Leo Munches Caterpillar

The Beach star Leonardo Di Caprio has perfected a handy technique to fool viewers into believing he eats a caterpillar. Speaking to journalist Chris Heath in the February issue of The Face, Di Caprio also revealed that the script for The Beach was the first prospect after** Titanic** that he felt wouldn't 'bore' him. "I wanted to work, but I didn't want to do something that I felt was going to bore me, essentially". He says he liked the book of The Beach (by Alex Garland) because it 'spoke' for a generation. "And" he added, "it was a fascinating journey for this character who was basically going out to kind of not lead a robotic existence." Director Danny Boyle explained that he choose Di Caprio for the role of backpacker Richard based on Leo's turn in What's Eating Gilbert Grape, where Leo plays a disabled boy. "I have a disabled son", explained Boyle, "and the performance in Gilbert Grape, I'd never seen anything that accurate before about that kind of condition. When you see something like that, because it gets portrayed so badly everywhere...that was the thing for me." And the bug-consuming trickery? Despite Di Caprio's insistence that the caterpillar 'spun a web' in his mouth, Danny Boyle let it slip that the scene is clever sleight of hand on Di Caprio's part. He laughed, "No caterpillars were killed during the making of this film." the Beach is released on February 11 - preview the trailer at the Leo's official website.