HOLLYWOOD, Calif. — Once a poster boy for being anti-marriage and family, Leonardo DiCaprio is singing a different tune these days.
"What I definitely feel a need for is to make my life about more than just my career,” the 33-year-old actor reveals in an interview with Parade magazine. "Just last night I was thinking to myself how little of my life has been lived normally and not spent on some far-off movie location."
"I want to get married and have children," he continues. "In saying that, I realize I am contradicting everything I’ve said before. I absolutely believe in marriage."
DiCaprio remains silent on whether that future partner might be Israeli model Bar Refaeli, whom he's dated on and off for the past two years. What is known is the man who's also romanced such beauties as Kristen Zang, Vanessa Hayden and Gisele Bündchen is no longer uttering that he's "never been in love" or he "does not believe in marriage."
“No, I don’t agree with any of that,” he tells Parade of previous outlook. "It sounds like the ignorance of youth to me. When did I say that? Three or four years ago? Hey, we grow up real fast."
For most, it seems as if DiCaprio has grown up before our very eyes, having started on the sitcom "Growing Pains" as a child and shot to stardom for his role in "What's Eating Gilbert Grape?"
"My parents never tried to steer me in any direction," he says of his career path. "I wanted to be an actor, but I never thought it was a real possibility, ever. I thought I'd be a marine biologist, because nature and evolution fascinated me.
"We're all after love, aren't we? Love is what people are hungry for. That's absolutely why I became an actor."
With the recent loss of his grandmother, Helene "Oma" Idenbirken, DiCaprio, whose parents divorced when he was seven months old, finds himself in a state of reflection of where he's been and where he's going.
"I always loved being with Oma," he reflects. "She was completely pure, honest, unaffected, so unlike anything else that I was ever used to. She was my barometer of truth."
DiCaprio says that his grandmother would tell him to "step back and reflect on what's going on in your life."
"I do appreciate it," he says of his life and career. "I know how lucky I am."
As for the future, the man with the new outlook admits, "I hope I never get cynical."
"I think you need youthful energy, excitement, and optimism in life," he says. "There is a lot I want to do, and the more cynical you become, the more you sit on your butt and do nothing.
"The one thing that I would love is to never become cynical about the things I think are really important, like family, like the environment. What I want is to be known as someone who stood for something."
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