In 1993, Leonardo DiCaprio starred alongside Robert De Niro in This Boy’s Life. Leo was around 17 and relatively unknown at the time, while his older costar was already an Academy Award-winning icon. But, as I’m sure you know, things wound up working out pretty well for the young star…
Flash forward to 2025, and Leo was enlisted to present his former costar with an honorary Palme d’Or — one of the most prestigious awards in all of film — at the Cannes Film Festival, which kicked off this week.
In his speech, Leo recalled his first interactions with Robert during his “tough” audition for This Boy’s Life as a teen. “There’s lots of competition. None of us knew who would get the part,” he recalled. “And at 15 or 16 years old, I did the only thing I could think to stand out: I screamed at him at the top of my lungs. The room burst into laughter. Later that day, as the story goes, Bob was getting on his plane with a producer, [who] asked, ‘Who do you want to play the part?’ And in classic De Niro fashion, he replied, ‘Second kid from the last.’”
As fate would have it, that second kid from the last was Leo. “That moment changed my life forever, started my entire career in the world of cinema,” the now-50-year-old actor reflected.
One thing Leo and Robert share in common is their close personal and professional relationships with the great Martin Scorsese. In 2023, the trio collaborated on Killers of the Flower Moon, which marked Leo’s sixth Scorsese movie and Robert’s tenth. In his speech, the Wolf of Wall Street star thanked Robert for introducing him to the iconic director and credited the duo for redefining “what cinema could be” through their beloved films like Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, and Goodfellas.
On top of their Scorsese collabs, another thing the two Oscar-winning actors approach similarly is fame, both living notoriously private lives away from their acting careers. Hilariously, Leo acknowledged this in his speech, joking that “he’s not someone who particularly enjoys being in the spotlight off camera.”
“If I’m lucky, I’ll get a nod from him tonight, maybe even a half smile. And I would take that as a standing ovation. And every once in a while, even the most private giants deserves their moment, a moment to be acknowledged, not just for their work, but for the quiet lasting influence they’ve had on so many lives,” he said, wrapping up his speech. “So, without trying to speak for the entire world of cinema here tonight, but probably doing it anyway, there is no one more deserving of this Palm d’Or lifetime achievement award than Mr. Robert De Niro.”
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