“As far as my personal life is concerned, my answer is pretty simple,” Leo said at the time. “I got into this industry at a very young age. I felt incredibly compelled to do this. And the irony is that I was born and raised in Hollywood. People think: ‘Oh, OK, just add water’, right? But I tried to become an actor multiple times, and I got rejected.”
“And at 12 or 13 years old, one of those agents said: ‘OK, we’ll give you a shot.’ Since then, it’s felt like winning the lottery. And to be honest, I would have been happy doing any sort of acting jobs – commercials, television,” he went on. “I got the one opportunity doing This Boy’s Life with Robert De Niro. I watched his work, realized the caliber of actor that he was, and said to myself: ‘I will never squander this opportunity.’”