Leonardo DiCaprio, 50, calls himself 'emotionally 32' in candid interview on aging
Leonardo DiCaprio says age is just a number — and he’s picking his own.
While the actor, who turned 50 last year, has been in the spotlight for his apparent preference for dating younger women, DiCaprio cheekily joked that he turned 32 emotionally.
In a candid sit-down with filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson for Esquire, he was asked, "If you didn’t know how old you are, how old are you right now?"
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Without missing a beat, he replied, "32."
When Anderson asked DiCaprio if turning 50 sparked a moment of reflection, he said the milestone left him with "a desire to just be more honest and not waste your time."
"I can only imagine how the next few decades are going to progress. I look at my mother, for example, and she just says exactly what she thinks and wastes no time. She spends no time trying to fake it."
Anderson asked whether hitting the half-century mark felt like a natural time for reflection. DiCaprio quipped, "You turned emotionally thirty-five last year."
To that, Anderson responded, "Your age is fifty, but your emotional maturity is thirty-two."
DiCaprio additionally admitted he’s doubled down on authenticity – even if it meant risking relationships.
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"Being more upfront and risking having things fall apart or risk the disagreements or risk going your separate ways from any type of relationship in life—the personal, professional—it’s that you just don’t want to waste your time anymore," he emphasized.
"You have to just be much more upfront. It’s almost a responsibility, because much more of your life is behind you than it is ahead of you."
While DiCaprio gears up for his role in "One Battle After Another," he and director Anderson opened up about the generational divide.
"It’s about the disconnection between generations," DiCaprio said, while discussing the father-daughter dynamic in his latest film. "It’s about how this daughter and father relate to one another, and that we are living in a completely different world than the next generation. We think we understand it, but we don’t. This is how they communicate."
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DiCaprio shared how growing up without smartphones — or even basic texting — now feels like ancient history to younger people in his life, including his sister and her friends.
"I lived in the days where there was an answering machine," he said. "And when you had plans, you either needed to be there on time, or you’d call on a pay phone to check your answering machine to see if they left a message, to see if they were going to be late. And then you’d have to call their answering machine so they could check their answering machine. . . ."
"They were like, ‘You guys must have never had plans—how did you ever communicate?’" he laughed. "There was a lot of waiting around; you had to stick to your word."
The comments on DiCaprio's "emotional maturity" come after he’s faced scrutiny for years over his relationships with younger women.
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In March, his current girlfriend, 26-year-old model Vittoria Ceretti, gave a rare and intimate glimpse into what it’s like dating the famous actor.
She confessed the one thing that irks her the most about their romance.
When asked whether she believes there’s a "risk" in being labeled DiCaprio’s "girlfriend," she replied, "Yes."
"As soon as you're in a relationship with someone who has a larger following than you, you become ‘girlfriend of’ – or ‘boyfriend of,’ for that matter. And that can be extremely annoying," Ceretti said in an interview for Vogue France at the time.
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The model explained that she and the "Titanic" actor had met in Milan and that she had seen the "iconic film." Ceretti added that she preferred "not to go into details" about when they first met.
Meanwhile, DiCaprio had previously been linked to other famous women.
In April 2023, DiCaprio enjoyed some one-on-one time at Coachella with model Irina Shayk, who had dated his friend, Oscar winner Bradley Cooper.
In the summer of 2022, DiCaprio broke up with girlfriend Camila Morrone, 25 at the time, after dating for four years.
He was previously linked to another famous supermodel that same year – Gigi Hadid. The model, who was 27 at the time, was first rumored to be dating DiCaprio in September 2022 after being spotted getting cozy during a party at New York Fashion Week.
DiCaprio additionally dated Gisele Bündchen for five years before their breakup in 2005. They started dating when the model was 18 years old. Years later, she married NFL quarterback Tom Brady, whom she started dating a year after DiCaprio. Bündchen and Brady divorced in 2022.