America Ferrera’s Reaction to Meeting Leonardo DiCaprio Left Her Husband ‘So Embarrassed’
America Ferrera and Leonardo DiCaprio
America Ferrera had quite the emotional reaction to meeting Leonardo DiCaprio for the first time at an awards show.
The Barbie actress recalled the years-ago meeting during an appearance last week on Late Night with Seth Meyers. Ferrera, who has attended several events in support of Barbie this awards show season, discussed with host Seth Meyers how it feels to meet actors and directors she grew up idolizing when she brought up the Titanic star.
“I watched Titanic in the movie theaters seven times,” Ferrera, 39, said. Being a teenager when the blockbuster first hit theaters was the “prime time to be in love with Leonardo DiCaprio, right?” she asked Meyers.
Ferrera recalled attending the Screen Actors Guild Awards years ago and winning for her starring role in the comedic drama TV show Ugly Betty. She started to feel “like I belong here,” she said, when DiCaprio appeared.
Related: Mario Lopez Is All Of Us Fanboying Over Leonardo DiCaprio at the Golden Globes
“And then Leonardo DiCaprio was there, and I said hello to him,” Ferrera said. After greeting him, Ferrera said she “promptly” walked away and “went around the corner and just started weeping.”
Her reaction to meeting DiCaprio surprised her then-boyfriend, Ryan Piers Williams, who has since become her husband.
"He was like, ‘I am so embarrassed right now,’” Ferrera recalled. “I was like, ‘But it’s Leonardo!’”
It appeared to comfort the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants actress to learn that, as she had with DiCaprio, Meyers broke down in tears shortly after he first met Julia Roberts.
Years after that initial meeting, Ferrera and DiCaprio both found themselves in Academy Award-nominated films this awards show season. Ferrera received her first-ever Oscars nomination in the best supporting actress category for playing Gloria in Barbie. While DiCaprio was not nominated this year for his role in Killers of the Flower Moon, the Martin Scorsese-directed film is up for Best Picture.
