text: By Brian Hiatt 
   
   The following is an excerpt of an article from the August 5, 2010 issue of Rolling Stone. This issue is available now on newstands, as well online via All Access, Rolling Stone’s premium subscription plan. 
   
   What DiCaprio really sweats is the small stuff. As he prepares to head home one night, he gives himself a ritual pat-down: "Phone in my hand, cigar case in my hand, wallet and car keys there," he mumbles, ever so slightly evoking his performance as Howard Hughes in The Aviator. His stomach churns over "really stupid stuff, things that shouldn't make you anxious whatsoever. It's crazy how your mind will become this database to make you worry about things that are so arbitrary. I have a well-organized life, and I've put a lot of thought into the things that I do, and then, you know my stomach will be... I'll just be sitting there, totally anxious about something ridiculous. You have to stop yourself during the day and say, 'It's just not worth it.'" 
   
   To read this story in full and hear DiCaprio talk more about his career, love life, and the nightmares that keep him up at night, you must be a subscriber to All Access. Already a subscriber? Continue on to The Archives. Not a member and want to learn more? Go to our All Access benefits page. ||||| Hot off the success of his new sci-fi thriller Inception, Leonardo DiCaprio opened up to Rolling Stone magazine in their upcoming issue about his personal anxieties, his wild youth and the premature deaths of his childhood peers – and RadarOnline.com has the inside scoop. 
   
   Underneath his confident movie star exterior, DiCaprio admits that he stresses just as much as the rest of us. “”[My stomach churns over] really stupid stuff,” says Leo, currently playing a skilled thief who steals secrets from deep inside people’s subconscious while they are sleep. 
   
   “Things that shouldn’t make you anxious whatsoever. It’s crazy how your mind will become this database to make you worry about things that are so arbitrary…I’ll just be sitting there, totally anxious about something ridiculous.” 
   
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   The 35-year-old actor, who was catapulted to fame in 1997’s record-breaking hit Titanic, admits that he “got to be wild and nuts” for a couple of years following its phenomenal success. 
   
   “I didn’t suffer as much as people do now, where they have to play it so safe that they ruin their credibility. I didn’t care what anyone thought…It was also about avoiding the tornado of chaos, of potential downfall,” he told the magazine in the exclusive interview. 
   
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   While he enjoyed the Hollywood lifestyle and club scene, Leo says avoided the “tornado of chaos, of potential pitfalls,” unlike some of his acting peers. 
   
   “It was, ‘Wow, how lucky are we to not have hung out with that crowd or done those things?’” 
   
   Sadly, fellow young stars Jonathan Brandis and River Phoenix weren’t so fortunate. 
   
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   “My two main competitors in the beginning, the blond-haired kids I went to audition with, one hung himself and the other died of a heroin overdose…” reveals DiCaprio. “I was never into drugs at all. There aren’t stories of me in a pool of my own vomit in a hotel room on the Hollywood Strip.” 
   
   On a lighter note, the heartthrob says his breakout role was a surprising roadblock in his romantic life. “I had better success meeting girls before Titanic. My interactions with them didn’t have all the stigma behind it, not to mention there wasn’t a perception of her talking to me for only one reason.” 
   
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   The new issue of Rolling Stone hits newsstands nationwide on Friday.
target: – Leonardo DiCaprio is the new cover boy for Rolling Stone, and the magazine has snippets of its interview: Dating: "I had better success meeting girls before Titanic. My interactions with them didn't have all the stigma behind it, not to mention there wasn’t a perception of her talking to me for only one reason." Growing up: "I was essentially a dwarf with the biggest mouth in the world. I would talk back to anyone and be up for any fight." Nerves: "(My stomach churns over) really stupid stuff. Things that shouldn't make you anxious whatsoever. It's crazy how your mind will become this database to make you worry about things that are so arbitrary." Wilder days: "I got to be wild and nuts, and I didn't suffer as much as people do now, where they have to play it so safe that they ruin their credibility." Drugs: "My two main competitors in the beginning, the blond-haired kids I went to audition with, one hung himself and the other died of a heroin overdose... . I was never into drugs at all. There aren’t stories of me in a pool of my own vomit in a hotel room on the Hollywood Strip." (Radar says he's speaking of Jonathan Brandis and River Phoenix.)