Leonardo DiCaprio on fame, balance and why he tries to ‘disappear’

Leonardo DiCaprio, 51, tries to balance his personal and professional lives by aiming to "disappear" from the spotlight. Photo / Getty Images

Leonardo DiCaprio is still trying to work out the right balance between his personal and professional lives.

The 51-year-old actor is one of the world’s biggest movie stars but does his best to “disappear” when he is away from the spotlight amid intense scrutiny on his personal affairs.

Speaking to Time Magazine after being named the publication’s Entertainer of the Year, DiCaprio said: “It’s been a balance I’ve been managing my whole adult life, and I’m still not an expert. I think my simple philosophy is only get out there and do something when you have something to say, or you have something to show for it. Otherwise, just disappear as much as you possibly can.”

DiCaprio said the overwhelming spotlight placed on him after he appeared in the 1997 movie Titanic made him contemplate how to survive in the acting industry.

He recalled: “I was like, okay, how do I have a long career? Because I love what I do, and feel like the best way to have a long career is to get out of people’s face.”

Elsewhere, The Departed star expressed concern about the role artificial intelligence (AI) could play in the future of movies and other creative fields.

DiCaprio said: “It could be an enhancement tool for a young film-maker to do something we’ve never seen before.

“I think anything that is going to be authentically thought of as art has to come from the human being. Otherwise, haven’t you heard these songs that are mash-ups that are just absolutely brilliant and you go, ‘Oh my God, this is Michael Jackson doing The Weeknd’, or, ‘This is funk from the A Tribe Called Quest song Bonita Applebum’, done in, you know, a sort of Al Green soul-song voice, and it’s brilliant’.

“And you go, ‘Cool’. But then it gets 15 minutes of fame and it just dissipates into the ether of other internet junk. There’s no anchoring to it. There’s no humanity to it, as brilliant as it is.”

DiCaprio also doesn’t believe the next big development in the world of film can be predicted.

“I was just thinking the other day, I wonder what the next most shocking thing is going to be in cinema? Because so much has been done that has moved the needle, and some of these directors are so talented right now and doing such a multitude of different things at the same time.

“What’s going to be the next thing that rattles people and shocks people cinematically?”