As far from his drug-guzzling Wolf of Wall Street character - Jordan Belfort - as you could get, in a recent interview with The LA Times Leo DiCaprio surprised readers when he revealed that he's never laid his hand on drugs, not even once. Now while this mightn't seem worthy of a pat on the back over here in the real world, when you're caught under the headlights of Tinsel-Town, the lure to dabble with uppers, downers and everything in between is strong; to be as successful as Leo has been and give the 'ludes a wide berth (that being said, greatest source of lols from his latest movie, you'll probably agree) is rare.
Sadly, for many talented actors and performers - take a look at the untimely death of Philip Seymour Hoffman - there seems to be quite the tragic correlation between their experience in Hollywood and the ease with which they find themselves falling, head-first down some trippy rabbit hole.
Thing is for Leo, he grew up on the dodgy side of LA where, at the tender age of 3, he was already witnessing the drug habits that'd turn him off for life, and allow him to take on such roles as Belfort without it mirroring his own experience. "Never done it," beamed the actor in conversation with the LA Times, "that's because I saw this stuff literally every day when I was 3 or 4 years old. So Hollywood was a walk in the park for me… I'd go to parties and it was there and, yeah, there's that temptation. Hollywood is a very volatile place where artists come in and they essentially say they want to belong. It's incredibly vulnerable to be an actor and also get criticism at a young age when you're formulating who you are. We've seen a lot of people fall victim to that, and it's very unfortunate."
Here's hoping Leo remains the "painfully normal guy" (as he's been dubbed by his pal, Kevin Connolly) who you'd have to be batshit crazy not to like. And what's more, with dance moves like these, who needs drugs anyway?
Check out the full, very insightful snapshot into the legendary Leo's life over yonder on the LA Times.