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Leonardo DiCaprio is, without a doubt, one of the biggest names in Hollywood today. He is also notoriously private, so little is known about the star beyond the bare basics — and his history of dating women much younger than his age. DiCaprio hit the milestone age of 50 last year and is approaching his 51st birthday in November. While some might scoff at the age gap between DiCaprio and his girlfriends, it turns out he doesn’t feel as old as his age betrays.

Recently, Esquire got DiCaprio and equally private director Paul Thomas Anderson to open up some by recording their conversations. It was an intimate look at two of the film industry’s most mysterious figures.

Leonardo DiCaprio revealed he actually feels 32.

Through the course of DiCaprio and Anderson discussing their new film and first collaboration, “One Battle After Another,” Anderson posed an interesting question to DiCaprio. 

“I’m going to ask you a question, and you’re going to answer as quickly as you can,” he said. “If you didn’t know how old you are, how old are you right now?” DiCaprio answered without hesitation: “32.” 

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“Here’s a question Esquire wants me to ask,” Anderson continued. “‘You turned 50 last year. Does it feel like a natural time for reflection?’” He then amended the original question: “‘Your age is 50, but your emotional maturity is 32.’ How does that feel?”

DiCaprio had a well-thought-out answer. “Well, it creates a feeling like you have a desire to just be more honest and not waste your time,” he stated. “I can only imagine how the next few decades are going to progress.”

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Feeling emotionally younger is actually a common phenomenon.

A 2006 study examined the phenomenon of “subjective age.” Study authors David C. Rubin, from Duke University, and Dorothe Berntsen, from the University of Aarhus in Denmark, surveyed 1,470 Danish adults between 20 and 97. They found that participants over the age of 40 felt 20% younger than they actually were.

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Jennifer Senior, a staff writer at The Atlantic, wrote about the subject for the outlet and addressed Rubin and Berntsen’s study. She asked her 76-year-old mother how old she felt, and she answered 45. As for Senior herself, she said, “I’m 53 in real life but suspended at 36 in my head, and if I stop my brain from doing its usual Tilt-A-Whirl for long enough, I land on the same explanation: At 36, I knew the broad contours of my life, but hadn’t yet filled them in.”

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This phenomenon seems to affect people of all ages.

In Reddit’s r/socialanxiety forum, a user made a post in which they confessed to being 25 but feeling around 18 to 20. A lot of commenters expressed similar sentiments. Some tried to determine if it was directly connected to having social anxiety or if it was just a general feeling. “Maybe everyone feels that way but most people just don’t talk about it,” someone said.

Despite many Redditors saying they actually were fairly young, no more than in their 30s, and still felt younger, Rubin and Berntsen found the opposite to be true of their participants. They concluded that people below the age of 25 generally had older subjective ages.

Personally, this makes sense. I’m a little past 25, but I would still say I feel mentally older than I actually am — an old soul, as Senior put it. Healthline writer Crystal Raypole said that being an old soul can have several meanings depending on your beliefs. To some, it describes someone who went through traumatic experiences as a child and had to grow up quickly. To those who believe in reincarnation, it means they believe the soul has lived many different lives. And to others, it simply refers to feeling older than your actual age.

If you’re like DiCaprio, and you feel younger than you actually are, there may be more benefits than thinking you can go for an extra mile on your next hike. Another study published in the Association for Psychological Science’s journal concluded that those with younger subjective ages had improved health and well-being, as well as lower mortality rates. 

Although we all may have a certain date on our birth certificates, perhaps age really is nothing more than just a number. We all experience aging and feel it differently, so why should we be so confined by it?

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Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer with a bachelor’s degree in English and Journalism who covers news, psychology, lifestyle, and human interest topics.