Before he became one of the most well respected actors in Hollywood, Leonardo DiCaprio was just a poor kid living in the mean streets of Los Angeles.
The 39-year-old recently revealed in a candid interview that he was surrounded by drugs and prostitution before he turned to acting as an escape.
The Wolf Of Wall Street star also claimed he has never done drugs after seeing the ravages of addiction right outside his doorstep as a child.
The actor told the
Los Angeles Times that he grew up 'very poor' in a run-down neighbourhood of Los Angeles.
He explained that there was 'a major prostitution ring on my street corner' and that his youth was overrun by 'crime and violence everywhere'.
Adding: 'It really was like Taxi Driver in a lot of ways…I grew up very poor and I got to see the other side of the spectrum.'
He also revealed that an alleyway near his childhood home was notorious for both crack cocaine and heroin abuse.
The early exposure to addiction, the actor claims, scared him off drugs for life.
'Never done [drugs],' he told the publication. 'That’s because I saw this stuff literally every day when I was three or four years old.
'So Hollywood was a walk in the park for me … I’d go to parties and it was there, and yeah, there’s that temptation.'
But it was Hollywood acting that DiCaprio credits for setting him on the straight and narrow path.
After being bullied in public school, the handsome star says he asked his mother to put him in acting classes.
'That was the motivational thing that happened to me in my life,' he explained. 'I was 15, and I said to my mom, "I want to be an actor. Please take me to auditions." Because I had to get out of the public school system.'
It wasn't always wine, roses and 'Wall Street' for Leonardo DiCaprio
