Emma Stone reflects on receiving her Oscar from her childhood crush Leonardo DiCaprio

Winning accolades in your chosen profession can often be a confirmation of a job well done from your colleagues and peers.

But for Emma Stone, it was more than a dream come true when she heard her name announced as the winner of the Best Actress Oscar at the 89th Academy Awards in February 2017.

Looking back at that life-changing moment, the actress confessed on SiriusXM’s The Jess Cagle Show that she was thinking of her childhood crush when she made her way from her seat to the stage to accept her first golden trophy: ‘Leonardo DiCaprio.’   

And Stone had good reason to have DiCaprio on her mind, during such a monumental moment in her career, beyond just his immense talent and leading man good looks.

Fans might remember: The Revenant actor was actually the star who presented her with the Oscar for her role in La La Land as the crowd cheered her on at the Hollywood & Highland Center in Hollywood.

‘I’d seen Titanic seven and a half times in theaters. He was the love of my life,’ the actress, 32, revealed during her appearance on the show.

‘I had a picture of him in my bedroom that was signed, that I had gotten for my birthday when I was like 12 years old and I was walking to Leo and I was like, this is officially the most surreal moment of my life. I could not believe it.’

And even though more than four years have past since that ‘surreal’ night at the Oscars, the actress still hasn’t lost that childhood feeling she had for DiCaprio.

‘I think he probably thinks I’m like a little weird, cause whenever I see him, I’m kind of like, “Hey, how’s it going?” You know, just in little moments either at the same event or something,’ she added.

‘He’s very sweet though. But that was truly, that was what was the craziest experience was the fact that it was him.’

During her conversation with Cagle and co-host Julia Cunningham, Stone admitted she has elevated the Titanic star on some sort of celebrity pedestal, similar to how some fans have done to her during her career in the spotlight.

‘He’s very tall. And he’s so lovely, but you know, it’s, it’s kind of unfair because it’s something that I don’t, I don’t really believe in that much. The idea that you like term real people into, like this other idea – that’s always been so, so odd to me in my own experience,’ she explained.

‘Like, it just feels so weird. So I am doing that to him and that’s not really fair because he’s like a real person and I’m sitting there going like, “hi Leo” I’m like, I’m still 12 years old.’ 

Stone, who has also received Best Supporting Actress nominations for both Birdman (2014) and The Favourite (2018), also made a point of acknowledging the impact DiCaprio has had on her in regards to his stellar career in front of the camera.  

‘It was the fact that it was someone that I had grown up watching and that I admired so much. And like as an actor, I think he’s fantastic. And I’d watched him in everything,’ the Arizona native continued.

‘And then that moment where it’s… such a surreal moment as an actor anyway. So it just compounded it. And I don’t know, it’s it still feels like it, it didn’t really, occur because, because it was him there.’

Stone would again discuss her childhood idea of DiCaprio as a massive Hollywood star, and how irrational that relationship between star and young fan can be, with the hosts of the show.

‘Like nobody’s any different than anybody, but it is, you get, he’s stuck in my head as Jack Dawson. He just always will be,’ Stone said as she beamed with admiration, just like her 12-year-old self.