DiCaprio, along with his father, George, appear in Paul Thomas Anderson’s new coming of age film “Licorice Pizza.”

Leonardo DiCaprio and his father, George DiCaprio are sharing the big screen for the first-time in Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Licorice Pizza”, a coming-of-age film.

The senior DiCaprio (78), plays an eccentric hippie who runs a waterbed shop in the movie. It is set in California’s San Fernando Valley during the 1970s. Anderson stars as Anderson’s wife Maya Rudolph, who was a former star of “Saturday Night Live”.

It is fascinating to read about how the elder DiCaprio became a writer and performer. Buchanan, a New York Times reporter, spoke with Anderson to share excerpts from their conversation on Twitter. He also revealed the secret to DiCaprio’s starring role.

Anderson essentially conjured up DiCaprio-like characters, as he tells it. “I imagined a man who owned a wig store that sold these waterbeds. I couldn’t find the right person to put it in my head. “Who am I to say that someone looks like me?” He said.

He continued, “And like lightning, I recall, like, Leo’s father looks exactly like this.'” So I reached out to him and asked him if he was interested in appearing in a movie. He replied, “Yes.”

Anderson’s hippie character was a resemblance to the Oscar winner’s father, but Anderson didn’t realize it.

He said, “I explained the situation to him. He replied, “Sounds great. Leo, did you know that I was the owner of a waterbed company? Anderson recalled it was called Foggy Bottom.”

Anderson saw the coincidence as a sign that he had made wise casting choices.

It was one of those things. “I said, “Well, you’re the man for the job!” He said.

Leonardo DiCaprio (47) has previously said that his father encouraged him to pursue his acting ambitions.

In 2016, the star said to Parade: “My father always told me that I should go out there and do whatever I want. It doesn’t matter if you succeed or not. Just have an interesting life.”