Leonardo DiCaprio’s father makes a brief appearance in Paul Thomas Anderson’s new film, Licorice Pizza. George DiCaprio plays a waterbed salesman, the profession he also briefly practiced in real life.
Leonardo reacted enthusiastically to his father’s film debut at the premiere of his own film Don’t Look Up on Monday, which he has yet to see for himself. “Licorice Pizza. I haven’t seen it yet but my father George DiCaprio just has a cameo in a Paul Thomas Anderson movie. What a beautiful day,” the actor laughed for Entertainment Tonight’s cameras.
Earlier this week, a New York Times reporter shared on Twitter a snippet of his interview with Anderson that had failed to make the paper, in which the director explained how he came up with the idea of asking DiCaprio senior for the part. “I had an image in my head of this character who sells waterbeds and wigs, and I couldn’t think of who I knew who looked like this. And suddenly I knew: that’s exactly Leo’s father. So I tracked him down and asked if he’d like to do it. George said, Fine. By the way, did Leo tell you I actually sold waterbeds?”
George DiCaprio (78) was active in the world of comics for most of his working life. He wrote a number of comic books and later went on to work as a distributor.
How Leonardo DiCaprio’s dad landed role as ‘eccentric hippie’ in buzzy new moviehttps://t.co/VJK0Il4d2H
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) December 4, 2021