One minute you’re Leonardo DiCaprio, casually enjoying a nice caged swim in South Africa. Then you’re Leonardo DiCaprio casually enjoying a nice caged swim in South Africa while a hungry great white shark suddenly tries to eat you. Such is the life of a god, one supposes.
Speaking at great length about his variety of near-death experiences with Wired, DiCaprio broke this shark story all the way down. "If a cat has nine lives, I think I’ve used a few," DiCaprio boasts. "I mean, there was the shark incident." Per DiCaprio’s account, the Great Leonardo DiCaprio Shark Incident goes something like this:
A great white jumped into my cage when I was diving in South Africa. Half its body was in the cage, and it was snapping at me. They leave the tops open and you have a regulator line running to the surface. Then they chum the water with tuna. A wave came and the tuna sort of flipped up into the air. A shark jumped up and grabbed the tuna, and half its body landed inside the cage with me. I sort of fell down to the bottom and tried to lie flat. The great white took about five or six snaps an arm’s length away from my head. The guys there said that has never happened in the 30 years they’d been doing it.
In the same breath, DiCaprio then dives into a story about watching something explode while on a plane:
I was in business class, and an engine blew up in front of my eyes. It was right after “Sully” Sullenberger landed in the Hudson. I was sitting there looking out at the wing, and the entire wing exploded in a fireball. I was the only one looking out at the moment this giant turbine exploded like a comet. It was crazy. They shut all the engines off for a couple of minutes, so you’re just sitting there gliding with absolutely no sound, and nobody in the plane was saying anything. It was a surreal experience. They started the engines back up, and we did an emergency landing at JFK.
Perhaps sensing that two terrifying stories proving your own awesomeness simply wouldn't be enough, DiCaprio also discussed why exactly he no longer chooses to engage in the seemingly ridiculous pastime known as skydiving. Peep the full interview here.
For additional Leonardo DiCaprio amazingness, be sure to catch The Revenant later this month, a presumably Oscar-level film that most certainly doesn't include any troubling bear behavior.
