Leonardo Di Caprio The Aviator

Di Caprio Flying High
Leonardo DiCaprio/The Aviator Interview by Paul Fischer in Los Angeles.

Leonardo Di Caprio apologised for appearing so tired. "It was the premiere last night", he says, with a sheepish grin, referring to the screening of The Aviator, in which the actor assumes the role of the young and complex Howard Hughes Wearing a black t-shirt, black casual jacket, with his hair slicked back, the perennially youthful 30-year old star, has remained intensely passionate about bringing Hughes' life to the screen for several years. "As an actor, you're constantly searching for that great character,"Di Caprio explains, when asked why the fascination for Hughes. "Also, being a history buff and learning about people in our past and amazing things that they've done, I came across a book about Howard Hughes and he was set up as basically, the most multi-dimensional character I could ever come across. Often, people have tried to define him in biographies, but no one seems to be able to categorize him. He was one of the most complicated men of the last century and so I got this book, brought it to Michael Mann and John Logan came onboard and really came up with the concept, saying, 'you can do ten different movies about Howard Hughes. Let's focus on his younger years. Let's watch his initial descent into madness but meanwhile, have the backdrop of early Hollywood, these daring pioneers in the world of aviation that were like astronauts that went out and went out and risked their lives to further the cause of aviation. [He was] the first American billionaire who had all the resources in the world but was somehow unable to find any sense of peace of happiness'. It's that great see-saw act in the movie that goes on. On one side, he's having all the successes in the world and on the other side the tiny microbes and germs are the things that are taking him downwards."

Di Caprio says that while there are parallels between himself and Hughes, "I think he certainly took things farther than I could ever imagine," the actor insists. He was such an obsessed human being and remained so obsessive about everything he'd gotten involved with, whether it be planes, women or films, he made." While Di Caprio has remained as ferociously guarded about his private life ass Hughes was intensely shy, the actor says those two apparent parallels are miles apart from each other. "I have to say, that for the most part, I am a pretty private person while his came from a genuine mental disorder and I'm just fundamentally not like that. My reasons for being a private person are different from Mr. Hughes, in that because I'm an actor and want people to believe me in different roles and not necessarily know way too much about me. I want to be around in the business for a long time, while he had an intense fear of being around people and germs."

But is Hughes' celebrity that still offers a certain degree of parallel in the young life of Di Caprio, but while Hughes' female conquests remain fascinating as an almost historical legacy for Hughes, Di Caprio laughs when asked about his own place in history when he dates someone. "No, those aren't my intentions going into a relationship," and unlike Howard, Di Capriois not a collector of women. "I honestly feel that as much as he had love and adoration for these women and genuinely cared for them, he kind of looked at them like airplanes. He was a technical genius and obsessed with finding the new, faster, bigger airplane," he adds, laughingly, "and that was simultaneous with women. He was constantly finding the new hotter female to go out with, which all related back to him being orphaned at a very young age and having this empty hole in his soul, which I think he was always trying to fill with new, more exciting things in his life. He ended up, obviously, not a very happy person. I don't know if he was think about whether, historically, he was going to become a legend. I'm sure he had that sort of cat and mouse things going on in his mind where he wanted to be famous but it was more like 'look at me! Look at me! No, don't look at me'."

While The Aviator is a film about the early youthful ambitions of Howard Hughes, when it comes to Di Caprio's own childhood dreams and obsessions, the actor says there was really only one, "ever since I got into this business at around 13 years old and that was to be in this business forever. Once I did my first television commercial, I caught that itch, that bug, and said, it is possible to make a living doing this for the rest of my life, that is the only thing I really want to do. He had multiple dreams. I look at film and cinema as legitimate an art form as sculpture, painting or anything else. We're in the first hundred years of cinema, which is still in its infancy and I'm very curious to see what types of films last into the next thousand years, just like what paintings people still look at. I want to be a part of pieces of art as far as cinema is concerned, that people will want to see for generations to come."

Dreams do not come true to all who have such lofty ambitions, and in an industry riddled with rejection, the actor says that his father was a great influences during his formative years. "I remember the casting session that I had where I was a break dancer, having this punk hair cut. They rejected me and I became really disillusioned with the business and said well this is what it's all about, and I haven't even got in to read a line. He said don't worry, some day we're going to get you back into this and it's going to happen for you, which I kind of took to heart," Di Caprio recalls. "It was one of those situations where I was lucky and fortunate enough to be at the right places at the right time", he adds, referring to his early television breaks that included the likes of Parenthood and Growing Pains." All of a sudden I was on the set of Growing Pains and got this audition for This Boy's Life and was able to jump into the feature film world. It's really been just simply the fact that I'd been able to work, you know what I mean? I would probably still be trying to be an actor even if I was out of work, but I would probably become a little disillusioned at some point and move on to other things. But it's the one thing that I know that I love."

As for future projects, Di Caprio says they do not include Alexander the Great, which at one time was going to be a Scorsese project. "Alexander The Great was one of those things where Scorsese and I just share the same taste in similar things. We were both fascinated with Alexander The Great as well as Howard Hughes. They're completely different time periods and different men, but similar dynamics, men that keep on reaching for their ultimate goal and stop at nothing until they achieve that. It just happened to be that this script and project was way further advanced in the development stage than the script that landed in our lap from Alexander and we wanted to go forth - we had an intention at one time of doing them both, but you don't get everything you want all the time." Even if, it seems, you're Leo Di Caprio, if not king of the world, king of Hollywood at least.

THE AVIATOR OPENS ON FEBRUARY 10.