14 DAY TRIAL // Proving that he's just as human as the guy sitting next to you on the bus, Leonardo DiCaprio spoke on the Ellen DeGeneres Show about his fear of sharks and his frightful encounter with one that almost cost him his life.
When you say Leonardo DiCaprio, you immediately think of great performances and great films, but what you don't think of is irrational fear of sharks.
Leonardo is suffering from a "deep fear" of sharks but remains nonetheless a great supporter of animal rights groups and deeply involved in preserving the world's endangered species.
However, he did get into a frightful encounter with a great white shark off the coast of Africa back in 2006, during a day off from filming “Blood Diamond.” He told Ellen, “I had a huge fear of sharks, and when I did Blood Diamond in 2006 I actually got stuck in a cage with a great white, which was awesome.”
“It was a gigantic great white... They actually said in 30 years this has never happened, but the tuna kind of got stuck on the top of the cage and the great white leaped out and tried to bite it and went into the cage with me,” the actor explains.
DiCaprio says that he was marked by the experience but is able to joke about it today, several years later after the incident. “Half of its body was in and (half was) out, and I flattened down at the bottom... It chomped a few times but I survived it... It was absolutely terrifying,” he recalled.