It’s one of the most eagerly awaited TV series of 2023, with fans of the bestselling book Daisy Jones & The Six waiting four long years since the adaptation was first announced to air. With the miniseries in full swing on Amazon Prime, fans are feverishly stalking the new cast members dominating the silver screen.
At the top of their Instagram search bars is breakout star Camila Morrone, who until now has largely been known as Leonardo DiCaprio’s ex-girlfriend of four years. However, that’s soon about the change with the Argentine-American model turned actress already wowing viewers.
Taking on the role of Camila Dunne, the bubbly and loving wife of the fictional band The Six’s frontman Billy Dunne, many are calling Morrone the next Hollywood It girl. From having Al Pacino as her step dad, to being invited to Adele’s birthday party, here’s how Morrone rose to stardom.
Her disjointed childhood and A-list connections
Morrone is the daughter of two Argentine immigrant actors, Lucila Solá and Maximo Morrone, and grew up in Los Angeles. According to an interview with WWD, watching her parents struggle with how unreliable the industry can be gave her a realistic understanding of what to expect. Her father even tried to push her into safer, more traditional jobs, but her mother always encouraged her to pursue her passion for acting.
“I saw them struggle their whole lives to be financially independent actors, and seeing them go through that, I was kind of turned off to it,” Morrone told the Los Angeles Times. “There was so much angst around acting, and it was such a topic of conversation — never knowing where your next paycheck is going to come from. I thought: ‘I’m going to go to college. I’m going to have a normal 9-to-5 job.’ And of course, I ended up exactly like them.”
Unfortunately, her parents divorced at a young age, which meant Morrone lived everywhere from the West Side to the Valley. “I was never able to have a base anywhere or a solid, consistent group of friends. That was hard for me. Growing up, I had a little bit of jealousy toward the kids that had known each other since pre-K,” she told The Cut earlier this month.
She said that this constant upheaval helped to prepare her for the ad hoc world of Hollywood. “It is what prepared me for the lifestyle of a nomad, picking up and relocating, and picking up and relocating, which I actually enjoy because it makes me feel like a citizen of the world,” she said.
Her mother married Hollywood legend Al Pacino, who is considered one of the most influential actors of the 20th century. Having received an Academy Award, two Tony Awards, and two Primetime Emmy Award with roles in The Godfather, Dog Day Afternoon and Heat, he is one of the few people to receive the triple crown of acting accolades.
From modelling for Vogue Turkey to landing her first film
Before getting into acting, Morrone signed to IMG in 2015. She made her runway debut at Moschino’s 2017 resort show and appeared in huge campaigns for Coach, Topshop and Loewe.
She told the LA Times that balancing modelling and acting can be challenging. "I felt so ashamed of my modelling history when I first got into acting, so I tried to hide that part of my life, because I didn’t want to be looked at as too sexy for a role,” she explained. “I’ve heard, ‘Oh, she’s not homey-looking,’ or ‘too voluptuous’ or — I don’t want to say sexy, because then I sound like I think of myself that way — which I don’t — but that’s often times it.”
Her first acting role was in James Franco’s 2013 film Bukowski. She has also starred in Indie films such as Death Wish, Micky and the Bear and Augustine Frizzell’s directorial debut Never Goin’ Back, which premiered at Sundance in 2018.
Her role in Daisy Jones & The Six is her first major international release. “This is my first global press tour, so to hear from all my family and friends who have seen it and been posing in front of it is surreal,” she told The Hollywood Reporter recently. “My chiropractor sent me a photo of the billboard!”
That relationship with a certain mega famous somebody
Like her role in the upcoming Amazon series, Daisy Jones & The Six, where she plays a woman overshadowed by her husband’s stardom, Morrone once famously dated noughties hearthrob DiCaprio for four years.
According to a source in Us Weekly, they first started “hooking up” in December 2017.
Although the pair remained low-key throughout their relationship, we got glimpses into their January 2018 Aspen vacation thanks to leaked paparazzi shots. There was also their April 2019 Coachella trip, where the pair were spotted making out backstage.
After skipping the Golden Globes and Screen Actors Guild Awards, Morrone and DiCaprio made their debut public appearance on the Oscars front row in 2020. DiCaprio was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. The relationship continued to go from strength to strength during the pandemic, with the couple isolating together the whole time.
He is usually very independent, spends lots of time with friends. But because of the lockdown, he mostly spent time with Morrone. He loves being with her," a source told People. "Leo has spent 24/7 with Camila for months at his house."
Another source told Entertainment Tonight in December 2020: "They are very in love. Camila is his dream girl.
“She’s young, sweet, simple and it’s easy because she gets along well with his family and he gets along great with hers too. They’ve known each other for ever and it just works."
Still, the relationship received a lot of unwanted attention thanks to their controversial 23-year age gap, which Morrone herself was forced to discuss. “[There are] so many relationships in Hollywood — and in the history of the world — where people have large age gaps,” Camila told the Los Angeles Times. “I just think anyone should be able to date who they want to date.” However, she admitted: “I probably would be curious about it too.”
The pair split last September — just after she turned 25 — which sent the internet into a tizz over the theory that DiCaprio can’t date anybody over the age of 25.
A source told In Touch about the break-up: “Leo and Camila have had a few breaks in the past few months. It’s a matter of deciding whether they are in it for the long haul or just going to let it die.
“With all of Leo’s girlfriends, once she became focused on work and had her own priorities, he got distant. Rather than have dramatic break-ups, they took time apart.”
With nearly four million followers, a friendship group which includes Hailey Baldwin, Elsa Hosk and Martha Hunt (she even said during a recent appearance on The Late Show with James Corden that she was invited to Adele’s birthday party) and a blossoming career, it’s safe to say Morrone has plenty of her own stuff to focus on.
