Behind the Scenes: Johnny and Leonardo DiCaprio having some fun during the filming of âWhatâs Eating Gilbert Grapeâ sometime between November 1992 and January 1993.
Johnny used to love Leonardoâs facial expressions when his character, Arnie, was disgusted by the smell of something gross, like decaying honeycomb, rotten eggs, and pickled sausage. So he used to give them to Leo to do this funny gagging thing. In the other hand, Johnny did it so many times, that Leonardo couldnât stand and charged him for all the times he wanted to see it. In the end, Leo made something about $500 dollars.
Although at that time, Johnny was 29 years old, and Leonardo had just turned 19, both became good friends, almost like brothers, on and off camera. And just like real life brothers, Johnny admitted that sometimes he got a little bit irritated with Leonardo during the filming. In 2016 during a interview at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, Johnny said: âThe absolute truth is that I⌠I respect Leo a lot, you know what I mean. He worked really hard. He did. He worked really hard that on that film and spent a lot of time researching on that and stuff like that, then he came to set he was ready to work, he was ready to work hard and he was really, you know, all his ducks were in a row⌠And I tortured him⌠I really did, I actually did. âcause he was always talking about these video games, you know⌠And I told you it was kind of a dark period I wasnât in the middle. âAnd no I will not give you a drag of my cigarette while you hide from your mother again Leo, no.ââ Although smiling with the audience, while remembering those funny days on the past, and smiling during the filming of the movie in 1992/1993, must people donât know that the âdark periodâ was really real. Deep down, back to those days, Johnny was really having one of the most difficult times he ever had in his personal life:
âI poisoned myself constantly; drinking, didnât eat right, no sleep, lots of cigarettes⌠It was really a lonely, really f*cking, lonely time. There were drugs, too⌠Pills. And there was a danger that I would go over the edge. I could have, I thank God I didnâtâ. - Read more about this dark and sad period HERE.
