When celebrities become fangirls: Leonardo DiCaprio, the ‘Euphoria’ superfan

The celebrity world incites a level of fandom that few other industries even come close to. Fame, affluence and the intrigue of the inner circle, make Hollywood (and its environs) of great interest to us mere mortals. There’s an air of mystery to it all that draws us in and keeps us wanting more. 

Actors, singers, sportspeople, they all fall under the one bracket, and for some, even the sight of their favourite personality is enough to send them into overdrive. Don’t ask me to explain it, because frankly, I can’t. 

However, what many of us probably didn’t realise is that even famous people fangirl sometimes too – most recently, Leonardo DiCaprio who was positively *giddy* at meeting Jacob Elordi of Euphoria fame. 

Bumping into Elordi, who plays Nate Jacobs, at a glamorous Met Gala afterparty, DiCaprio could be seen shaking hands with the actor and telling him how much he loves the series. “The show’s amazing,” he gushed, to which Elordi could only smile in response. 

@deannamarienyc

I died a little inside #jacobelordi #leonardodicaprio #metgala #metafterparty

? original sound – Deanna Coll

Leo may not necessarily be Euphoria’s target audience, but he’s actually a longtime fan of the series and first raved about it way back in 2019. Asked if he was watching anything good at the time, the Oscar-winner replied that he had just finished Euphoria, reiterating the above point and telling reporters, “that show is amazing”.

Leonardo DiCaprio on HBO's #Euphoria: "That show is amazing" pic.twitter.com/QQIw4wyYxb

— Variety (@Variety) July 24, 2019

Clearly, he’s not alone in thinking so, as the new season is up there as one of HBO’s most-watched shows of all time, second only to Game of Thrones, which set the record back in 2004. According to Variety, the season two finale drew in 6.6 million viewers across HBO and HBO Max, with the season’s entire viewership to date approaching 19 million viewers in the US. Not bad. Not bad at all. 

Inspired by Leo’s recent PDEA (that’s public display of Euphoria-affection), we took a nose through the archives and rounded up some other wholesome celebrity encounters. 

Stormzy and Billie Eilish

Is there anyone cooler than Stormzy? I think not… he’s not immune to the throes of fangirling though and basically melted into a pool of pondwater when Billie Eilish interviewed him for iD last year. 

 

First meeting the singer at the 2020 BRIT Awards, Stormzy was so excited to see her that he marched right up to Eilish and interrupted another interview she was doing at the time. “You are the f*cking greatest,” he enthused. “Every time I listen to a new song of yours, I go onto A-Z lyrics and I read it. And I’m just like, ‘Bruv, she’s brilliant.’”

Cut to 2021 and the two artists reunited again. Described as “acquaintances and mutual admirers of each other’s work”, they teamed up to discuss everything from failure to rejecting the role model label and of course, Stormzy’s favourite Billie track. The entire interview is just shy of 25-minutes-long but it’s extremely feel-good, so would recommend watching until the end. 

Adele and Beyoncé

Stormzy is also a huge fan of Adele, who is a huge fan of, well, everyone really… though no one more so than Beyoncé. And she’s made no secret of her love for Queen Bey over the years either, proclaiming “my life is Beyoncé” after refusing to accept the Grammy that she (still) thinks her idol should have won. 

“I can’t possibly accept this award, and I’m very humbled and very grateful and gracious but my life is Beyoncé, and the album to me, the Lemonade album, Beyoncé, was so monumental, and so well thought out. And so beautiful and soul-bearing and we all got to see another side of you that you don’t always let us see, and we appreciate that. And all us artists adore you. You are our light. And the way that you make me and my friends feel, the way you make my Black friends feel is empowering, and you make them stand up for themselves. And I love you. I always have. And I always will. I appreciate it.”

Talking to Vogue about that moment after the fact, Adele maintains that the award should have gone to Bey. “My personal opinion is that Beyoncé definitely should have won.” Big yes to women supporting other women. 

Maude Apatow and One Direction

Speaking of Euphoria, Maude Apatow is also quite the fangirl herself, though most people probably know about her One Direction obsession thanks to her doting dad. The eldest daughter of filmmaker Judd Apatow and actress Leslie Mann, Maude has been establishing herself as a talent in her own right… but her family are always sure to keep her humble and Apatow very gracefully provided Jimmy Fallon with some home footage of his daughter when she was on his show earlier this year. 

Last on the show alongside her father, she explained that the whole thing was “very embarrassing” for her as she arrived to set straight off the plane, looked “disgusting” and immediately ran into Harry Styles who was hosting SNL just one floor up. Cut to her rushing back to the dressing room and breaking down in floods of tears because she was so overwhelmed. 

That wasn’t actually the first encounter she’d had with Styles either as she previously got to interview him and his fellow bandmates for Teen Vogue back in 2014. “I had a popular Twitter page when I was like 13 and I decided I wanted to become a child journalist and they [Teen Vogue] asked me to interview One Direction on their first trip to America… it was like the scariest thing in my life,” she admitted. 

“I couldn’t even say words. Like, they weren’t coming out,” she laughed. The trip down memory lane didn’t stop there and next up was a video of Maude in the elevator after seeing the boys in concert. No, not standing up, but sitting on the ground… crying, again. “Maude, you’re fine,” her little sister, Iris, can be heard scoffing.

I’d probably react the same way to meeting Harry Styles, to be fair.