It was weird having sex with Kate while her husband watched

LEONARDO DiCAPRIO could feel the tension as he prepared for a sex scene with KATE WINSLET on new movie Revolutionary Road.
For many actors, stripping off in front of a leading lady is embarrassing enough.

But imagine doing it with her husband just feet away.

Revolutionary Road director SAM MENDES is Kate’s other half and was looking on intently as the couple got ready for the cameras.

“Kate seemed very nervous,” recalls Leo with a smile. “She kept on saying, ‘This feels so weird.’ I just told her, ‘It doesn’t feel weird to me — it’s only acting.’

“Then Sam broke the tension by telling me how and where to hold Kate’s bottom. He said, ‘Put your hand here,’ showing me the position.

“After that, Kate just went for it, like the great actress she is. I can’t think of anyone in the world of her generation who is better.”

Leo says his special relationship with Kate goes back to the days of filming their 1997 blockbuster Titanic, when the young stars would both cry with the stress.

“The director, JIM CAMERON, had his own way of doing things and that was tough for us to get our heads around,” he recalls.

“That film had been his vision for years and he had to be in charge. We were young, inexperienced and were exhausted from filming.

Naked

“We only had each other and confided our feelings. It was never more than a close friendship — and that has lasted right up to today.

“Kate became one of my best friends and we’ve always been in touch. If we’ve not had a chance to meet, then we email each other.

“When I had the chance to work with her again on Revolutionary Road, I didn’t have to think twice.

“I knew the script and I knew the scenes we were going to do in front of Sam. I just didn’t think it was going to be a problem.”

The film, based on Richard Yates’s 1961 novel, is a hard-hitting emotional story from Fifties suburban America.

But it takes Leo, 34, and 33-year-old Kate’s on-screen relationship one step further than Titanic, as here they are cast as husband and wife.

Leo’s character enjoys being on the career ladder of a major New York insurance company.

But Kate wants him to ditch the security of a mundane life and live his dreams with her in Paris.

Their marriage, which starts with so much hope, begins to crumble as they fight over their future direction.

“I can’t imagine anyone I would sooner act with, pretending to have a marriage which is going nowhere,” Leo continues.

“The great thing about Kate is she can act a scene with such strength and conviction and you think, ‘My God, she is really mad at me.’ Then, the moment the scene is over, she goes back to being Kate. That takes a special talent and it’s why she is so much in demand.”

Leo also knows Kate is a favourite for Oscar success for both Revolutionary Road and her current film, The Reader.

She has also been nominated for Golden Globes for both roles.

Her shapely figure is once again the subject of much debate in The Reader, since she plays a woman in her mid-30s who seduces a 15-year-old boy in Berlin in 1958.

In a succession of frank sex scenes, her naked body is seen from every angle.

Her German co-star, DAVID KROSS, had only just celebrated his 18th birthday before filming.

Leo appeared in what is still probably Kate’s most famous sex scene — in the steamed-up car being transported in the hold of the Titanic.

So what does he think of sex on screen?

“There’s a place for it if the story is right,” he says. “In Revolutionary Road, it’s to show the couple’s intense relationship.

“But what you see on screen has nothing to do with how it is filmed. You are surrounded by cameras and a film crew. There is nothing in the slightest bit sexy about being filmed that way. They are scenes of movement and dialogue, like any others.”

But Leo — last seen in RIDLEY SCOTT’s thriller Body Of Lies — knows that Revolutionary Road could bring Oscar gold for them both. Kate has been nominated five times before without success and is hotly tipped for another nomination this year.

Leo, meanwhile, has been put forward three times, for What’s Eating Gilbert Grape (1993), The Aviator (2004) and Blood Diamond (2006).

When the five nominations for best actor are announced on January 22 — one month ahead of the ceremony — he is expected to be one of the favourites.

“If I say it would be an honour just to be nominated, that sounds false — even though it’s true,” he says, cautiously.

“But I feel some people are Oscar-hungry and I would not say that I am hungry for one. It’s not something I have to have in my life.”

This is a very different Leonardo DiCaprio to the one we saw 12 years ago, before the release of Titanic. Back then he was nervous, edgy and wondering what was about to hit him. Now, in the comfort of London’s Dorchester hotel, he is clearly at ease with himself.

Leo says: “Fame comes at a terrible price. After Titanic, I got stressed. I was suddenly being chased by paparazzi and my life was being turned over, on public display, without me having any control.

“If I did not talk, then people seemed to make up stuff anyway. One guy who I thought was a close friend started talking. It was a horrible experience.

Nervous

“I can’t say that I am in full control of it now, but I have accepted the price and have learned more how to deal with things.”

The star reveals he considered starring in Boogie Nights at around the same time as Titanic — a role which eventually went to MARK WAHLBERG.

“I did wonder whether I made the right decision,” he says.

“I was 22 and the attention was just intense. I went into my shell for a while, didn’t do any more films and tried to wait for it to go away. But it’s also important I don’t come across as if I am complaining in any way. I remember being told, ‘Don’t worry, it will calm down.’

“It has and now I can live my life very happily. I am enjoying my acting and enjoy being so busy. I have no complaints about anything.”

Leo also knows how to deal with questions on his personal life. “I prefer to avoid them,” he says.

So is there a chance that his three-year relationship with girlfriend BAR RAFAELI, a 23-year-old Israeli model, will end in marriage?

“It is always very hard to fit in my personal life with work during busy times,” he answers. “This has been a busy time.

“I find it is best to just get on with my life and let things like that take care of themselves.

“I made a decision early on in my career to retain my private life and not divulge too much about myself.”

So does Kate know more about him than most?

“Of course she does,” he says. “But she would never tell.”

Revolutionary Road (15) is out on January 30.