The Leonardo DiCaprio Cycle of Life: Film, Beach, Beard, Travel the World, Shave, Haircut, Award Season, Repeat

We've detected a pattern in the Oscar winner's lifestyle

By Natalie Finn Feb 27, 2017 11:00 AMTags
Leonardo DiCaprio, Past Year StyleChris Pizzello/Invision/AP, AKM-GSI, FAMEFLYNET PICTURES, James Devaney/GC Images, Paul Drinkwater/NBC

It's a fairly universally recognized fact that Leonardo DiCaprio is having a better time than you.

Wherever he is, and in whatever state, he's winning at the life he's been lucky enough to leave. Even eating that bison liver and burrowing in a horse carcass probably wasn't too terrible, the actor warmed by the prospect of long-awaited Oscar glory at the end of his arduous journey.

DiCaprio, who at 42 is a nearly 30-year veteran of showbiz, was nominated for four acting Oscars before finally winning for The Revenant, as well as 11 Golden Globes, giving us many opportunities to catch on to the particular pattern that the movie star has adopted.

photos
Leonardo DiCaprio's Best Roles

While the especially scruffy look DiCaprio sported while filming The Revenant, in which he played a fur trapper mauled by a bear and left for dead in the wilderness in frigid conditions, was notably hirsute, it really wasn't too far off from how the actor likes to spend his off-season.

In fact, when he's not filming or promoting, he's living it up—with all the missed shaves, variety of hats and sloppy T-shirts that entails.

All of which only results in him looking his usual dapper, often Armani-clad self when award season calls at the beginning of every calendar year, like clockwork.

read
Biggest Oscar Moments of All Time: Leonardo DiCaprio Finally Wins

We were reminded of this once again last month when, after appearing in his usual series of party pictures in various states of giving no f--ks, he showed up at the 2017 Golden Globes to present the Best Actress in a Drama prize, as tradition warrants for defending champions, looking as if the 2016 Oscars had been the previous week.

Back in fighting (i.e. red carpet) shape, DiCaprio could've been wearing the same Armani tuxedo he accepted his Oscar (and Globe and SAG Award) in for all we know—he certainly wouldn't have been the first actor to recycle a tux for a special occasion.

Adam Taylor/ABC via Getty Images

But this is the pattern: DiCaprio does whatever he needs to do to himself to shoot a movie—which, aside from The Revenant, usually doesn't look like that much, physically speaking. A little hair dye here for The Wolf of Wall Street, a little hardening of the muscles there for The Departed, a lengthy stay in the makeup chair for the likes of The AviatorJ. Edgar or Django Unchained.

Then, in case you hadn't noticed, he's really not one for the light-hearted late-night circuit once the movie has been released. Even when he was hardcore campaigning for his Oscar, doing screening Q&As, print interviews and otherwise running the Hollywood gauntlet, he didn't actually cut into his high-life time to promote The Revenant in the traditional way. Not even Charlie Rose, no Graham Norton, nothing intentionally humorous.

DiCaprio hasn't been on The Tonight Show since 2006, the Late Show since 1995 and Late Night since ever—and the closest he's been to a Late Late Show was when James Corden texted him from Jennifer Lopez's phone during "Carpool Karaoke."

Presumably because such appearances would require shaving.

read
The Leonardo DiCaprio Guide to Leisure Living

What Leo will do is groom himself for projects and appearances related to environmentalism, his raison d'être aside from acting. But overall, life is a damn beach for this man. (So it makes sense that he's trying to save the beaches and all.)

First of all, however, he always does something right in the middle of award season, something very extraordinary. Last year, he traveled to the Vatican to meet Pope Francis after winning the Golden Globe but before the Oscars. This year, between presenting at the 2017 Globes and the 2017 Oscars, DiCaprio went to Rwanda, then Dubai, where he had his steak seasoned by Salt Bae, and then hop-skipped to Southeast Asia, where he was photographed touring Thailand's Ayutthaya Historical Park, his man-bun getting a little more prominent as the globetrotting progressed.

ABC

Days after pocketing his Oscar, DiCaprio was seen out partying like just some regular guy at a Los Angeles club, newsboy cap firmly in place and looking like a member of the brotherhood of the traveling leather jackets. He resurfaced in April at Coachella, a substantial amount of scruff in place and partying with Rihanna. Also that month, Oscar at last in hand and save-the-world credentials cast in bronze, Leo was named one of Time's 100 Most Influential People.

 

Spencer Platt/Getty Images

He spent Earth Day in New York at the United Nations Signing Ceremony for the Paris Agreement climate change accord that 195 countries, including the U.S., pledged to adopt in December 2015.

In May Leo went to Cannes, where he was spotted enjoying the French Riviera with Georgia Fowler. He caught Beyoncé's Formation World Tour in New York in June. And by July he had acquired a new girlfriend, Victoria's Secret model Nina Agdal.

FAMEFLYNET PICTURES

All the while, he shaved a bit. But not much.

Leo jetted to St. Tropez, where he raised millions for the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation at a star-and-model-packed gala, and was spotted choppering out of Ibiza with BFF Tobey Maguire.

The summer was spent yachting, swimming, dating Agdal and otherwise enjoying the sunshine. We also assume texts and emails were written and sent as he lined up his next spate of films. He was supposed to host a Hillary Clinton fundraiser in August but had to cancel; the lunch was moved to Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel's house.

AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster

Leo had business to tend to as fall descended, however. Two days after being spotted walking along the street in New York in a "Save Water" T-shirt in September, he was at the Toronto Film Festival to screen his climate change documentary Before the Flood; and he met with President Obama to discuss that very issue on Oct. 3.

AKM-GSI

Also in October, Maguire and wife Jennifer Meyer separated and DiCaprio swooped in to help his pal lick his wounds. Leo had a fairly literal wolf-pack moment with the Spider-Man star at Kate Hudson's Halloween party.

On Dec. 8, DiCaprio met with then president-elect Donald Trump at Trump Tower to discuss environmental issues. A few days later he was with forever-friend Lukas Haas in Cancun.

Meanwhile, further cementing his reputation for being someone who has not forgotten where he came from (something we're also reminded of every time he's with Maguire or Haas, or in the vicinity of Kate Winslet), just days after he was in Mexico DiCaprio joined the rest of his Growing Pains cast mates and many more at a memorial in Los Angeles for Alan Thicke, who died suddenly on Dec. 13.

Really, all of the above just shows that Leo takes every facet of his life seriously—the leisure time, his career and the quieter, more private moments.

FAMEFLYNET PICTURES

But after an otherwise probably pretty phenomenal Christmas and New Year's Eve, it was time to start thinking about working engagements again. Similar to last year, when Leo plunked down $100,000 for one of Bono's guitars at an auction benefiting Sean Penn's J/P Haitian Relief Organization before going on his award season tear, this year he purchased an Ed Ruscha original for $125,000 Penn's annual Haiti Rising gala, held the night before the Globes.

Like clockwork, this guy.

On the work side, his Appian Way Productions is producing Robin Hood: Origins, which started shooting this month in Croatia, and DiCaprio is both producing and starring in the based-on-a-true-story period mob drama, The Black Hand, about a deadly secret society that rained terror over New York in the early 20th century. He's also attached to reunite with Jonah Hill and star in The Ballad of Richard Jewell, about the security guard who was initially blamed for the bombing at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, being directed by the now Oscar-winning documentarian Ezra Edelman.

And so the cycle will repeat itself.

DiCaprio slipped into his tux for the Golden Globes on Jan. 8, looking none the worse for wear when he presented Best Actress in a Motion Picture, Drama, to Isabelle Huppert—and while he wasn't at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, duty called again last night.

 

Matt Sayles/Invision/AP

There he was at the 2017 Oscars, the award show veteran and last year's winner, presenting Best Actress to Emma Stone.

He enjoyed the night in his signature way with utmost self-assuredness (in fact, he might still be celebrating right this minute). And the next time you see him... he could literally be anywhere.

Look for the guy in the cap and at least a week's worth of beard.

For complete Oscars coverage, tune in to E! News at 7 p.m. and Fashion Police at 8 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 27.