Leonardo DiCaprio reveals his 'favorite actor of all time' and says they have the 'golden relationship' of cinema

There are few big Hollywood actors who can claim to have worked with as many all-time greats as Leonardo DiCaprio, having starred alongside most every name worth knowing in his three decades on film.

But despite his prolific back catalogue of star-filled critically acclaimed smash hits like The Wolf of Wall Street, Django Unchained, and Titanic, the 51-year-old Oscar winner says his 'favorite actor of all time' was one of the first big names he got to work with.

Before his early success in titles like What's Eating Gilbert Grape, where he played Johnny Depp's disabled brother, and Romeo + Juliet, his first outing as a romantic lead, DiCaprio was cast in a breakthrough role in the coming-of-age flick This Boy's Life.

Hollywood superstar DiCaprio received an acting masterclass on his first motion picture (Warner Bros/Corbis via Getty Images)

Here he worked alongside one of the industry's most lauded figures, Robert De Niro.

“I was 15 years old, and I remember every single detail. Everything was so new to me,” DiCaprio gushed as he recalled meeting his favorite actor.

It turned out that De Niro had even hand-picked him for the role, essentially kick-starting the young teen's more than 30 years as one of the most sought after Hollywood stars.

He also learned his craft from the man whose raw and emphatic acting style first won over and shocked audiences as Travis Bickle in Martin Scorsese's 1976 psychological thriller Taxi Driver.

“Watching Robert De Niro on set, seeing his dedication, was one of the most influential experiences of my life,” DiCaprio told Time Out.

Following this initial experience, the Inception actor would get the chance to work alongside his hero a few more times, three years later in Marvin's Room and then in 2015's The Audition, before reuniting once more under auteur director Martin Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon (2023).

Both De Niro and Dicaprio have functioned as Scorsese's muse during their careers, with the former racking up 10 collaborations and the latter starring in six of his movies.

DiCaprio has spoken about his gratitude to De Niro recently (Corbis via Getty Images)

Having this working relationship with one of Hollywood's great directors will no doubt have meant a lot to DiCaprio, who has described his acting idol's track record with Scorsese as 'mind-blowing'.

Speaking to Variety in 2014, he shared: “That is sort of the golden relationship of cinema to me. I mean, it just gets no better than that.

"That run of films that they did together is just… I can’t even talk about it, it’s that mind-blowing.”

In that same interview, he also revealed the spark that De Niro had seen in him all those years ago to give him his first big break - and it was not because he asked nicely.

During his audition, 15-year-old DiCaprio plucked up the courage to scream in his idol's face. Rather than irking the veteran movie star, it won him over.

“He told me, ‘I was the one who said you should get the job,’ which is very sweet,” DiCaprio added.

Then, in May of this year, he had a chance to show his gratitude to the 82-year-old star, presenting him with an honorary Palme D'or prize and telling the crowd that De Niro 'changed my life'.