Leonardo DiCaprio at 50: When Teen Crushes Hit Center Age

One minute you’re doodling his identify in your Geography textbook, and the following you’re questioning if he takes a cod liver oil complement but. Leonardo DiCaprio turned 50 this week, celebrating his large day with an enormous, star-studded occasion in Los Angeles, and it has Us feeling all of the feels.

DiCaprio isn’t the one large Hollywood heartthrob who’s celebrated a landmark birthday just lately — Keanu Reeves turned 60 in September. It’s a stark reminder for many people older Millennials and younger Gen Xers that the fellows we swooned over by the sunshine of a lava lamp in our overwhelmingly purple bedrooms are actually older than our dad and mom had been once they informed us to stop watching Titanic for the 78th time.

Again within the ‘90s, DiCaprio — who’ll at all times be Leo to Us — was the final word floppy-haired heartbreaker. After a number of years of Reeves, plus Brad Pitt, Johnny Depp — each of their early sixties now — and Christian Slater, now 55, being the undisputed hunks of Hollywood, alongside got here Leo; youthful, cuter and quirkier in era-defining motion pictures like cult hit What’s Consuming Gilbert Grape, Baz Luhrmann’s iconic Shakespeare retelling Romeo + Juliet and, after all, Titanic. Whether or not gazing dreamily by way of a fish tank at Claire Danes or yelling “I’m the king of the world!” alongside Kate Winslet, the Leo we liked oozed boyish, barely naughty attraction and occurred to be an unimaginable actor too. Plus, he was nearer to our personal age than these different large attractive stars, making him in some way extra attainable.

Now although? That naughty boy could be very a lot a middle-aged man — and whereas we really feel fairly proud that he grew out of being simply one other teen pinup and right into a extremely revered, Oscar-winning actor in motion pictures like The Revenant and The Wolf Of Wall Avenue, it’s a reminder that he’s decidedly mature now — which should imply we’re getting previous, too. When the world mocks him for courting ladies half his age (his girlfriend of a yr, Vittoria Cerreti, is 26), it’s as a result of we’re incredulous: is he the one one who hasn’t observed the creaky arrival of midlife? How come he’s partying up a storm with Cara Delevingne whereas we’re taking menopause dietary supplements, researching probably the most family-friendly canine breeds and shopping for conscious coloring books?

Reeves, then again, is doing center age the extra conventional approach: his associate Alexandra Grant, 54, is a licensed grown-up, and he’s extra prone to be discovered quietly studying a philosophy ebook than partying on a yacht. He’s nonetheless an enormous film star, however his roles are barely much less high-octane today than the likes of Velocity and Level Break (though we’re positive he’d nonetheless be as much as it, so long as he does some hamstring stretches first).

Regardless of DiCaprio’s seemingly fun-focused way of life, in some methods he’s very grown-up too, particularly on the subject of one factor he does take very critically:  the surroundings. His basis has funded greater than 200 local weather and conservation initiatives the world over since he set it up in 1998. Not unhealthy for that cute child whose poster we used to kiss goodnight.

And truly, seeing each DiCaprio and Reeves unapologetically do their very own variations of thriving in midlife can present consolation. In any case, a few of their generational friends by no means bought to get pleasure from it. What would stars like River Phoenix, who tragically died in 1993, aged simply 23, and Heath Ledger, who died in 2008, aged 28, be doing now in the event that they had been nonetheless alive? Would they be partying with DiCaprio’s A-list crew or dwelling quiet, artistic lives largely away from the highlight like Reeves?

We’ll by no means know. That’s why, finally, rising older is a privilege — and we’re glad that we get to observe not-so-little Leo savoring each single, attractive, foolish second of it.