Leonardo DiCaprio on growing up within drug infected L.A: 'I felt like this weird outsider'

Leonardo DiCaprio might have become a Hollywood hotshot now, but he came from 'drug infested' beginnings.

While others might consider DiCaprio’s start sad or traumatizing, the actor reportedly finds strength in his background and feels that it helped make it big as a star.

DiCaprio spilled the beans on his Tinseltown start during an interview with SAG-AFTRA, and was even quoted saying, “I was born in Cedars-Sinai, which is now the Scientology center, the old one on Sunset Boulevard.”

“And uh, I grew up in, uh in, on Hollywood and Western, which is kind of a well-documented area because it was uh, Bukowski’s safe haven where he’d sort of roam around and write. My father would also carry me around in a crib and run into Bukowski.”

The actor went on to say, “It was kind of a—my parents both came from New York and they had this postcard image of utopian Los Angeles in Hollywood." 

Making this change forced Dicaprio's family into the hub of drug addicts. "So that’s where I grew up, and then, later on, moved to Silver Lake and Los Feliz for a long period of time after that. But um, yeah, I always—I was—I’m from LA, born and raised here.…”

“… As I’ve said many times before, I never felt like I was a part of the uh, Hollywood system. I always felt like this weird outsider. And I think that if it weren’t for the fact that I had a mother that really took the time to listen to a kid that said, you know ‘I wanna do this for a living, this is what I know I want to do, this is my passion’—you know, 10, 11-year-old kid—“

He also added, “If it hadn’t been for her taking me to auditions in the sheer proximity of being—going to a school that accepted me in Beverly Hills, and then being able to drive to valley, or drive to, you know, Hollywood on the way back from school, I probably wouldn’t be doing this for a living. Because um, you know if I’d lived in any other location I don’t think my dream would have been a possibility.”

Dicaprio concluded by saying, “Well, you know, I think—to tell you the truth, I think that, you know, it’s a combination of, you know, being in the right place at the right time, and being prepared for it, and being aggressive about it, and sticking with it, you know…”