Nick Grimshaw has admitted he once had an awkward experience when interviewing acting legend Leonardo DiCaprio.

The former Radio 1 anchor is the latest guest on the podcast How To Fail, where he reflected on some of the celebrities he spoke to during his stint presenting the breakfast show to host Elizabeth Day.

“I cringe at some of them because if it was someone, like, our age, I’d be unprepared and they’d expect it,” he admitted.

“So, if you were interviewing a member of One Direction or Katy Perry or Adele, they’re like your friends. You’d be like, ‘what have you been up to?’. And then they’d be like, ‘not much. What have you been up to?’. You’d be like, ‘Ooh, don’t you have a song out?’ And they’d be like, ‘yeah’ and then that was it.

“I cringe that that would be the interview that I’d be doing with people who were like Denzel Washington. Or I’d go and interview actual movie stars with that level of prep, like not watch the film. But it was of the time.”

He continued: “I remember interviewing Leonardo DiCaprio – and I can’t remember why we did this, but there was some question where it was like, ‘what would you do if you could have one wish?’, I guess it was in a film about wishes or something – and he was like, ‘oh, to save all the whales or something’.”

Unfortunately for Grimmy, he wasn’t aware of Leo’s passion for environmental causes, and found himself “hysterically laughing” at the Oscar winner’s answer.

“I said, ‘no, what would you do?’ and he was like, ‘well, yeah, I’d do that and save the rainforest’,” he recalled. “And I was like, ’lol, what would you do, though?’. I didn’t know he was like a massive environmentalist.

“So that was pretty bad. There were things like that, where I was like, ‘they’re definitely not coming back’.”

Grimmy left the Radio 1 breakfast show in 2018, and parted ways with the station altogether three years later.

Last month, it was revealed he’d be taking over at the helm of the BBC’s Radio 6 Music breakfast show, having previously filled in for his predecessor Lauren Laverne while she received treatment for cancer.

Nick Grimshaw’s full interview with How To Fail is available to listen to here.