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Leo was leaning against the catering table, chatting with a production assistant with all the familiarity of an old friend. He described a lazy arc with one hand, saying something that quirked up his lips and the PA burst into laughter. It drew Joseph up short. Leonardo DiCaprio was not known as the joking sort. True, most of Joe's knowledge about him was from industry gossip and online interviews that he'd looked up on Youtube at 3 am after learning who his costars would be, but Leo seemed to have groomed himself carefully to be the very zenith of "Serious Actor". Joe understood the impulse and admired it—there were days he wish he could shake his child star and teen heartthrob image as well as Leonardo seemed to.
He probably stood there a few minutes too long, looking like a giant doof, because another PA came up to his elbow to ask him if he needed something that he didn't see. She seemed so earnest and worried that it shook him out of his reverie. He laughed, sheepish and hunched his shoulders at her, trying to look like an enigmatic actor, rather than the utter idiot he felt like he was, and headed towards the catering table. He was going to be working with Leonardo DiCaprio (Leonardo DiCaprio!) so he'd better get used to the guy.
"Hi," Joe said into a pause in the conversation. His voice stuck for a minute, and he licked his lips, not sure what else to say. "I'm Joseph. Gordon Levitt."
The smile downshifted a moment, as though Leo was trying to figure out what to make of him. "Oh good. Someone told me it was going to be Jonathan Taylor Thomas," he said after a thoughtful pause. Joseph couldn't decide whether to flinch, cry or laugh. Leo's lips quirked back into that little smile, though. "Normally, I insist on being the only blonde teen heart-throb."
Joe couldn't help the burst of laughter that bubbled out—part honest amusement and part relief. It wasn't that he didn't know Leonardo was a normal guy but anyone who so successfully re-invented himself (and was friends with Scorcese, holy crap) was a little intimidating. "Lucky for you," he said through the sudden, pleasant release of tension, "I'm a natural brunette."
"I remember the luscious locks," Leo said, half-turning to pick up an abandoned cup of coffee from the table. "It was a good look for you."
An embarrassed shock limned with amusement sparked its way up Joe's spine and he shoved his hands in his pockets again. "Oh god, I was twelve! You're not allowed to make fun of things I did when I was twelve unless I've known you for at least a week," he protested. But he found himself leaning against the table, reaching around Leo to grab an apple and shine it on his shirt.
Leo leaned in and plucked the apple from Joe's hand. He inspected the newly shiny fruit and took a bite, arching an eyebrow with sardonic amusement. After chewing and swallowing, Leo said, "I'll make sure to make fun of you more in a week, then." There was something about the dryly bemused expression that made Joe's cheeks heat up. Maybe Leo wasn't a teen heart-throb anymore, but that smile was doing a lot to make Joe's heart beat a bit faster.
"If you try, I'll dig up the old Tiger Beats with your pictures and give them to all the interns."
Leo licked a stray trickle of juice from his thumb and couldn't hold back a wider smile. "You still have Tiger Beats?"
Joe clenched his hands to keep from reflexively clapping them over his mouth. He couldn't believe he'd just let that slip—"My mom, she—" he started, and then faltered. "Maybe I just want to recall how pretty you were in your heyday." It was hard to meet Leo's gaze, but he forced himself to, and found the unnervingly bright blue gaze warm with mirth.
"That's okay then. I used some of those photos as headshots in my portfolio anyway." Joe snorted and reached to grab his apple back-- it might have a bite take out of it, but maybe he could sell Leonardo DiCaprio's half-eaten apple on eBay. Leo leaned away and tossed him another apple off the catering table. "In a week. Don't forget it."
"I'm looking forward to it," Joe said, although he wasn't entire certain he was.
- And that was why Joseph Gordon-Levitt's trailer was covered in Tiger Beat posters. It certainly had nothing to do with Ellen and me showing up on the lot at fuck-all in the morning with fifty Tiger Beats and a bucket of glue.
- Shut up, Tom.