Leonardo DiCaprio Taking a Break from Movies: What We'll Miss Most

Leonardo DiCaprio Takes an Acting Break! What We'll Miss Most...

The actor said he's taking a "long, long break" from making movies. Here's why we hope it doesn't turn into a full retirement!

By Donna Kaufman - January 22, 2013

Photo Credit: FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP/Getty Images

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Leonardo DiCaprio has worn himself out. The Django Unchained actor, who has given dozens of acclaimed performances in recent years (but has yet to win that Oscar), told a German media outlet that he needs a hiatus from acting.

"I am a bit drained," said DiCaprio, 38. "I'm now going to take a long, long break. I've done three films in two years and I'm just worn out."

Fortunately, we still have two of those films -- The Great Gatsby and The Wolf of Wall Street -- to look forward to this year. But we're having a hard time imagining a world without Leonardo DiCaprio's face plastered all over the "coming soon" wall of the movie theater. While he's kicking back on an eco-friendly yacht in the Mediterranean, here are four things we'll miss about Leo!

1. He plays hard to get. Even the most daring A-list actors can get hung up on making audiences like them; this year, for instance, Brad Pitt is hunting zombies in World War Z, and Johnny Depp is revving up for another Pirates of the Caribbean sequel. DiCaprio has never begged us to love him. He'd rather play characters whose moral compass is a little out of whack, whether it's Gatsby, J. Edgar Hoover, or the double-crossing cop in The Departed. Maybe Leo's strategy is backfiring, because it makes us love him even more.

2. He looks great in every era. Whether he's a con-man in 1963 (Catch Me If You Can), a starving artist in 1912 (Titanic), a film-noir detective in 1954 (Shutter Island), or a "dream architect" of the future (Inception), he always seems like he belongs -- and he never fails to look fantastic.

3. He's come so far from Growing Pains. It's easy to forget that DiCaprio got his big break on the '80s sitcom, playing a homeless boy taken in by the Seaver family. After the show ended, DiCaprio immediately ran in the other direction, playing a mentally challenged boy in What's Eating Gilbert Grape and a teen heroin addict in The Basketball Diaries. He never stopped taking challenging roles, even after Titanic, when he could have put his career on cruise control and played heartthrobs forever.

4. Even though he has his pick of supermodels, he brings his mom to awards shows. 'Nuff said.

Leo has taken breaks from acting before (he didn't appear in any films in 2007 or 2009, for example), so hopefully this one doesn't last too long. We still think he deserves that Oscar!

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Leonardo DiCaprio Takes an Acting Break! What We'll Miss Most...