Leonardo DiCaprio | ChicanePictures

Leo Dicaprio

After five acting Academy Award nominations, Leonardo DiCaprio is this year’s clear front-runner to collect the elusive golden gong for his portrayal of legendary frontiersman Hugh Glass in THE REVENANT. With 12 nominations, including Best Picture and already collecting three top Golden Globe Awards, the film is set to continue that success at next month’s Oscars.

Leonardo has previously signed a drawing for me, but I was giving the 4B a bit of a workout early this week and the latest Empire mag happened to be lying at my desk, open at an article I had finished reading about Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s epic western adventure. Since the UK Premiere was scheduled for the Empire Cinema in Leicester Square on Thursday with Leo attending, I thought, “why not?” and scribbled this montage.

Thursday was cold… very cold… and got colder as the talent arrivals drew near. Standing for three hours was cause to question my motivation… as I often do these days. The crowded pens did offer some consolation, a hint of body heat, but not much. By the look of the film and from what I read about Leonardo’s physical endurance during the making of it, the air temperature was probably a tad on the tropical side for him. The man himself duly arrived and as usual ‘did the line’, including my sketch with his distinctive and precise (Leo holds the sharpie very close to the tip… probably the closest of all the A-listers) graph.

Leonardo DiCaprio once said;

“I have no connection with me during the whole Titanic phenomenon and what my face became around the world. I’ll never reach that state of popularity again.”

Let’s face it, Leo-mania may have passed, but the man can still pull a crowd and on face value, you don’t get much bigger. That face has taken on many guises, not only Jack Dawson, but also Romeo, Danny Archer, J. Edgar Hoover, Amsterdam Vallon, Billy Costigan, Jay Gatsby, Calvin Candie, Howard Hughes and Jordan Belfort.

The last two manifestations I chose to draw – the eccentric and obsessive film director and aviation pioneer Howard Hughes (The Aviator, 2004) and Jordan Belfort, the swindling stockbroker in Leo’s latest The Wolf of Wall Street, which had its UK premiere this week.

Anticipating facing a big crowd, I went to Leicester Square earlier than usual to join the Leo -maniacs. When the sun goes down, the stars come out and the Leonardo constellation is one of the brightest.

Like other famous faces Tom Cruise and Johnny Depp, Leo “does the line,” meaning he goes around the barriers signing for as many people as possible. He didn’t disappoint.

He saw the sketch and said “How cool,” signed his distinctive ‘premiere’ sig and in the hysteria, took time to dedicate it to me, smiled then quickly moved down the line. Very cool – face to face with the real Leo!