‘Leo Di Caprio helped me pull’: Gardener found love after landing job as star’s body double

A FORMER landscape gardener from south east London met the girl of his dreams
working as Leonardo DiCaprio's body double in The Revenant.

Christopher Hickson, 31, was plucked from obscurity after blowing away casting
directors with his uncanny resemblance to Oscar nominated Leo.

He was initially asked to try on prosthetics for the film's famous bear
mauling scene because director Alejandro Inarritu and makeup artist Sian
Grigg wanted to see how they would look on a human.

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It went so well that Chris was made Leo's official body double and soon found
himself jetting off to Canada for the 9-month shoot.

While on location Chris met pretty Canadian model Vanessa Fulton, 28, who was
working in a bar.

He told Sun Online: "I remember me sitting there with Arthur Redcloud,
who is one of the actors that befriends Leo's character in the movie, and
overhearing her saying to a couple of guys about Leo and the fact that he
was in town.

"It put a right grin on my face because I thought she's not going to
believe what I'm going to say next as a kind of a pickup line.

"But I basically ushered her over and said: 'What were you discussing
over there?' "

"She said: 'I was just talking about Leo.'

"I said: 'Oh, really, what about Leo?"

"She replied: ''Oh you know how hot he is, he's in town, I'd like to
stumble across him, maybe meet him..."

"So I said: 'Well this could be your lucky day, I work with him!' "

He continued: "From there we exchanged giggles and ended up going out
that night and I've not really spent a day away from her since.

"She came here for Christmas where we had three weeks in London and have
recently come back from a holiday in the Bahamas together."

Chris kept his word and Vanessa DID get to meet Leo.

He said: "I have to thank Leo. He landed me love."

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Chris continued: "Despite how it started she does love me for me. She
wasn't just totally besotted with Leo and I couldn't be happier."

He added: "This film will always mean a lot to me - because it was how I
met Vanessa.

"But it was crazy for lots of reasons. We were combatting weather and
working long hours every day.

"But we had a lot of fun and me and Vanessa spent a lot of lovely time
together and shared a lot of moments."

Chris also worked as a body double for DiCaprio on Wolf Of Wall Street but
didn't get to meet him during the shoot.

Now they have got to know each other and it feels very weird. They even shared
a trailer at some points during the shoot.

He said: "It's really surreal for me. People used to say 'you look like
this guy' and 'you resemble him'. So it's strange to have worked alongside
him."

They met for the first time in Vancouver.

He remembered: "I was lying down for about an hour while they took shots
and I looked up and thought ‘that guy looks like Leo.’

“He held out his hand to me and helped me up and said ‘good to meet you,
Chris.’ "

"As I got to know him more I realised he was a very cool, quiet and
collected kind of guy: very creative, very focused.

“He wasn’t being bothered by anyone. He’s very much in his character and
that’s what keeps him the best in the business.

"He’d often just be sitting there on his iPad looking through videos,
doing research on his role and the time period."

These days Chris is comfortable with the fact he looks like Di Caprio. But
when he was at school he hated the comparison.

He recalled: "I was very shy at school, quite reserved and people saying
I looked like Leo got me a lot of attention which could be intimidating.

"I guess it did help me quite a lot. It helped me to do well with the
ladies.

"But I'm not giving Leonardo DiCaprio full credit for that. I'd like to
think I did some of that on my own!"

Chris is now signed to a casting agency and looking for his next project.

He is hoping that he gets to work with Di Caprio on his next psychological
thriller The Crowded Room.

It is an adaptation of a nonfiction book by Daniel Keyes.

Leo will have to play 24 personalities as real life figure Billy Milligan, a
man who went on trial in the 70s for three rapes.

He was the first person to successfully use multiple personality disorder as a
defence.