America Ferrera's Story About Meeting Leonardo DiCaprio is Too Relatable
"I promptly departed him and went around the corner and just started weeping."
Even Oscar-nominated stars aren't immune to being starstruck—just ask America Ferrera.
The Barbie actress appeared on Late Night with Seth Meyers this week to talk about the Best Picture nominee, as well as the various awards show functions she's been attending this season. After recounting that she was in awe of meeting Martin Scorsese recently, Ferrera recounted the time she met Leonardo DiCaprio, all the way back in 2007.
The Superstore star shared that for her, it's more "embarrassing" to meet another A-lister whom she "had a childhood connection to." And as a millennial, of course she had a childhood connection to the Titanic star.
As Ferrera explained, she met DiCaprio at the Screen Actors Guild Awards in 2007, where she won a SAG award for Ugly Betty. "I watched Titanic in the movie theaters seven times. Thirteen, 14, prime time to be in love with Leonardo DiCaprio, right?" she said to Meyers. "So at the first time I went to the SAG Awards, and I had won for Ugly Betty, I had been onstage and the whole thing... I was feeling kind of like, I belong here, this is cool. And then Leonardo DiCaprio was there, and I said hello to him. And I promptly departed him and went around the corner and just started weeping."
Ferrera added that she was with her now-husband, Ryan Piers Williams, at the time, who was "so embarrassed" that she was crying after the encounter.
She shouldn't be embarrassed, though—she's far from the first celebrity to get emotional after meeting one of her idols. At the 2024 Golden Globes, Brie Larson cried while meeting Jennifer Lopez on the red carpet. No matter how many awards you take home, the shell-shock of meeting your favorite stars never gets old.
