Nikki Glaser tried to roast Leonardo DiCaprio at the Golden Globes on Sunday night. She ran into a problem: there was nothing to work with.
The host opened with the obvious joke — the one about DiCaprio dating younger women. The audience laughed. DiCaprio smiled politely. Then Glaser apologized.
“Leo, I’m sorry I made that joke,” she said from the stage at the Beverly Hilton. “It’s cheap. I tried not to, but we don’t know anything else about you, man. There’s nothing else. Open up!”
She wasn’t done.
“I’m serious. I looked. I searched. The most in-depth interview you’ve ever given was in Teen Beat magazine in 1991. Is your favorite food still ‘pasta, pasta and more pasta’?”
DiCaprio nodded. He gave a thumbs up.
@cbs Nobody’s safe during @NikkiGlaser’s #GoldenGlobes ♬ original sound – CBS
The interview is real. In 1991, a 17-year-old DiCaprio sat down with Teen Beat — a now-defunct teen magazine — and answered a series of rapid-fire questions about his life. His favorite book was Lord of the Flies. His favorite actor was Jack Nicholson. His favorite actress was Meg Ryan. His favorite hobby was collecting fossils.
His favorite food was “pasta, pasta and more pasta.”
Thirty-five years later, at the 83rd Golden Globe Awards, the Oscar-winning star of Titanic, The Revenant, The Wolf of Wall Street, and Killers of the Flower Moon confirmed that this is still the case.
DiCaprio, now 51, has built one of the most celebrated careers in Hollywood while revealing almost nothing about himself publicly. He told TIME magazine last year that maintaining privacy in the age of social media requires constant effort. “It’s been a balance I’ve been managing my whole adult life,” he said, “and still I’m not an expert.”
The 1991 Teen Beat interview offers a rare glimpse into the actor before the fame. Beyond the pasta, the teenage DiCaprio listed his future ambition as wanting to “study oceanography.” Six years later, he starred in Titanic.
He also said his favorite hobby was fossils. As an adult, he has reportedly amassed a collection of dinosaur bones.
Some things change. Some things don’t.
DiCaprio was nominated Sunday night for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy for his role in Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another. He lost to Timothée Chalamet.
He is currently dating Italian model Vittoria Ceretti. She is 27.
