: You've credited your parents, really, with helping you get through that incredible influx of fame. I mean, very few have had that.

DiCaprio: It was surreal. It's still surreal. It's always surreal. That's why I think I've tried, at least, to -- not tried, but it's just subconscious. You just keep the people around you that you've known and you've grown up with who know you implicitly and that are always going to be honest with you as close as you possibly can. I've made a lot of new friends along the way. But, you know, it was helpful to have that sort of base point of people that I trusted around me.

Cowan: Your buddies to keep you grounded.

DiCaprio: Yes. Yes. Absolutely.

Cowan: Who tell you you're still an ******* if you're an *******?

DiCaprio: (laughs) Exactly. Exactly.

Cowan: When you got "Gilbert Grape," how did you prepare for that? I mean, did you know mentally disabled people before?

DiCaprio: Lasse Hallstrom [the director] gave a lot of the kids that were auditioning for that role a videotape. And a lot of what I did came from being able to do great impressions. I don't mean, like, comedic impressions. But I could imitate people very well.

Cowan: Yeah.

DiCaprio: And, so, he gave me that videotape. And I watched that for about a week, every single day. And I came in and kind of did exactly what was on that videotape, of a kid that had a mental disability. And I said the lines like that.

And I got the role as a result of that, even though I think Lasse said that he thought I was maybe too good looking for the role. But I got it. And then, it was about recreating what I was actually going to do on camera, because that was completely different. So, I went to a home in Austin, Texas, and I spent a lot of time with kids that had mental disabilities. And I remember coming to Lasse Hallstrom with a checklist of, like, 300 different attributes that I noticed while I was there.

Cowan: 300?

DiCaprio: Yeah. I wrote all these things down. And I said, "I'm thinking of doing this one, this one, this one. And I can kind of show you." And he looked at me and he said, "Yeah. Go ahead. Do that." (laughs)

Cowan: You said you noticed, then, the difference between doing that role and what Johnny Depp had to do. There's a big difference being the leading man and being --

DiCaprio: Yeah. It was a lot less pressure. He had to carry the story. He had to structure the story. And I was sort of allowed to do whatever the hell I wanted at any given moment, because that was the nature of the character. He was impulsive. I mean, I oftentimes, probably, I should have allowed the scene to (laughs) carry on the way it should've. But I just had a big plate of spaghetti and, you know, I did what my character was going to do with a big plate of spaghetti, (laughs) you know? And sometimes it would affect the scene.

Cowan: When you got the Oscar nomination, at that age, did you get a sense, sort of like "Titanic"? Did you get a sense of how big a deal that was?

DiCaprio: I did. I did. I mean, it was a shock to me. I remember really being terrified of the possibility of ever winning something like that when I heard the fact that there were billions of people, or a billion people that watch this -- that just terrified the hell out of me.

Cowan: Did it really?

DiCaprio: Yeah. Really terrified me. So, I remember thinking, "God, I don't want to go up on stage and look like an idiot and stumble my words." But I remember being, you know, very honored and sort of very in shock and awe at the whole situation happening. It was one of the first screenings where I realized, "Oh, wait. People are responding to this movie." I didn't quite understand. I didn't quite understand.

Cowan: But it was, in a way, what you wanted, though, right? That was part of what you had in your head as a 14-year-old kid, right?

DiCaprio: Sure. I mean, I'd never really thought about awards or ceremonies or anything like that. That just came out of left field.

Cowan: I guess the other big passion project that would be similar to "Wolf of Wall Street" was probably "Aviator," I guess.

DiCaprio: Yeah. Yeah.

Cowan: Took about the same amount of time. What do you think it is about the way Hollywood is or the studio system is now that -- I mean, do you think "The Aviator" would even get funded today?

DiCaprio: It'd be incredibly difficult to get it funded. You know, I've seen different ebbs and flows in the industry, even in my career. And I think about seven years ago, eight years ago, certain films were more easily financible than they are today.

I've seen this sort of slight transition that's happened with the studios where they start to go, "Okay. Well, at a certain price point, we're only going to do this type of film. And it's got ot have some big explosions and some great things for a preview, Those other films that are dramas, we're gonna cut the line at a certain price point, if you guys understand that."

And I understand. I mean, they've been monumentally successful with those types of films. And it's an industry that is driven by profit. And they have to be accountable to their shareholders. But for me, it's kind of been about saying, "Okay. Well, where can I find financing that has been outside of that.

"Or for people that kind of understand that audiences don't always want to see epics or big movies coming from Hollywood that have those elements in them." And I think that there's an audience out there that craves different types of storylines.

And thank God there are people out there that have run into some wealth or have financial backing that also have taste in movies as well and say, "Look. We're willing to take a gamble on this." And so, I've sort of tried to seek that out. A lot of those movies that you see right now in this season have been as a result of that outside financing.

Cowan: Right. You made a conscious choice to turn down superhero roles, to not go in the new "Star Wars" epic. But those could have been easy for you. Those could have been sort of home runs and probably easy roles for you to do.

DiCaprio: I mean, to me, the genre is irrelevant. I'll try anything. It's always just been about whether I feel like I can be of service to the character and whether it can be believable and whether I have a passion for it. And those things just haven't really aligned. But I don't put those films down.

I enjoy them. I go out and see them. Not all of them, but, you know, some of them are very interesting. And who knows? Who knows what'll happen in the future? It's just all about kind of the way the characters are written and of course, who's directing. You know, there's been some very good ones. I mean, Heath Ledger certainly was amazing as the Joker. It was a nuanced, incredible performance that sort of transcended a superhero film. So, there's a lot of great directors and a lot of great actors that are doing that work. It's just been about, you know, whether I can fill those shoes properly and be of service to it.

Cowan: Let's talk a little bit about the environment. Was it really a conversation that you had with Al Gore at one point, he sort of gave you the in-person version of "Inconvenient Truth"?

DiCaprio: He did, actually. Yes.

Cowan: Did he?

DiCaprio: Well, I was actually with Ken Sunshine. I think it was a sort of post-"Titanic" period, saying, "Look, I want to try to do some good for the world. I've been blessed with a lot of fortune and I want to get involved in a philanthropic way and bring some attention to some issues." And I started getting involved in environmental issues. And it was really Al Gore that really -- we went to the White House and he brought out a chalkboard. And he--

Cowan: Did he really?

DiCaprio: -- drew planet Earth. And then, he drew our (laughs) atmosphere. And he started talking to me about climate change. And I was blown away. I'd never even heard anything about this. And, so, I read up on about it and studied on it more and started speaking about it, started speaking to different NGOs and the efforts that they were undertaking with it.

And, so, I became heavily involved in being outspoken about it. You know, a lot of times [the environment] was way in the back of the newspaper in a small, little item. And then, that movie came out, "An Inconvenient Truth," and it was the first time I really saw in my lifetime a documentary or a film affecting our culture and affecting a global conversation like never before. I mean, we were kind of talking about climate change or doing Earth Day 2000, and there was really no mention of it anywhere, small blurbs here and there. But "Inconvenient Truth" came out and he started a real dialogue about this issue. And I realized, wow. Film is a very powerful medium. He explained the science for the first time, not necessarily in layman's terms, but in a way that people really understood.

Cowan: But "11th Hour" sort of explained it in more layman's terms.

DiCaprio: Yeah. I mean, it was an inspiration for me to do "11th Hour" as well. But what's been interesting, too, is we talk about the ebbs and flows of the studio system. But an issue like climate change, which is going to affect everyone, and now there's a worldwide scientific consensus that manmade activity is contributing to climate changes -- like, as real as gravity now. Nobody can really argue with it.

Cowan: Even though people still do?

DiCaprio: But it's not really a proper representation of scientific fact. I mean, you'd have one guy arguing with 100 people, you know? That is really the comparison. But when it's presented in the media, I think that oftentimes it becomes an argument.

And as long as it's just an argument, then we can keep on pushing forward into the future, acting as we do today, you know? I suppose we're dependent on some miracle to occur. But it seems like the dialogue has certainly died down a lot, which is very disappointing. Because we're not, by any stretch of the imagination, making enough of a positive change in a worldwide culture to make any sort of dramatic shift. The Canadian tar sands, where we're digging out forests, you know, more than the size of Florida, where we're sifting through that sand to find oil, and there's natural gas. But you know, we're creating thousands of new coal-burning smoke stacks around the world.

There's methane bubbling up in the Antarctic. It's an insanely scary thing. And nobody really knows what the future is going to look like. But we're kind of acting like it's just business as usual and we're going to continue doing this. But there [are] a lot of different ways to transition for the future. And I think there [are] a lot of alternatives out there. But we certainly haven't given enough attention or enough financial support to make that shift.

Cowan: And you said it's more than just saving the Sumatran tiger. It's more about wilderness as an entity, as a whole.

DiCaprio: Yeah. I was really -- it started in my youth, really. Like I said, I wanted to be a marine biologist. I became fascinated with different species of animals that became extinct as a result of man.

Cowan: I read somewhere you used to go to the La Brea tar pits--

DiCaprio: Yeah. Constantly.

Cowan: -- and you'd just wonder how those animals were --

DiCaprio: Yeah.

Cowan: -- extinct all of a sudden.

DiCaprio: Yeah. And, so, I started to get involved with different NGOs. And then, I realized, wow, these places are shrinking. I mean, we are decimating these ancient forests around the world. Coral-reef systems are being bleached. There's shark finning, over-fishing, ocean acidification. I mean, the list goes on and on and on. And when it really clicked in is when I realized that only 2 percent of all philanthropy goes towards these issues.

It's astounding considering this is the biggest life-support system, the only life-support system that we have. And a lot of it isn't regenerative. A lot of it gets destroyed and it's gone forever. You know, plants regrow, but these are things that took hundreds of millions of years to evolve, and [are] places that can never be recovered. They're just wiped out forever.

Cowan: It seems like, because you're choosy about roles, bigger timeframes in between when you're not doing a movie, this is the kind of stuff that can take up your time. And you're fine with that?

DiCaprio: I love it. I absolutely love it. I mean, really, my plan now -- it's been a year since I finished this film. But I'm going to do another environmental documentary. And I want to focus on targeting a lot of these places. We did this great auction last year with Christie's where we raised a lot of money. And I'm going to go and target where a lot of those funds are allocated. But hey, I'd love to get some more support by any willing billionaires out there (laughs) that want to help me support this cause. Because it's been a grand hustle to try to get financial support for a lot of this stuff.

Because it's kind of faceless, you know what I mean? There's no identification with a specific culture or people. It's this sort of intangible thing – and so, it doesn't get as much financial support as it should.

Cowan: So, is this the best time in your life?

DiCaprio: Oh, I'm very happy right now. Yeah. Especially being a little bit older, too, you take it a little more easy. Things don't affect you the same way.

Cowan: You had a lot of fun when you were young.

DiCaprio: Sure. Sure. Of course. I did. I had a lot of fun.

Cowan: And criticized for it a lot, too.

DiCaprio: Yeah. I think that comes with the territory, too, though. And the sort of microscope that was put on me, certainly after "Titanic" came out. Every activity that I did was sort of in the newspaper, which was silly. And I tried to avoid [it]. But it was -- it was what it was.

Cowan: But like you said, like Tobey Maguire, you kept some of your childhood friends close. And that helped.

DiCaprio: It's weird to say this because I keep saying this about a lot of different things. But I've known them for 20, 25 years now. They're still my closest friends. Yeah.

Cowan: Is it competitive sometimes, like with you and --

DiCaprio: No. No.

Cowan: No?

DiCaprio: It really isn't. It really isn't. I think, actually, in the beginning it was because we met at auditions.

Cowan: Right.

DiCaprio: And we were both kids trying to sort of outdo each other. But then, you know, [Tobey and I] became best friends as a result of that. He was up for "This Boy's Life" as well. And I remember saying to one another, "Whoever gets this role, we gotta push for the other person to get a role in the movie as well." So, he got a small part in that film. And then soon after that he did a short film. And from that, he sort of slowly built up to doing, you know, feature films, and then had a great career of his own.

Cowan: That's cool you guys are --

DiCaprio: It's been really cool.

Cowan: -- still friends. A lot of your friends, Tobey and others, are married with kids now. Do you see that for you?

DiCaprio: Sure. Sure.

Cowan: You want that?

DiCaprio: I think everybody -- not everybody, but I think that, you know, eventually, when the time is right, absolutely. Yeah.

Cowan: Does your mom want you to settle down and have some grandkids?

DiCaprio: The great thing about my parents is that they don't really pressure me. They've always been like, "Look, you're gonna make your own decisions in life. We want you to lead an interesting life, however that is. And whatever decisions that you make, we're gonna be there to support you." So, no. There's not a lot of pressure.

Cowan: But does married life seem a little boring to you?

DiCaprio: Does it seem boring?

Cowan: A little sedate?

DiCaprio: No. I've seen interesting marriages, and I've seen not interesting marriages. (laughs) I've seen them both. But sure, I see that in my future. For sure.

Cowan: So, yeah. So, the auction: is going out and raising money for a film easier or harder than going out and trying to raise money for environmental causes?

DiCaprio: They're both difficult, I think. I mean, the auction that we did was sort of curated for six months. We got all kinds of different contemporary artists to donate their work, and then we created an atmosphere where people bid against each other. But they all knew it was going towards a great cause.

Cowan: And you raised how much?

DiCaprio: I think the total was $38 million.

Cowan: Wow.

DiCaprio: Which was a huge success. And I want to continue to do that. I'd love to do more of that, but it's a very difficult thing to pull off. But we also wanted to make sure that all that money was really allocated not just to the NGO, not just straight to the different organizations, but to actually physically buy land.

Buy land that was tiger habitat or [where] endangered species lived, that had huge biodiversity, ancient forests, coral-reef systems, and then bring the NGOs after that to manage it, to monitor it and make sure that their expertise went into preserving these places. But a lot of this money goes just, really, straight towards an actual land purchase.

Cowan: Do they think if you weren't acting, you'd be a marine biologist?

DiCaprio: I certainly do. I really do. I think that it's a huge passion of mine. It really is. You know, when I think about my youth, I was most nostalgic about that, and it really came from being able to go to the Natural History Museum and watch an IMAX film about the rainforest.

And then actually going there now as an adult and experiencing those places firsthand, you realize how fragile these ecosystems are, and the diversification there, and the benefit that it has for the rest of the world. But I guess as a young kid, I always got just really disheartened by the fact that we would so discard a species off the face of the planet without any regard for it being [an] equal life form. It just kind of boggled my mind.

Cowan: You dive, don't you?

DiCaprio: Yeah, I scuba dive a lot.

Cowan: I read where you were somewhere, I think it was in the Galapagos, where whatever you were focused on, you sort of left the group and went down a little too far and realized --

DiCaprio: Yeah, I've had a couple incidents diving.

Cowan: Really?

DiCaprio: Yeah. (laughs) There was a great white incident. And then, there was --

Cowan: You saw a great white?

DiCaprio: Well, I was cage diving.

Cowan: Nobody says just, "A great white incident." That's, like --

DiCaprio: (laughs) I've had a few, actually. Not with great whites, but a few diving incidents. One was with a great white where great white kind of jumped in my cage and started snapping a few feet away from me. That wasn't pleasant. (laughs) And then, there was another incident where I ran out of air. There were two incidents where I ran out of air. 'Cause I just got so overexcited and totally forgot about the buddy system and (laughs) just started following some fish. And then, it-- yeah. I wasn't very good with that. I'm a lot more careful now.

Cowan: So, why the Sumatran tiger?

DiCaprio: Well, it's a top predator. There's 3,000 tigers left on this planet. It's one of the most beautiful species that have ever existed, number one. Number two, basically, it protects every species below it.

It protects the health of the forest. And, essentially, they're going to be wiped out off the face of this planet because of [their perceived] medicinal value in Asia. And it's just a travesty. It's horrifying to think that these majestic creatures that are so a part of their culture as well can be so easily disposed like that.

And by protecting the tiger, you're also protecting their habitat. So it became less about the symbol of the tiger, more about, forest preservation, protection of all the species below it, the indigenous tribes that live in that community. So, it hits all kinds of different targets, not only climate change but protecting pristine environments and biodiversity.

Cowan: I mean, it's the problem, but it's almost more a symptom of how we're managing our resources.

DiCaprio: Yeah. It's pretty astounding to think how much we've already decimated these areas. And as a result of the auction, we did three new parks in Nepal. We already established one and we create these sort of corridors in-between them.

But, you know, the truth of the matter is they're like Central Park. They're not these vast landscapes, you know, where these animals were once able to roam freely and breed freely. They're little, isolated parks that are connected sometimes through something that is the width of Fifth Avenue to another park.

It's not the same as it used to be, our idea of nature in this vast landscape. Sure, there are beautiful, lush landscapes in a lot of different places. But places that are home to a lot of the rarest biodiversity are being encroached upon by civilization at a rapid, rapid rate. And it's a real travesty.

Cowan: Are you worried? I mean, does it really weigh on your mind?

DiCaprio: Sure it does, yeah. But one of my real goals in this lifetime is to hopefully make a big difference. I just really wish a lot of other people that had incredible wealth and incredible power out there focused on some of these issues, too.

Because there's a lot that can be done with a minimal amount of funding. Truly, I mean, it makes a huge impact. Even with our auction, we got to do some pretty incredible things. And there's a lot of people out there that have great power and influence that can make a massive, massive difference in this issue.

Cowan: It just needs to get moved up the priority list?

DiCaprio: Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. They don't exactly see it as a human issue, which I think is a lot of the problem, even though a lot of indigenous tribes live in these environments. And, of course, it affects us long-term. I mean, what is the world without these wild animals still roaming on our planet? We share it with them. It's a sad, bizarre world to think that they're confined to just zoos as specimens that we look at. It's disheartening.

• "The Wolf of Wall Street" (Official site)
• leonardodicaprio.com
• Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation (California Community Foundation)
  
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