Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio Reveal Their Eerie Interactions With Brandon Lee, River Phoenix

Death is always a mysterious and difficult topic to tackle even among celebrities. Some people are forewarned of its arrival, while to others, it comes swiftly and without any warning. For instance, Brad Pitt recalled how his friend and fellow actor Brandon Lee predicted that he would die young, while Leonardo DiCaprio revealed how he tried but ultimately failed to talk to River Phoenix on the night he died.

Brad Pitt's Interaction With Brandon Lee

Just like other young actors, friends Pitt and Lee partied hard in the nineties. On one of those sometimes bizarre and drunk after-party conversations they had, Lee admitted to Pitt that he felt he might die young, just like his father, Bruce Lee.

“He drove a hearse and lived in Echo Park,” Brad Pitt recalled the time he spent with Lee. “We went out one night and everyone else had peeled off, and we ended up back at his place and it was like six in the morning. A real, you know, drunk and stony night, and he proceeded that night to tell me how he thought he was going to die young like his dad.”

However, Pitt did not give Lee’s ramblings much thought because they were drunk at that time. “And I just chalked it up to, you know, stony 6 a.m. talk,” Angelina Jolie’s ex-husband explained. “Then he got The Crow the next year.”

It turned out that Lee’s premonition was spot on. A freak accident while filming “The Crow” led to his demise. A defective blank went off and killed the 28-year-old actor in 1993. Brandon Lee died even younger than his martial arts master father. Bruce Lee was 32 when he died in 1973.

Leonardo DiCaprio's Encouter With River Phoenix

Meanwhile, DiCaprio has his own unusual story about how he tried to talk to Phoenix on the night he died. The incident happened on Oct. 31, 1993, at a party.

“All I ever wanted was to have just an opportunity to shake his hand,” DiCaprio recalled trying to get in touch with Phoenix. “And one night, at a party in Silver Lake, I saw him walk up a flight of stairs. And then the crowd got in my way, and I looked back and he was gone. I walked back up the stairs and back down, and I was like, ‘Where did he go?’” River Phoenix later died that night of a drug overdose.

The incident left a profound impression on DiCaprio. “It was almost as if — I don’t know how to describe it, but it’s this existential thing where I felt like ... he disappeared in front of my very eyes, and the tragedy that I felt afterward of having lost this great influence for me and all of my friends,” the actor said.

“The actor we all talked about. Just to be able to have that, always wanting to just — and I remember extending my hand out, and then ... Two people came in front and then I looked back, and then he wasn’t there,” he added.