Leonardo DiCaprio Recalls ‘Terrifying’ Oscar Experience

Leonardo DiCaprio was ”terrified” at the prospect of going on stage at his first Academy Awards ceremony in 1994. The 39-year-old star – who has been nominated for Best Actor for Martin Scorsese’s ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ at The Oscars 2014 – recalled the moment he learned he was in the line up for Best Supporting Actor for 1993’s ‘What’s Eating Gilbert Grape’, and was left ”shocked” when he realised he would be in the limelight for ”billions” of people to watch.
He told deadline.com: ”Things just happened so quickly. Out of nowhere a nomination came about and I remember being completely shocked. My Leonardo-DiCaprio-Whats-Eating-Gilbert-Grape-first-reaction was being terrified of ever having to go up onstage in front of a billion people.
”Someone said ‘a billion people watch this’ and I thought, ‘Oh my god, it’s not like doing a movie where you get a second or third take’. Everyone’s watching every word that you say. That was my initial reaction to it. It’s a nerve-wracking thought.”
DiCaprio recently hit the big screen as corrupt stockbroker Jordan Belfort in ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ – which has also been nominated for Best Picture at the 86th Academy Awards, which DiCaprio co-produced – and since filming he hasn’t started working on something else since he’s waiting for ”something to move” him.
He added: ”I don’t know when the next one is going to come up that I am equally obsessed with…. Right now I am just waiting for something to move me.”