‘How do I have a long career? I get out of people’s faces’ – Leonardo DiCaprio on why he hides in public
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Leonardo DiCaprio may well be one of the most recognisable stars in the world, but the man tries his level best not to be spotted when he’s out and about. When he does step out in public, The Departed star often hides under a baseball cap, sunglasses or a face mask. He’s covered up for years too. The reason? Simple. The 51-year-old wants to stay out of the spotlight whenever he can to protect his career. (Picture: Getty Images)
In his TIME 2025 Entertainer of the Year interview, DiCaprio admitted that the struggle has been lifelong (you could say it’s been one battle after another). ‘It’s been a balance I’ve been managing my whole adult life,’ he said. ‘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.’ The message seems pretty clear – visibility is optional. But privacy is essential. (Picture: Getty Images)
The A-lister went on to explain his thinking, remembering a realisation he had some years back: ‘Okay, how do I have a long career? Because I love what I do,’ he said. His conclusion was blunt… ‘I feel like the best way to have a long career is to get out of people’s faces.’ For DiCaprio that meant shrinking his public footprint whenever the job didn’t require the opposite. (Picture: Getty Images)
After favouring various hats pre-2019, he began wearing a mask during the pandemic then kept it as part of his daily wardrobe for a few years. Add in one of his trademark caps – with the brim pulled down low enough to hide most of his incredibly famous face – and the star becomes just another guy in line at a coffee shop with a sports cap on. The more covered he is, the more comfortable he seems. (Picture: Getty Images)
That commitment was shown even at Jeff Bezos’s glitzy Venice wedding earlier this year. Despite wearing a tuxedo, he kept his cap wedged over his face as he left his hotel. Everyone else sparkled and smiled on arrival. DiCaprio stayed true to the art of being hidden. Even if, to be fair, it was still fairly obvious who he was. (Picture: Getty Images)
Work events are, of course, the exception. At a recent press tour in Mexico City he ditched the disguise because the job demanded it. And it’s the same with premieres. The industry expects him to show up with the face that made him famous and sells movies. He delivers that on cue when needed, then quickly slips back into his low profile mode as soon as the cameras are put away. (Picture: Getty Images)
His instinct to hide started a good few years ago with the release of the box office smash that was Titanic. In a 2016 Deadline interview, DiCaprio said: ‘Before Titanic, I had no conception of what any of it meant. It was shocking.’ People warned him about the scale of the film. ‘They’re like, no, no, no, you don’t get it.’ Very soon he would get it, though. He’d just become a genuine megastar. (Picture: Getty Images)
The attention changed everything. ‘My whole life became about things that weren’t about acting,’ he said. That shift pushed him to figure out how to keep working without losing himself in the chaos that followed. He remembered how he and Kate Winslet approached the film. ‘Titanic was very much an experiment for Kate Winslet and I,’ he said. ‘We’d done all of these independent movies.’ They never predicted the size of the impact. ‘We did it and it became something that we could’ve never foreseen.’ The fame that followed was not something he’d ever really planned for. He’s been learning to adapt and cope every since. (Picture: Getty Images)
The aftermath of the rush of such huge levels of fame forced the world’s biggest film star to pause and reflect. He said he needed to ‘slow down’ and wait for the tidal wave around him to settle so he could return to work that really drove him. It was a conscious step back that shaped his future choices including his approach to public anonymity. Soon, he’d find his way navigating acting and superstardom – thanks in no small measure to a new working relationship with legendary auteur filmmaker Martin Scorsese. (Picture: Getty Images)
Now, as an established, celebrated and Oscar-winning actor, the Los Angeles-born DiCaprio has found a way of living that just about manages to help him keep his personal and working lives somewhat separate. And avoid ‘getting in people’s faces’. It just means that, away from the screen, we don’t get to see his cherubic face as much as perhaps we’d like to. (Picture: Getty Images)
