Leonardo DiCaprio on 'Wolf of Wall Street,' Jonah Hill, Shark Survival Story (Full Interview)

Our first guest is one of the most famous actors in the world. He's nominated for a Golden Globe for his brilliant performance in The Wolf of Wall Street. Please welcome Leonardo DiCaprio. First off, I gotta say, I saw some of you guys dancing there, and you guys were absolutely killing it. Even if you haven't seen the movie, if you've seen the trailer, they show a little bit of him dancing. You're a great dancer. You actually, that little scene where you're dancing, you're a good dancer. I used to be a pop locker when I was in elementary school. Were you? Yeah. It's actually one of the reasons why I didn't get an agent, because I auditioned and I had like a punk rock haircut, and I dressed like a little street dancer, and they rejected me. Aw. Yeah. I disagree with that, because I met you, I think you were like 16 years old, and you had just done This Boy's Life, which was your first film, really. It was on Hollywood Boulevard, right? I remember that. Yes. We were at an after party at like the Chinese Theater or something. And I'm telling you, you were so, you told me, I just was listening to you talk, and I thought, you are so special and charming, and then you told me you just finished that film, and I had never seen you in anything, but I just knew you were going to be somebody, because you were so charming. Then you did What's Eating Gilbert Grape, and he was amazing in that. And- You feel like you can just go. I claim stake on you. I think I'm responsible for your career. I've always been a big fan of yours, ever since I first met you, so thank you very much. But really, and this performance in this movie is, I really want to say it's your best performance I've ever seen, and you've done some great movies, but in this movie, your performance is outstanding. Thank you. And you're nominated for Gold Globe, well-deserved. You were there, I hosted the Oscars in 2007, and you were there in the front row, you were nominated for Blood Diamond, I'm hosting again this year, and I pray I'm looking out there and seeing you in the audience for this, because you deserve to be there. You're very sweet. Thank you very much. Or just- I might, I might. Yeah. Even if you don't get nominated, as a seat filler, I just want to see you there. I love those seat fillers. Yeah. Just be there. Literally, as soon as you leave the bathroom, somebody just scoots in and goes, excuse me. Yeah, they're just right there. Sit right down, yeah. All dressed up and everything. All right, so tell everybody, this movie, you produced it as well, right? Yes. So you took a long time to make it. I'd been, I was fascinated by this book, I mean, Jordan Belfort looks at this as a cautionary tale, he's sort of reflecting on his wild, debaucherous, hedonistic days on Wall Street where he was consumed by greed and excess, but he was so candid and honest about it, and I really wanted to put this up on screen, because in a lot of ways, it felt like a reflection of the time that we were living in. I mean, really, anything goes in this film, it is absolutely wild, and you know, Martin Scorsese and I decided to really pull no punches and really go for it. Yeah, it's, but I can't believe that everything you see, and when you see this film, it's, first of all, it's so good, and you and Jonah Hill are great together, but the scene when you take Quaaludes and- Toilets? I'm from New Orleans. We said Quaaludes. But, I'm kidding, I'm not kidding. I know what they're called. I'm from New Orleans. So, Quaaludes, so when you take the Quaaludes, and you have to make your way down the steps to the car, it is genius how you do that, like, and how many takes did you have to do? We worked on that whole sequence for a week, we want, one of my favorite sequences in Goodfellas is where Ray Liotta's, like, spinning, mixing the marinara, he's doing drugs, he's got the helicopters circling around him, his nanny wants to take her hat, and the cops are coming after him, we wanted to do kind of a film within a film, so we really worked really hard on this Quaaludes sequence where, essentially, Donnie has a botched money deal, who's played by Jonah Hill, and to apologize for that, he gives me these incredibly powerful Quaaludes. I simultaneously find out that my house is being bugged by the FBI, and I gotta get back home to him because he's on the phone with Switzerland, and it turns into this sort of insane sequence, and it was probably the most wild thing I've ever done in my entire life. Jonah Hill and I looked at each other and said, how are we allowed to do this? How are we allowed to get paid to do this for a living? It was just insane. It was, and just to take that much time to try to crawl downstairs, and to try to open a car door that opens up, and for your foot to get caught on that door, every single, I mean, that just was hilarious. I appreciate that. I mean, I, you know, it all resulted in this insane sequence at the end where Jonah decides to stuff ham into his mouth as well, and he crashes into a plate glass table, and we were doing this CPR sequence, and, you know, the big challenge that day, we had to do 70 takes because they couldn't get this ham to stick on my face, and they had to put KY jelly, and there was literally a guy there behind this giant, with a plastic spoon, just flicking ham on my face all day long as I'm doing this insane sequence, but it was almost, it was one of the most surreal things I've ever done in my entire career. Because, well, I know you're friends, you're both friends anyway, and there's a lot of improvisation in there, so that must have been, there must be takes where you just couldn't make it through. I mean, the whole film was like that, and he's one of the greatest improvisational actors I've ever gotten to work with. He's a real genius, and a good guy, and he really came to me and said, look, I know what this world is like, I know what these people are, there's no one that should play this role except for me, and I immediately told Marty about that, and we hired him on the spot. It was fantastic. His clothes, what he's wearing, his- His giant white teeth. Just teeth, everything. It's great. I just, I really enjoyed the film, and I really enjoyed both of your performances, but I really think it's the best I've ever seen you do. Thank you. There's so many levels and layers of it, of, it's just, it's fun to watch. We'll take a break, and we'll talk about more with Leo after this. That looks like he was just coming off of Dallas Buyers Club, because he was still really thin, and you, in the last, how, not year, you did three, how many years did it take you? You did three films back-to-back? I did three films back-to-back. I did Gatsby, Django Unchained, and then straight into this, yeah. Wow. Three great movies. Thank you. In one year? No, not in one year. It was about a year and a half, yeah. Wow, that's amazing. Yeah. And you forget about Django Unchained, and Gatsby, and, so, when you, how long have you been off now? It's been about a year, and I still don't have, I mean, this was such an, this film took really everything out of me. But you're good at relaxing and doing- Oh, I'm great. Yeah. Well, if you're just doing nothing and around, you can come here every day if you'd like. Just hang out? Yeah. Yeah, you can come by. And just sort of stare at you. Right. I'll just put a chair right there, and you just sit there. In a really creepy way. Yeah. Just like, I'll just be sitting up there. Nothing's creepy about you looking at me. That's fine. So, let's talk about, we were just talking during the break, you had an amazing fundraiser, and you sold art for your environmental foundation. What is the name of it? It's called LDF, and we kind of focus on protecting, you know, endangered species and their ecosystems. So, coral reef systems, jungles that are home to sort of top predators, sharks, tigers, things like that. I love that. Yeah. I love that you're doing that. And you're protecting sharks. It's, I think, when people are afraid of anything, whatever it is, a person or an animal, when you don't understand it and you're afraid of it, we feel like we must destroy it, you know? And sharks are amazing creatures. Absolutely. They're the top of the food chain. And 90% of them have sort of been eliminated from the oceans, but, you know, the truth is that these things have no voice, you know, and only 2% of philanthropy goes towards environmentalism, which is, you know, microscopic compared to the benefits that it gives us. So, you know, my whole goal with that auction was to really try to isolate some of these places and protect them for all time, you know, that's my goal. And you had an encounter with a shark. Yeah, a few. A few. But didn't one get in? Weren't you in a cage or something? Yeah. And it got in there? You know, when I work with these NGOs, these non-profit organizations, you kind of go on the ground. You see what's happening. I did a whole excursion where I went to Nepal and went on an elephant back and looked for tigers. Of course, for four days I was there, I didn't see a single tiger. They blend into the jungle and you have, and the elephants sort of go up on their hind legs and they react to a tiger being there, but you can't actually see them. Then I went to a... Wait, what happens when you're on an elephant and it goes on its hind legs? You hold on. Okay. You hold on for dear life. Thank you. Yes. And then I went scuba diving looking for sharks and I had a huge fear of sharks. And when I did Blood Diamond in 2006, I actually got stuck in a cage with a great white, which was awesome. How big was the great white? It was a gigantic great white. And... What do you mean? It was in the cage with me. It was in the cage with you? Yeah. How did you survive that? I don't know. Then you're making it up. No, I'm not. I'm not. They actually said in 30 years this has never happened, but the tuna kind of got stuck on the top of the cage and the great white leapt out and tried to bite it and it went into the cage with me and half of its body was in and out, and I flattened down at the bottom and it was this far away and it chomped a few times, but I survived it and the work that they're doing is great. They're protecting sharks as well, so I don't want to... You don't need to go do that anymore? I don't want to do that anymore, but I don't want to discount their work because they're doing great stuff, but it was absolutely terrifying. And then you also jumped out of a plane recently. Oh, that was when I was 21. Oh, okay. You haven't done that again? And both my chutes didn't open. I have a knack for this kind of stuff, yeah. So it was tandem? You were with someone? Yes, tandem. Okay. So you open one chute and it doesn't open. And then the second one didn't open. Is there a third? There's no third. What happens? Finally, after the gentleman who was on my back shaking it for a good minute while we're free falling towards Earth, it finally started to pop open and we kind of landed in the nick of time. What are your thoughts when that's happening? It sucks. When you feel the guy that's in control trying to open the second chute, I mean... To tell you the truth, it's kind of the same thing as getting into a fender bender. It's like you just sit there and go, wow, this sucks. I'm gonna die. And there's really nothing I can do about it. No one gets in a fender bender and says, I'm gonna die. No, but it's the same emotional reaction. No, you're just cool. That's what it is. You're just too cool. I love you. You know that. You're doing great work in every area. Your acting is fantastic and what you're doing for the environment, we appreciate. And go to our website if you want to learn more about his foundation. You should get invested and get involved if you can. The Wolf of Wall Street is in theaters now. Sara Bareilles is gonna perform after this. That's Leo DiCaprio. Thank you guys.