A scene in the film depicts him stark naked in his screening room, unable to face anybody and conducting a deranged experiment with bottles of his own urine."I think being obsessive-compulsive tied into his women, too," said Di Caprio."He was never able to stay with one woman because he looked on them like aeroplanes: he literally wanted to get the faster, sleeker aeroplane with the bigger turbines."Di Caprio's disorder is more likely to take the form of making him reluctant to step on cracks in the pavement or something similar, although he has little difficulty overcoming his urges."I think the reason no film has been done is because everyone has tried to focus on the older Howard Hughes, but it's not very cinematic because no matter how interesting he is, it's a man stuck in a hotel room for 15 years of his life with tissue boxes for shoes, talking on telephones," says Di Caprio.Michael Mann was exhausted and needed a break from directing, having just finished filming Ali, so Di Caprio took the idea to Martin Scorsese, with whom he had worked on Gangs of New York."It was immense and it's made so much money, but the fact that it's reached many different cultures is astounding to me.I know that no matter what else I do, it's going to be with me and be a part of me for the rest of my life.I don't have any regrets about it because it has given me great opportunities as an actor – and it's a pretty good film, too."It was his role in Titanic that confirmed his status as Hollywood's leading heartthrob and ushered in the surreal Beatle-like fan worship that became known as Leo-mania.

The first two, The Beach and The Man in the Iron Mask, were panned by the critics and the second two, Gangs of New York and Steven Spielberg's Catch Me If You Can, did not make the impression expected of them.We're going to need 10 minutes to get him to the set today because he has to walk back and step on that thing and touch the door in a certain way and then walk in and walk out again.'"I let myself do it because I wanted that to come out. It became real bothersome, even after the filming."Di Caprio, smartly dressed in a dark suit and blue opennecked shirt with a wispy goatee, talks with humour and knowledge about film and his career and becomes passionate when the topic turns to the environment and the damage being done by the current US administration.Di Caprio was born and grew up in Hollywood, although his parents, to whom he is still very close, separated when he was one year old.His public exploits notwithstanding, Hughes was a man who valued his privacy."He was the last private man in America," says Di Caprio.