How Teyana Taylor, Leonardo DiCaprio ‘Instantly Became’ Best Friends

In their new movie, Teyana Taylor and Leonardo DiCaprio fall in love. In real life, they were instant besties.

During a chat with The New York Times alongside some of their One Battle After Another costars published Monday, Sept. 8, Taylor, 34, and DiCaprio, 50, shared that their friendship long precedes their time working together on the new action-thriller — and revealed where their unexpected meet-cute took place.

When asked how he brought Taylor on board to play Perfidia in the Paul Thomas Anderson-directed flick, DiCaprio told the outlet, “I’ve known Teyana for a long time.”

“Paul and I were talking about who would play this lightning rod of a character that was a radical but also somebody that was able to manipulate,” the Titanic star continued. “The echoes of her character reverberate throughout the entire movie, and every character is emotionally scarred by Perfidia.”

“So we knew we needed to get somebody that could be not only bold and outspoken, but bring that improvisational talent of truth in the moment,” the star added. And one person in particular kept coming up in conversation, he said.

DiCaprio and Anderson “just kept on talking about our girl Teyana,” the former told The New York Times. “She just embodied that character in a way that I don’t think anyone else could. We’re all left as carnage after she comes onscreen, picking up the pieces of our lives.”

Taylor then chimed in, revealing that she and DiCaprio’s connection was quite sudden, cementing them as “best buds” long before they appeared on-screen together.

“Funny thing: Me and Leo actually met at Diana Ross’s birthday party some years back and instantly became best buds,” the musician-actress said. “That’s my wingman, my partner in crime!”

In One Battle After Another, DiCaprio plays Bob, a “washed-up revolutionary” existing “in a state of stoned paranoia” and “surviving off-grid” with daughter Willa (Chase Infiniti), an official synopsis teases. He shares the teen with Perfidia (Taylor), whom he fell in love with during their time as revolutionaries.

Regina Hall plays fellow revolutionary Deandra, per The New York Times. Meanwhile, Sean Penn plays Bob’s “evil nemesis,” according to the synopsis.

The trailer for the film teases that Perfidia was apprehended by law enforcement prior to the start of the movie’s events, leaving Bob and Willa to go on the run and seek refuge with an ally, portrayed by Benicio del Toro.

“The pivotal two forces in this movie,” DiCaprio told The New York Times, “are part of Paul’s imagination, but I think they’re an analogy of where we’ve become as a society and how we have stopped listening to one another, and how these characters thinking or acting in these extremes can bring a lot of hurt.”

One Battle After Another, which also stars Wood Harris and Alana Haim, marks Anderson’s first new movie since Licorice Pizza. The 2021 film, starring Haim, received three Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay.

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One Battle After Another is in theaters Sept. 26.