BORIS Johnson has revealed how he was snubbed by Hollywood superstar Leonardo DiCaprio in Glasgow.
It may seem unlikely the Titanic star and the then prime minister would be in the city together but their paths did cross – and it left Johnson’s ego deflated.
Johnson was prime minister when Glasgow hosted COP26 in 2021 and he tells of the bizarre encounter in his new book.
He wrote of spotting DiCaprio, who was also attending the summit due to his interest in conservation through the foundation he set up in his own name.
In the book, Johnson wrote: “He was 10 yards away, striding towards me down the prefab corridor, right here in the convention centre where the world leaders had come together to stop the world from being fried.
“He was getting closer. Yes, he seemed to have some business with us, little old us, the UK Presidency of the UN Conference on Climate Change, known as COP26. What could he want?”
It turned out the Oscar-winning actor’s business with the prime minister was pretty basic.
Johnson continued: “Mr DiCaprio was in need of the gentlemen’s conveniences. They understood this was the Presidency Suite. Did we possess the necessary amenities?
“‘It would be an honour’ we said and without further ado, the megastar marched past us in search of the bogs.”
But the prime minister hatched a plan he thought would earn him serious kudos with the female members of the staff.
He wrote: “The adjoining room was our nerve centre, full of overworked and brilliant young women. They had heard that DiCaprio was in the vicinity and were excited.
“Could Mr DiCaprio perhaps say hi to the team? Just share a few photons of his astral radiance.
“So, I tried him out as he eventually emerged and hastened past.”
The old Etonian recalled his clumsy efforts at banter with one of Hollywood’s biggest names. He decided to throw movie lines at him like a starstruck fan channelling DiCaprio’s role as Danny Archer in Blood Diamond.
He said it was a “cult movie in my family and we knew the lines off by heart”.
Johnson wrote: “As he quickened his pace, I found myself speaking in a thick South African accent and quoting some of his greatest lines.
“At the sound of the UK PM impersonating DiCaprio impersonating a South African gunrunner the film star checked his stride, he looked at me appraisingly.”
“'I will see you later my friend,' he said and stalked off.
DiCaprio had delivered his own killer line and left Johnson crestfallen, outside the toilets in a prefab makeshift corridor at the SEC on the banks of the River Clyde.
Johnson later ruminated on the exchange: “It is a comment on the way the world works that had I asked Biden, Macron, Modi or Merkel or any one of the 120 global leaders in Glasgow they would of course have said yes, at the drop of a hat.
“That is just what we politicians do because we are here today gone tomorrow glow worms by comparison with a supernova like DiCaprio.”
Then he returned to the juvenile humour that he can display in contrast to the high offices he has held.
He concluded his tale of his brush with screen stardom: “We would survive without DiCaprio’s encouragement, though we decided in view of his substantial spell in the presidency bogs we would rename him Leonardo DiCrapio.”
