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DiCaprio revealed just how close he and Winslet have become since they formed what he describes as an “unbreakable bond” during the making of the hit film Titanic in 1997.
It has been, he told me in our previous meetings before the wedding, a relationship of laughter and tears all the way.“She’s one of my closest friends and feels we can say anything to each other,” he says.
“We were both just kids of 21 when we made Titanic all those years ago. But, even then, Kate seemed more mature and worldly than I was.
“I cried on her shoulder many times as we found the demands of filming under the director James Cameron so tough. We have never not been friends since that time. I speak to her all the time. But friends – not lovers.”
So what is it that keeps them together, nearly 16 years after the film’s release to become a box office success and, for Winslet, the first of six Oscar nominations?
“A sense of humour,” he says. “We laugh at the same things. She never lets me take myself seriously, even if I wanted to. We have a special magic.”
“Our own relationship? I would describe it as goofy. We are a little bit older, a little bit wiser but ultimately the same people as we were when we were 21.”
Ironically DiCaprio was set to accept the role of porn star Dirk Diggler (which went to Mark Wahlberg) in the award- winning film Boogie Nights before Titanic.
“It appealed to me more,” he says. “I like edgy, independent stuff. I had never met Kate but she phoned and said: ‘I am going to say yes to this. Will you do so, too? ’ So I committed to Titanic instead. Regrets? None.”
Will it give him another chance of an elusive Oscar? No. But he’s soon to be seen in The Great Gatsby, which could be his breakthrough for Hollywood’s biggest award.
“I have a long way to go before I catch up with Kate,” he says. X
