Leonardo DiCaprio has addressed the clip that sent social media into a frenzy after the 2026 Golden Globe Awards earlier this month.
The 51-year-old actor was caught on camera laughing and pulling animated facial expressions while talking to someone off-screen during the ceremony. The short video was later posted on the official Golden Globes TikTok account, where it quickly went viral.
Speaking to Deadline, the Titanic star clarified that he was simply chatting with “a friend.”
“It was directed to a friend, but at the end of the day, who knows if this other person I was talking to even wants me to mention their name?” he said. “So, as the lead character says in A Bronx Tale, I’m not a rat.”
There had been speculation about who DiCaprio was talking to, especially after actress Teyana Taylor suggested it might have been her. The two appear together in One Battle After Another, and she previously told Access Hollywood they had been discussing how her daughters, Junie and Rue, love the animated film KPop Demon Hunters.
However, Teyana later admitted on The Tonight Show that she realised DiCaprio had actually been speaking to someone else when the clip went viral.
“I was like, ‘You can’t be talking to me, were you talking to me?’ Because I already told people you was talking to me,” she joked to Jimmy Fallon. “So apparently he had two KPop Demon Hunters conversations that night. It was just in his mouth all night.”
She added playfully, “I had a little friendly jealousy. I was like, ‘Who else are you chewing your invisible gum with?’ That’s how we talk, with the animated gestures.”
According to Teyana, DiCaprio himself could not even remember who the other person was. “He was like, ‘I don’t even know,’” she said.
While the mystery may not be fully solved, DiCaprio has made one thing clear. The moment was just a private joke between friends that happened to be caught on camera.
