Leonardo DiCaprio "always gets nervous" on his first day on a movie set.

The 50-year-old actor felt anxious before he started shooting new motion picture One Battle After Another, because he had been looking forward to working with director Paul Thomas Anderson for "the longest time" - but by lunchtime on day one his nerves had disappeared.

Speaking to Variety at the movie's Hollywood premiere, he said: "I always get nervous first day, really.

"But by lunch, I've kind of locked it in, because, you know, you're on film, you don't have time to be nervous.

"This is a director I've wanted to work with for the longest time."

While DiCaprio had plenty of nervous excitement about appearing in One Battle After Another, he would've starred in "any movie" proposed by Paul.

Speaking about Anderson, DiCaprio said: "He's such a unique, original visionary, and I know this was a movie he's been thinking about for the last 20 years.

"And anytime you get somebody that's really trying to do a massive spectacle odyssey that is such a unique filmmaker like Paul, you have to jump at the opportunity.

"To tell you the truth, I would have done any movie that he proposed, because he's that unique and interesting of a filmmaker and great.

"But I'm glad I got to do this one."

In the action thriller, DiCaprio portrays disheveled ex-revolutionary Bob Ferguson, who "sits home and smokes pot all the time", and the star took inspiration from Jeff Bridges' The Big Lebowski character The Dude for the part.

He added: "I took a lot of inspiration from The Dude.

"We did a lot of crazy stuff in this movie.

"But you know, that's the difference of what Paul does. It's different than everything else.

"He wants to see the dude fall. I fell, dude."