Young Actresses Told To Sleep With Leonardo DiCaprio To Further Career?
Mischa Barton says her publicist told her to sleep with Leonardo DiCaprio when she was 19 to further her Hollywood career.
BuzzFeed News recently reported on some shocking comments star Mischa Barton heard from her publicist when she was first breaking out in Hollywood. An old interview with Harpers and Queen (now Harper’s Bazaar) was dug up, where Barton said her publicist at the time told her to sleep with Leonardo DiCaprio to further her career. According to the interview, Barton and her publicist Craig Schneider saw Leo at a photo shoot in Malibu, leading Schneider to say, “For the sake of your career, go sleep with that man.”
This is definitely pretty gross to say to anyone, especially someone as young as Mischa Barton was at the time. When her publicist suggested that Barton sleep with Leonardo DiCaprio, she was only 19. Obviously, it doesn’t seem like Leo knew this conversation even happened, but it’s sad to think how many young Hollywood actresses might have taken suggestions like this to heart.
Fortunately, Mischa Barton didn’t feel the pressure to go through with this proposition, and she simply said that she wasn’t interested in dating older men like Leonardo DiCaprio. Leo was 31 at the time of the interview and had just broken up with Gisele Bundchen, whom he started dating in 1999. When their relationship started, Leo was 24, and Bundchen was 18.
Mischa Barton started out in Hollywood as a child actress, eventually breaking through into the mainstream with her role in the hugely popular show The O.C. In 2005, The O.C. would have been in its second season, and Barton was a well-known name at this point. Meanwhile, Leonardo DiCaprio would have been fresh off his role as Howard Hughes in Scorcese’s The Aviator.
Mischa Barton may have thought that Leonardo DiCaprio’s 10-year age gap was too significant for her to be interested, but Leo’s dating habits have been exclusively women at least 10 years younger than him for a while now. Leo has come under fire lately due to his tendency to date women over two decades younger than him. Charts tracking his dating habit even show a trend where Leo never dates a woman past the age of 25.
As mentioned, Mischa Barton was hit with this disgusting proposition by her publicist right after Leonardo DiCaprio broke up with Gisele Bundchen. Since the end of that relationship, Leo has had numerous high-profile relationships with celebs like Bar Refaeli, Blake Lively, Victoria’s Secret model Erin Heatherton, Kelly Rohrbach, Nina Agdal, Camila Morrone, and more. Most recently, Leo has been linked to 19-year-old model Eden Polani.
Although a relationship with Polani has not been confirmed, Leonardo DiCaprio has been photographed spending time with her on multiple occasions. Social media users quickly pointed out the major age discrepancy between the 19-year-old and the now 48-year-old Leonardo DiCaprio. The BuzzFeed news article also points out how this age gap would be like The Last of Us‘ Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey dating or Stranger Things‘ David Harbour and Millie Bobbie Brown dating.
Leo has also been linked to Gigi Hadid recently, who is 27. As for Mischa Barton, you can see her next in the upcoming film Invitation to a Murder. Leonardo DiCaprio’s next project will be Scorcese’s Killers of the Flower Moon.
